Where, when and why did people start smoking tobacco?

While who exactly was the first to smoke tobacco has been lost to history, Jordan Goodman, in his book Tobacco in History, theorizes that tobacco was first cultivated thousands of years ago in the Americas, around the regions that have become known as Mexico and Brazil. read more

Chances are, though, that people were smoking it before they took the trouble to specifically grow and cultivate it. Historian Iain Gately theorizes that the discovery of the magic smoke of tobacco fell along the same lines as other discoveries by early man: It was an accident. read more

Using tobacco as a stimulant comes in many forms, not just smoking, most of which have been around for thousands of years (5000 some reckon). Of course the first people to use it were in South America, where the tobacco plant is native. read more