# Did people smoke before tobacco? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 13, 2005, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-smoke-before-tobacco/321429 "2005-09-13T15:21:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Oswald\_Bastable](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oswald_bastable/32/214_2.png) [@Oswald\_Bastable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oswald_Bastable)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-smoke-before-tobacco/321429/1 "2005-09-13T15:21:03Z")
Hi All Oddly inspired by [this MPSIMS thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=334492). Did people in the Old World® partake in the inhalation of any type of smouldering weed before the ‘discovery’ of the New World™ and tobacco? If so, what did they smoke, was it any good and could I get hold of it today? I’ve heard that oak leaves were used during WW2 as a substitute for tobacco, but that may just be a UL. Also health food places often sell herbal tobacco alternatives, and that probably isn’t even relevant. Many thanks. OB ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-smoke-before-tobacco/321429/2 "2005-09-13T15:35:13Z")
Marijuana has been used in India and China since ancient times. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-smoke-before-tobacco/321429/3 "2005-09-13T15:35:28Z")
Both opium and marijuana come to mind. They’ve been smoked for millenia. I wouldn’t recommend starting on them, however. ---
**Author:** ![Oswald\_Bastable](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oswald_bastable/32/214_2.png) [@Oswald\_Bastable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oswald_Bastable)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-smoke-before-tobacco/321429/4 "2005-09-13T15:49:56Z")
Thanks Colibri and Qadgop. I’m well aware of the intoxicating effects of both substances… I probably should have excluded well known narcotics from the OP. I guess what I’m sort of asking is whether a 15th Century European would have had any inclination to put dried weed into a clay pipe and smoke it (whether regularly or just on occasion). Also, further to that, whether the introduction of tobacco smoking would have appeared totally unnatural to Europeans when it was first introduced. OB ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-smoke-before-tobacco/321429/5 "2005-09-13T16:12:58Z")
From [here](http://www.tobacco.org/History/Tobacco_History.html). > [@](#): > > Rodrigo de Jerez and Luis de Torres, in Cuba searching for the Khan of Cathay (China), are credited with first observing smoking. They reported that the natives wrapped dried tobacco leaves in palm or maize “in the manner of a musket formed of paper.” After lighting one end, they commenced “drinking” the smoke through the other. Jerez became a confirmed smoker, and is thought to be the first outside of the Americas. He brought the habit back to his hometown, but the smoke billowing from his mouth and nose so frightened his neighbors he was imprisoned by the holy inquisitors for 7 years. By the time he was released, smoking was a Spanish craze. Another [source](http://www.donkeyshow.org/samwise_filk.html). I would think that if the activity of sticking something in a pipe and smoking it were common before the introduction of tobacco the same substance would still be common for this purpose. Pot and opium certainly are. Tobacco is reasonably intoxicating when used straight, but unlike pot and opium it is not addictive in the least. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-smoke-before-tobacco/321429/6 "2005-09-13T16:40:45Z")
I remember reading somewhere (maybe my highschool history class) a letter written by some Renaissance-era social critic who was opposed to smoking. His comments were pretty much what you might expect: It’s unnatural, it makes you stink, and it’s probably bad for your health. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-smoke-before-tobacco/321429/7 "2005-09-13T16:51:13Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > I remember reading somewhere (maybe my highschool history class) a letter written by some Renaissance-era social critic who was opposed to smoking. His comments were pretty much what you might expect: It’s unnatural, it makes you stink, and it’s probably bad for your health. You’re probably thinking of King James I’s [A Counterblaste to tobacco](http://www.la.utexas.edu/research/poltheory/james/blaste/), which ends: > [@](#): > > 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. He also comments on people smoking while other people are eating. The more things change… ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-smoke-before-tobacco/321429/8 "2005-09-13T16:53:22Z")
> [@Inigo Montoya](#): > > Tobacco is reasonably intoxicating when used straight, but unlike pot and opium it is not addictive in the least. Buh? Tobacco is not addictive? Where have you been for the last 50 years of medical research? ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-smoke-before-tobacco/321429/9 "2005-09-13T17:03:54Z")
I wanted to see if I could pull that off without a smiley. ---
**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-smoke-before-tobacco/321429/10 "2005-09-13T17:37:11Z")
> [@Inigo Montoya](#): > > I wanted to see if I could pull that off without a smiley. Yeah, that resulted in a “wait… what?” on my part. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-smoke-before-tobacco/321429/11 "2005-09-13T18:58:29Z")
I gotta figure that for eons, people have noticed that some stuff smells pretty bad when it burns and some smells pretty good. I gotta figure someone decided to keep a little fire and smoke with him, just because it smelled pretty nice. Maybe someone figured that you could keep it lit by putting it into a little bowl with a way to blow or suck on it. tick…tick…tick…tick… (time passing)…pipes of herbs. Way before Sir Walter Marlboro. xo, C. ---
**Author:** ![II\_Gyan\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@II\_Gyan\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/II_Gyan_II)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-smoke-before-tobacco/321429/12 "2005-09-13T19:54:25Z")
Last year, an archaeological find reported indications of nicotine and alcohol use 10,000 years ago. Cover story of Vol 57(2) of this [journal](http://www.econbot.org/journal/back_issues.html). ---
**Author:** ![II\_Gyan\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@II\_Gyan\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/II_Gyan_II)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-smoke-before-tobacco/321429/13 "2005-09-13T19:55:53Z")
Correction: 57(3).