Tobacco Cards

Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the fresh leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. more...

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Tobacco has been growing on the American Continent since about 6000 BC and began being used by native cultures at about 3000 BC. It has been smoked in one form or another since about 2000 BC. There are pictoral drawings of ancient Mayans smoking crude cigars from 1400 BC. Tobacco has a very long history of use in Native American culture and played an important part in the foundation of the United States of America, going back to colonial times and the original Jamestown settlement.

Commercially available dried, cured and natural forms, it is often smoked (see tobacco smoking) in the form of a cigar or cigarette, or in a stem pipe, water pipe, or hookah. Tobacco can also be chewed, "dipped" (placed between the cheek and gum), or sniffed into the nose as finely powdered snuff. Many countries set a minimum smoking age, regulating the purchase and use of tobacco products.

All methods of tobacco consumption results in varying quantities of nicotine being absorbed into the user's bloodstream. Over time, tolerance and dependence develop. Absorption quantity, frequency, and speed seem to have a direct relationship with how strong a dependence and tolerance, if any, might be created.

History

Tobacco had already long been used in the Americas when European settlers arrived and introduced the practice to Europe, where it became hugely popular. At extremely high doses, tobacco becomes hallucinogenic ; accordingly, Native Americans did not always use the drug recreationally. Rather, it was often consumed in extraordinarily high quantities and used as an entheogen; among some tribes, this was done only by experienced shamans or medicine men. Eastern North American tribes would carry large amounts of tobacco in pouches as a readily accepted trade item, and would often smoke it in pipes, either in defined ceremonies that were considered sacred, or to seal a bargain, and they would smoke it at such occasions in all stages of life, even in childhood. It was believed that tobacco was a gift from the Creator, and that the exhaled tobacco smoke was capable of carrying one's thoughts and prayers to heaven.

In addition to being smoked, uncured tobacco was often eaten, drunk as tobacco juice, or used in enemas. Early missionaries often reported on the ecstatic state caused by tobacco. As its use spread into Western cultures, however, it was no longer used in such large quantities or for entheogenic purposes. Religious use of tobacco is still common among many indigenous peoples, particularly those of South America and North America. Among the Cree and Ojibway of Canada it is offered to the Creator with a prayer; it is used in sweatlodges, pipe ceremonies, smudging and presented as a gift. A gift of tobacco is tradition when asking an Ojibway elder a question of a spiritual nature. Because of its sacred and respected nature, tobacco abuse (thoughtlessly and addictively chain smoking) is seriously frowned upon by the Algonquian tribes of Canada, as it is believed that if one so abuses the plant, it will abuse that person in return, causing sickness.

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