PORTLAND, Ore. -- Some critics say a new tobacco product looks too much like candy.

They said it could be difficult to tell that the product isn't candy because the case looks like a mint, but it packs more nicotine than most cigarettes.

Orbs Dissolvable Tobacco is being test marketed in Portland and several other cities by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco.

The Orbs package looks like a plastic box of breath mints, but it's really a new tobacco product.

It began to appear in some Portland area convenience stores last month, along with promotional materials.

The pellets of what Reynolds calls dissolvable tobacco look like a candy mint.

An American Cancer Society spokesman said this can deceive anyone into thinking the product is "safer, when the amount of nicotine is far more, in most cases, than cigarettes."

An R.J. Reynolds spokesman said the product is meant for adults and has warning labels on the package. The Orbs product is stored behind the counter in stores, to be sold only to those 18 or older.

The cancer society said it's a very dangerous product for children, who tend to become addicted more quickly.

But a clerk in one convenience store said the dissolvable tobacco is moving slowly so far.

"It's starting to pick up, now that the word's getting around," store clerk Ryan Scheffler said. "There's a lot of free samples that are going around, but we haven't really sold a lot."

Reynolds plans to test the Orbs in a chewable stick and a strip form later this spring.

Tobacco Product Looks Like Candy, Critics Say