History of Smoking

The history of smoking dates back to as early as 5000 BC in shamanistic rituals. With the arrivals of the Europeans in the 16th century, the consumption, cultivation, and trading of tobacco quickly spread. With the modernization of farm equipment and manufacturing bore the cigarette following reconstruction in the United States. This method of consumption quickly expanded the scope of consumption, which grew until the scientific controversies of the 1960s, and condemnation in the 1980s.

Cannabis was common in the Middle East before the arrival of tobacco, and is known to have existed in at least 2000 BC. Early consumption of cannabis was a common social activity involving the type of water pipe called a hookah.

Previously eaten for its medicinal properties, opium smoking became widespread during the 19th century from British trade with China. This spawned the many infamous Opium dens. In the latter half of the century, opium smoking became popular in the artistic communities of Europe. While Opium dens continued to exist throughout the world, the trend among the Europeans abated during the first World War, and among the Chinese during the cultural revolution.

Modernization of cigarette consumption and increased life expectancy during the 1920s made adverse health effects more noticeable. In 1929, Fritz Lickint of Dresden, Germany, published formal statistical evidence of a lung cancer–tobacco link, which subsequently led a strong anti-smoking movement in Nazi Germany. The subject remained largely taboo until 1954 with the British Doctors Study, and in 1964 United States Surgeon General's report. Tobacco became stigmatized, which led to the largest civil settlement in United States history, the Tobacco Master Settlement (MSA).

In the early 1990s, smoked crack cocaine experienced a new height in growth, which was likewise followed by Methamphetamine, Phencyclidine, and other substances.