Are you one of those individuals who like inhaling and then slowly exhaling the smoke out? Or are you one of those who habitually follow one of the oldest practices of the world?

Medically defined as the practice in which a substance is burned and the smoke is tasted or inhaled. This is more commonly practiced as a practice of recreational drugs with the main motive of absorbing the nicotine in it. This is done by normally stuffing tobacco inside it. It is more of a recreational practice but at times it is also used as a spiritual ritual.

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. Though there are many smoking tools include pipes, hookahs and bongs but the most popular one is cigarette. There are other less common drugs like opium and cannabis and most of these are prohibited drugs.

According to the history of smoking, it dates back all the way to 5000 BC, and has been recorded in almost all the cultures across the world. During this period smoking was evolved with religious ceremonies which involved offerings to deities. Indian or Arab traders, around the year 1200 were responsible for spreading of cannabis smoking to the Sub-Saharan Africa. In fact it was spread on the same trade routes as those that carried coffee, which originated around the highlands of Ethiopia. An Ethiopian invention of smoking in calabash water pipes with smoking bowls was later conveyed to other parts of Africa.

The discovery of America is at times credited for the spread of tobacco smoking practice. In fact while the Europeans reached America, they followed the 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. In Sub Saharan and Indian region smoking of cranberries was the main practice and in no time did it change to smoking tobacco.

Smoking with time evolved with its association with different kinds of 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 Sub Saharan Africa, it merged with existing practices of smoking cannabis. It is found that Cannabis smoking was very common in the Middle Eastern region well before the arrival of tobacco. In fact it was a very common social activity that centered on hookah, which is a kind of water pipe. 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.

The way people look at smoking has changed with time; 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 well-proven health hazards of smoking have not only caused many countries to institute high taxes on tobacco products but also launching of numerous anti-smoking campaigns every year in an attempt to curb tobacco smoking.

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