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| Tobacco | |
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| Nicotiana tabacum (the Latin name for common smoking tobacco) | |
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| Genus: | Nicotiana |
Tobacco is a plant which contains a very addictive drug called nicotine. Cigars and cigarettes contain tobacco. People also use tobacco by chewing it or smoking it in a pipe. Many people who use tobacco want to quit, but have a hard time quitting. This is because they are addicted to the nicotine in the tobacco (their body wants more nicotine). Tobacco also has many other chemicals in it that are bad for your health. Some of these chemicals can cause cancer.
History
[change | change source]Native Americans used tobacco before Europeans arrived in America. These Europeans learned to smoke and brought it back to Europe, where it became very popular.
At very high doses, tobacco becomes hallucinogenic (it changes how the user thinks and feels). For this reason, Native Americans often only used tobacco for religious and spiritual reasons. The tobacco was smoked, eaten or drunk. Native peoples in places like South America still use tobacco for religious reasons.
The Europeans who moved to America began to farm tobacco so that they could sell it in Europe. This became one of the main causes of the African slave trade. In 1610 a European man called John Rolfe arrived in the American state of Virginia and set up a tobacco farm which made him very rich. Rolfe was the first farmer to use nicotiana tabacum, which is the type of tobacco most commonly smoked today. He also married Pocahontas, a Native American woman who became famous when went to live in London.
Even though it was used by many people, not everyone in Europe liked tobacco. In the 17th century King James the First of England (who was also known as James the Sixth of Scotland) put very large taxes on tobacco. He also famously wrote:
17th century English:
"[tobacco is a] custome lothsome to the eye, hatefull to the Nose, harmefull to the braine, dangerous to the Lungs, and in the blacke stinking fume thereof, neerest resembling the horrible Stigian smoke of the pit that is bottomelesse."
which in Modern-day Simple English means:"[tobacco is] disgusting to the eye, hated by the nose, bad for the brain, dangerous to the lungs. Its black stinking smell is like the evil smoke of a bottomless pit"
In the 17th and 18th centuries tobacco made farmers very rich and towns quickly grew in the states of Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. In 1883 one third of United States tax money came from tobacco.
| Top Ten Tobacco Producers - 2005 (million metric ton) | |
|---|---|
 China |
2.51 |
 Brazil |
0.88 |
 India |
0.60 |
 United States |
0.29 |
 Indonesia |
0.14 |
 Turkey |
0.14 |
 Greece |
0.12 |
 Argentina |
0.12 |
 Italy |
0.11 |
 Pakistan |
0.08 |
| World Total | 6.38 |
| Source: UN Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO)[1] | |
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