c
 is a practice in which a substance, most commonly tobacco or cannabis, is burned and

the smoke tasted or inhaled. This is primarily practised as a route of administration for
recreational drug use, as combustion releases the active substances in drugs such as nicotine and
makes them available for absorption through the lungs. It can also be done as a part of rituals, to
induce trances and spiritual enlightenment. The most common method of smoking today is
through cigarettes, primarily industrially manufactured but also hand-rolled from loose tobacco
and rolling paper. Other smoking tools includes pipes, cigars, hookahs and bongs. It has been
suggested that smoking related disease kills one half of all long term smokers but these diseases
may also be contracted by non-smokers. A 2007 report states that about 4.9 million people
worldwide each year die as a result of smoking.[1]

Smoking is one of the most common forms of recreational drug use. Tobacco smoking is today
by far the most popular form of smoking and is practiced by over one billion people in the
majority of all human societies. Less common drugs for smoking include cannabis and opium.
Some of the substances are classified as hard narcotics, like heroin, but the use of these is very
limited as they are often not commercially available.

The history of smoking can be dated to as early as 5000 BC, and has been recorded in many
different cultures across the world. Early smoking evolved in association with religious
ceremonies; as offerings to deities, in cleansing rituals or to allow shamans and priests to alter
their minds for purposes of divination or spiritual enlightenment. After the European exploration
and conquest of the Americas, the practice of smoking tobacco quickly spread to the rest of the
world. In regions like India and Subsaharan Africa, it merged with existing practices of smoking
(mostly of cannabis). In Europe, it introduced a new type of social activity and a form of drug
intake which previously had been unknown.

Perception surrounding smoking has varied over time and from one place to another; holy and
sinful, sophisticated and vulgar, a panacea and deadly health hazard. Only relatively recently,
and primarily in industrialized Western countries, has smoking come to be viewed in a decidedly
negative light. Today medical studies have proven that smoking tobacco is among the leading
causes of many diseases such as lung cancer, heart attacks, erectile dysfunction and can also lead
to birth defects. The inherent health hazards of smoking have caused many countries to institute
high taxes on tobacco products and anti-smoking campaigns are launched every year in an
attempt to curb tobacco smoking.

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The history of smoking dates back to as early as 5000 BC in shamanistic rituals.[2] Many ancient
civilizations, such as the Babylonians, Indians and Chinese, burnt incense as a part of religious
rituals, as did the Israelites and the later Catholic and Orthodox Christian churches. Smoking in
the Americas probably had its origins in the incense-burning ceremonies of shamans but was
later adopted for pleasure or as a social tool.[3] The smoking of tobacco and various other
hallucinogenic drugs was used to achieve trances and to come into contact with the spirit world.

Substances such as Cannabis, clarified butter (ghee), fish offal, dried snake skins and various
pastes molded around incense sticks dates back at least 2000 years. Fumigation (@
) and fire
offerings ( ) are prescribed in the Ayurveda for medical purposes and have been practiced
for at least 3,000 years while smoking, @
 (literally "drinking smoke"), has been
practiced for at least 2,000 years. Before modern times these substances have been consumed
through pipes, with stems of various lengths or chillums.[4]

Cannabis smoking was common in the Middle East before the arrival of tobacco, and was early
on a common social activity that centered around the type of water pipe called a hookah.
Smoking, especially after the introduction of tobacco, was an essential component of Muslim
society and culture and became integrated with important traditions such as weddings, funerals
and was expressed in architecture, clothing, literature and poetry.[5]

Cannabis smoking was introduced to Sub-Saharan Africa through Ethiopia and the east African
coast by either Indian or Arab traders in the 1200s or earlier and spread on the same trade routes
as those that carried coffee, which originated in the highlands of Ethiopia.[6] It was smoked in
calabash water pipes with terra cotta smoking bowls, apparently an Ethiopian invention which
was later conveyed to eastern, southern and central Africa.

At the time of the arrivals of Reports from the first European explorers and conquistadors to
reach the Americas tell of rituals where native priests smoked themselves into such high degrees
of intoxication that it is unlikely that the rituals were limited to just tobacco.[7]

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In 1612, six years after the settlement of Jamestown, John Rolfe was credited as the first settler
to successfully raise tobacco as a cash crop. The demand quickly grew as tobacco, referred to as
"golden weed", reviving the Virginia join stock company from its failed gold expeditions.[8] In
order to meet demands from the old world, tobacco was grown in succession, quickly depleting
the land. This became a motivator to settle west into the unknown continent, and likewise an
expansion of tobacco production.[9] Indentured servitude became the primary labor force up until
Bacon's Rebellion, from which the focus turned to slavery.[10] This trend abated following the
American revolution as slavery became regarded as unprofitable. However the practice was
revived in 1794 with the invention of the cotton gin.[11]

A Frenchman named Jean Nicot (from whose name the word nicotine is derived) introduced
tobacco to France in 1560. From France tobacco spread to England. The first report of a smoking
Englishman is of a sailor in Bristol in 1556, seen "emitting smoke from his nostrils".[12] Like tea,
coffee and opium, tobacco was just one of many intoxicants that was originally used as a form of
medicine.[13] Tobacco was introduced around 1600 by French merchants in what today is
modern-day Gambia and Senegal. At the same time caravans from Morocco brought tobacco to
the areas around Timbuktu and the Portuguese brought the commodity (and the plant) to
southern Africa, establishing the popularity of tobacco throughout all of Africa by the 1650s.

Soon after its introduction to the Old World, tobacco came under frequent criticism from state
and religious leaders. Murad IV, sultan of the Ottoman Empire 1623-40 was among the first to
attempt a smoking ban by claiming it was a threat to public moral and health. The Chinese
emperor Chongzhen issued an edict banning smoking two years before his death and the
overthrow of the Ming dynasty. Later, the Manchu of the Qing dynasty, who were originally a
tribe of nomadic horse warriors, would proclaim smoking "a more heinous crime than that even
of neglecting archery". In Edo period Japan, some of the earliest tobacco plantations were
scorned by the shogunate as being a threat to the military economy by letting valuable farmland
go to waste for the use of a recreational drug instead of being used to plant food crops.

Religious leaders have often been prominent among those who considered smoking immoral or
outright blasphemous. In 1634 the Patriarch of Moscow forbade the sale of tobacco and
sentenced men and women who flaunted the ban to have their nostrils slit and their backs
whipped until skin came off their backs. The Western church leader Urban VII likewise
condemned smoking in a papal bull of 1590. Despite many concerted efforts, restrictions and
bans were almost universally ignored. When James I of England, a staunch anti-smoker and the
author of a j

 
  
 , tried to curb the new trend by enforcing a whopping
4000% tax increase on tobacco in 1604, it proved a failure, as London had some 7,000 tobacco
sellers by the early 1600s. Later, scrupulous rulers would realise the futility of smoking bans and
instead turned tobacco trade and cultivation into lucrative government monopolies.[15]

By the mid-1600s every major civilization had been introduced to tobacco smoking and in many
cases had already assimilated it into the native culture, despite the attempts of many rulers to
stamp the practice out with harsh penalties or fines. Tobacco, both product and plant, followed
the major trade routes to major ports and markets, and then on into the hinterlands. The English
language term  was coined in the late 1700s, before then the practice was referred to as
@  .[12]

Tobacco and cannabis were used in Sub-Saharan Africa, much like elsewhere in the world, to
confirm social relations, but also created entirely new ones. In what is today Congo, a society
called Bena Diemba ("People of Cannabis") was organized in the late 1800s in Lubuko ("The
Land of Friendship"). The Bena Diemba were collectivist pacifists that rejected alcohol and
herbal medicines in favor of cannabis.[16]

The growth remained stable until the American Civil War in 1860s, from which the primary
labor force transition from slavery to share cropping. This compounded with a change in
demand, lead to the industrialization of tobacco production with the cigarette. James Bonsack, a
craftsman, in 1881 produce a machine to speed the production in cigarettes

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The most popular type of substance that is smoked is tobacco. There are many different tobacco
cultivars which are made into a wide variety of mixtures and brands. Tobacco is often sold
flavored, often with various fruit aromas, something which is especially popular for use with
water pipes, such as hookahs. The second most common substance that is smoked is cannabis,
made from the flowers or leaves of

 . The substance is considered illegal in most
countries in the world and in those countries that tolerate public consumption, it is usually only
pseudo-legal. Despite this, a considerable percentage of the adult population in many countries
have tried it with smaller minorities doing it on a regular basis. Since cannabis is illegal or only
tolerated in most jurisdictions, there is no industrial mass-production of cigarettes, meaning that
the most common form of smoking is with hand-rolled cigarettes (often called joints) or with
pipes. Water pipes are also fairly common, and when used for cannabis are called bongs.

A few other recreational drugs are smoked by smaller minorities. Most of these substances are
controlled, and some are considerably more intoxicating than either tobacco or cannabis. These
include crack cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and PCP. A small number of psychedelic drugs
are also smoked, including DMT, 5-Meo-DMT, and Salvia divinorum.

Even the most primitive form of smoking requires tools of some sort to perform. This has
resulted in a staggering variety of smoking tools and paraphernalia from all over the world.
Whether tobacco, cannabis, opium or herbs, some form of receptacle is required along with a
source of fire to light the mixture. The most common today is by far the cigarette, consisting of a
tightly rolled tube of paper, which is usually manufactured industrially or rolled from loose
tobacco, rolling papers which can include a filter. Other popular smoking tools are various pipes
and cigars. A less common but increasingly popular form is through vaporizers, which operate
using hot air convection by heating and delivering the substance without combustion; thereby
decreasing health risks to the lungs.

Other than the actual smoking equipment, many other items are associated with smoking;
cigarette cases, cigar boxes, lighters, matchboxes, cigarette holders, cigar holders, ashtrays, pipe
cleaners, tobacco cutters, match stands, pipe tampers, cigarette companions and so on. Many of
these have become valuable collector items and particularly ornate and antique items can fetch
high prices at the finest auction houses.

An allegedly healthier alternative to smoking appeared in 2004 with the introduction of

electronic cigarettes. These battery-operated, cigarette-like devices produce an aerosol intended
to mimic the smoke from burning tobacco, delivering nicotine to the user without many of the
other harmful substances released in tobacco smoke. Claims that electronic cigarettes are overall
less harmful to use than real cigarettes are, however, disputed, as is their legal status in many
countries.
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Most smokers begin during adolescence or early adulthood. Smoking has elements of risk-taking
and rebellion, which often appeal to young people. The presence of high-status models and peers
may also encourage smoking. Because teenagers are influenced more by their peers than by
adults, attempts by parents, schools, and health professionals at preventing people from trying
cigarettes are often unsuccessful.[60][61]

Children of smoking parents are more likely to smoke than children with non-smoking parents.
One study found that parental smoking cessation was associated with less adolescent smoking,
except when the other parent currently smoked.[62] A current study tested the relation of
adolescent smoking to rules regulating where adults are allowed to smoke in the home. Results
showed that restrictive home smoking policies were associated with lower likelihood of trying
smoking for both middle and high school students.[63]

Many anti-smoking organizations claim that teenagers begin their smoking habits due to peer
pressure, and cultural influence portrayed by friends. However, one study found that direct
pressure to smoke cigarettes did not play a significant part in adolescent smoking. In that study,
adolescents also reported low levels of both normative and direct pressure to smoke cigarettes.[64]
A similar study showed that individuals play a more active role in starting to smoke than has
previously been acknowledged and that social processes other than peer pressure need to be
taken into account.[65] Another study's results revealed that peer pressure was significantly
associated with smoking behavior across all age and gender cohorts, but that intrapersonal
factors were significantly more important to the smoking behavior of 12±13 year-old girls than
same-age boys. Within the 14±15 year-old age group, one peer pressure variable emerged as a
significantly more important predictor of girls' than boys' smoking.[66] It is debated whether peer
pressure or self-selection is a greater cause of adolescent smoking.
Psychologists such as Hans Eysenck have developed a personality profile for the typical smoker.
Extraversion is the trait that is most associated with smoking, and smokers tend to be sociable,
impulsive, risk taking, and excitement seeking individuals.[67] Although, personality and social
factors may make people likely to smoke, the actual habit is a function of operant conditioning.
During the early stages, smoking provides pleasurable sensations (because of its action on the
dopamine system) and thus serves as a source of positive reinforcement.

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Because they are engaging in an activity that has negative effects on health, people who smoke
tend to rationalize their behavior. In other words, they develop convincing, if not necessarily
logical reasons why smoking is acceptable for them to do. For example, a smoker could justify
his or her behavior by concluding that everyone dies and so cigarettes do not actually change
anything. Or a person could believe that smoking relieves stress or has other benefits that justify
its risks.

The reasons given by smokers for this activity are broadly categorized as @@  ,
 
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, and @. There are gender differences in how much each of these reasons
contribute, with females more likely than males to cite    @
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and   .[68]

Some smokers argue that the depressant effect of smoking allows them to calm their nerves,
often allowing for increased concentration. However, according to the Imperial College London,
"Nicotine seems to provide both a stimulant and a depressant effect, and it is likely that the effect
it has at any time is determined by the mood of the user, the environment and the circumstances
of use. Studies have suggested that low doses have a depressant effect, while higher doses have
stimulant effect."[69]

The lack of deterrence by the deleterious health effects is a prototypical example of optimism
bias.

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A number of studies have established that cigarette sales and smoking follow distinct time-
related patterns. For example, cigarette sales in the United States of America have been shown to
follow a strongly seasonal pattern, with the high months being the months of summer, and the
low months being the winter months.[70]

Similarly, smoking has been shown to follow distinct circadian patterns during the waking day²
with the high point usually occurring shortly after waking in the morning, and shortly before
going to sleep at night.[71]



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Tobacco use leads most commonly to diseases affecting the heart and lungs, with smoking being
a major risk factor for heart attacks, strokes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD),
emphysema, and cancer (particularly lung cancer, cancers of the larynx and mouth, and
pancreatic cancer).

The World Health Organization estimate that tobacco caused 5.4 million deaths in 2004[77] and
100 million deaths over the course of the 20th century.[78] Similarly, the United States Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention describes tobacco use as "the single most important
preventable risk to human health in developed countries and an important cause of premature
death worldwide."[79]

Rates of smoking have leveled off or declined in the developed world. Smoking rates in the
United States have dropped by half from 1965 to 2006 falling from 42% to 20.8% in adults.[80] In
the developing world, tobacco consumption is rising by 3.4% per year.[81]

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Famous smokers of the past used cigarettes or pipes as part of their image, such as Jean Paul
Sartre's Gauloise-brand cigarettes; Albert Einstein's, Joseph Stalin's, Douglas MacArthur's,
Bertrand Russell's, and Bing Crosby's pipes; or the news broadcaster Edward R. Murrow's
cigarette. Writers in particular seemed to be known for smoking; see, for example, Cornell
Professor Richard Klein's book
    

 for the analysis, by this professor of
French literature, of the role smoking plays in 19th and 20th century letters. The popular author
Kurt Vonnegut addressed his addiction to cigarettes within his novels. British Prime Minister
Harold Wilson was well known for smoking a pipe in public as was Winston Churchill for his
cigars. Sherlock Holmes, the fictional detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle smoked a
pipe, cigarettes, and cigars, besides injecting himself with cocaine, "to keep his overactive brain
occupied during the dull London days, when nothing happened". The DC Vertigo comic book
character, John Constantine, created by Alan Moore, is synonymous with smoking, so much so
that the first storyline by Preacher creator, Garth Ennis, centered around John Constantine
contracting lung cancer. Professional wrestler James Fullington, while in character as "The
Sandman", is a chronic smoker in order to appear "tough".

The ceremonial smoking of tobacco, and praying with a sacred pipe, is a prominent part of the
religious ceremonies of a number of Native American Nations.  , the Anishinaabe word for
tobacco, is grown for ceremonial use and considered the ultimate sacred plant since its smoke
was believed to carry prayers to the heavens. In most major religions, however, tobacco smoking
is not specifically prohibited, although it may be discouraged as an immoral habit. Before the
health risks of smoking were identified through controlled study, smoking was considered an
immoral habit by certain Christian preachers and social reformers. The founder of the Latter Day
Saint movement, Joseph Smith, Jr, recorded that on February 27, 1833, he received a revelation
which discouraged tobacco use. This "Word of Wisdom" was later accepted as a commandment,
and faithful Latter-day Saints abstain completely from tobacco.[82] Jehovah's Witnesses base their
stand against smoking on the Bible's command to "clean ourselves of every defilement of flesh"
(2 Corinthians 7:1). The Jewish Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan (1838±1933) was one of the first
Jewish authorities to speak out on smoking. In the Bahá'í Faith, smoking tobacco is discouraged
though not forbidden.