Tobacco candy has opponents worried

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - R.J. Reynolds is test-marketing another smokeless tobacco product in Central Indiana, and this one really has opponents worried. It's a dissolvable tablet that opponents believe resembles candy.

Convenience store clerk Raj Kumar says he's been giving the samples away for a month, but nobody has returned to buy the product. It's called Orbs.

R.J. Reynolds markets its new product as "the best tobacco you never smoked."

Store customer Keith Young tried Orbs. He said, "It's not very tasteful. I don't like it at all."

Karla Sneegas, Executive Director of Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation hopes the product test fails miserably. She worries the colorful; cell-phone sized packaging with the highly visible Camel brand will be an enticement to young people. She believes cigarette smokers could be tempted to pop two or three of them at a time like breath mints. The Indiana Poison Center said dissolvable tobacco products contain between 60% to 300% of the nicotine found in one cigarette.

"It's really not encouraging them to quite smoking and switch, it's encouraging them to keep on smoking and just use this in places where you can't smoke,” said Sneegas.

Mark Zaiger doesn't smoke but said Orbs could benefit him if people use it instead of cigarettes.

"Just as long as it eliminates the smoke and stuff because when I go out with my girlfriend and we go out to dinner and it just makes our food taste a little different."

Store Customer Kristin Duckett looked at the product and said, "It's going to make kids think that its candy and then it's going to make them think its ok to use smokeless tobacco or cigarettes."

Although Kumar has failed to sell a single pack of Orbs, he says cigarettes still make up a big part of his convenience store sales.

R. J. Reynolds spokesman David Howard responded to criticism of dissolvable tobacco saying, "These products meet society's expectations. There's no second hand smoke. There's no spitting and there's no litter. They are marketed specifically to adult consumers who make informed decisions about tobacco."