LOL! I bet it was. My youngest son took up Skoal very early into his teens, growing up in eastern New Mexico.
He is very coordinated at drinking from a beer can in one hand and spitting into an empty beer can in the other hand.
Don't remember him ever mixing the two up.
At that age, we didn't have the balls to go around with an actual beer can in our hands. Hence, the fast food paper cups!
At our high school, if we turned up drunk or in possession of alcohol, we didn't get busted, other than by our parents, and we were referred to therapy or rehab, depending on the number of times we were caught. I don't know if they didn't think drinking was a big deal, or if it was to protect the reputation of the school. Probably a combination of both.
Since most of our parents grew up in the 60's and drank their way through high school and college too, we didn't get in too much trouble!
Of course, drugs were uncool and taboo, and you'd get expelled pretty darn quick.
I'm not particularly proud of it, today, but that's the way it was!