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Tobacco Use for over 12,000 years
I expect traditional, low consumption tobacco use is relatively harmless.
Wasn't until recently, and the profit motive driving massive cultivation and marketing, that usage spiked. And along with it, all the life threatening health effects.
Sorry, haven't watched the vid (no Flash on this comp)... what's in it?
Wasn't until recently, and the profit motive driving massive cultivation and marketing, that usage spiked. And along with it, all the life threatening health effects.
Sorry, haven't watched the vid (no Flash on this comp)... what's in it?
Tech played a serious part.
Better (or any) gummed paper tech made rollies easier.
Factory rolled cigs added convenience, some decades later add vending machines.
Filter tips advanced a "healthier" aspect that drove market uptake.
etc., etc....
The sneaky chemical cocktail to increase addiction... that's a whole other discussion.
I suspect a hit or two off the peace pipe a couple of times a week would actually benefit health somewhat. Massive consumption of tobacco laden with pesticides, chemical fertilizers, (other chemicals) and rolled up in paper that contains God knows what is a whole different story.
AndriaD
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The sneaky chemical cocktail to increase addiction... that's a whole other discussion.
All this is also true of sugar -- when people just harvested honey, or chewed on actual sugar cane, neither caused much of a problem. When someone got the brilliant idea to start planting and harvesting sugar cane en masse, then refining the sugar and processing it further to make it white and non-clumping, a whole new disease industry was born -- first, dentistry, then all the crap associated with diabetes. Both of which are also products of the modern fruit juice industry. Human physiology was never meant to have to deal with that much concentrated sugar -- we're supposed to consume sugar along with whatever it comes from -- the cane, or the fruit, or the comb. Same goes for that white drug that comes from Colombia, and the narcotic that comes from poppies -- when people just chewed the leaves, or ate those seeds, not a huge deal -- it was the refining, processing, and concentrating that caused the massive problems.
Andria
AndriaD
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I'd be willing to bet the same is true of alcohol -- Egyptians were fermenting grains for beer long before they learned to make bread, and in those times, beer was probably far safer to drink than water. But then someone got the brilliant idea to take the fermented product and distill it.... It was probably right after that that alcoholism was born.
Andria
I've made a few batches of beer in my time using all natural ingredients. I got just as drunk on that as on the store bought shit, maybe more so, and I had just as bad a hangover afterwards. I suspect I could have become an alcoholic on that too, if I was so inclined.
No doubt. And while the ethyl alcohol is the same, there's quite a difference between the potency of fermented and distilled (though I've made some fairly strong hard cider). That's not to say one can't become a "beer alcoholic"... several family members have given it the old college try.
But I expect the "beer" used in place of unsafe drinking water (way back when) was weak as dishwater. Hell, I'm sure the kiddies drank it too. The alcohol was surely more an antiseptic than an intoxicant.
AndriaD
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No doubt. And while the ethyl alcohol is the same, there's quite a difference between the potency of fermented and distilled (though I've made some fairly strong hard cider). That's not to say one can't become a "beer alcoholic"... several family members have given it the old college try.
But I expect the "beer" used in place of unsafe drinking water (way back when) was weak as dishwater. Hell, I'm sure the kiddies drank it too. The alcohol was surely more an antiseptic than an intoxicant.
I'm sure it was, and that kids drank it too, because alcohol didn't have the stigma that it has now, and actually, "way back when", it was very likely stronger -- you read a lot in histories about "unwatered wine," or "new wine", which was FAR stronger than what passes for wine now, and I know that beer produced outside the US is often twice as potent, which is maybe one reason why furriners laugh at American beer.
Back then, they had a lot more to worry about than the idea that they might one day become "alcoholic" -- such as typhoid, typhus, cholera, etc etc etc -- just surviving long enough to become a drunk was a real problem, back then.
Hence beer instead of water.Andria
Great.
I've always had two broad "catch-all" potential causes for why spiritualism/religion seems a default of the human psyche.
They are ... fear of death and fear of the dark (night... and what's in it).
Now I can add... "because they were fucked up all day".
I've always had two broad "catch-all" potential causes for why spiritualism/religion seems a default of the human psyche.
They are ... fear of death and fear of the dark (night... and what's in it).
Now I can add... "because they were fucked up all day".