# Has smoking anything other than tobacco or marijuana even been popular? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 5, 2009, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-smoking-anything-other-than-tobacco-or-marijuana-even-been-popular/484639 "2009-02-05T23:40:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![PatriotGrrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9dc877/32.png) [@PatriotGrrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotGrrrl)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2009, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-smoking-anything-other-than-tobacco-or-marijuana-even-been-popular/484639/1 "2009-02-05T23:40:48Z")
I was watching a documentary about the european explorers meeting native americans, and it implied that the europeans were unfamiliar not just with the tobacco the natives smoked, but with the act of smoking anything. That got me thinking… Has smoking anything other than tobacco or marijuana even been popular? I know some people today smoke opium or crack. I’ve also noticed that headshops etc, sometimes sell various herbal mixtures. But as far as I know, none of these substances have ever become popular and socially acceptable. (Though I’m not sure what the status of opium was prior to modern drug laws). Have people ever commonly smoked anything else? ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2009, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-smoking-anything-other-than-tobacco-or-marijuana-even-been-popular/484639/2 "2009-02-05T23:58:34Z")
[Clove cigarettes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kretek), aka “kreteks,” are very popular in Indonesia. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-smoking-anything-other-than-tobacco-or-marijuana-even-been-popular/484639/3 "2009-02-06T00:09:33Z")
Corn silk used to be smoked, primarily by kids. I don’t think it particularly does anything for you. Then, there was the great banana hoax … ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-smoking-anything-other-than-tobacco-or-marijuana-even-been-popular/484639/4 "2009-02-06T00:11:59Z")
> [@PatriotGrrrl](#): > > I know some people today smoke opium or crack. I’ve also noticed that headshops etc, sometimes sell various herbal mixtures. But as far as I know, none of these substances have ever become popular and socially acceptable. (Though I’m not sure what the status of opium was prior to modern drug laws). Opium was smiled upon by the authorities in Victorian times, because it made people happy and docile, as opposed to alcohol, which provoked brawling and disorder. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-smoking-anything-other-than-tobacco-or-marijuana-even-been-popular/484639/5 "2009-02-06T00:16:36Z")
[Banana peels](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2389/will-smoking-banana-peels-get-you-high) ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-smoking-anything-other-than-tobacco-or-marijuana-even-been-popular/484639/6 "2009-02-06T05:44:33Z")
The UCLA folk medicine archives mentions smoking catnip (for quinsy); coltsfoot (bronchitis); mullein leaves (for asthma, cattarh); horehound leaves (asthma); jimson weed (for asthma); marijuana (for headache); rabbit tobacco (for blindness); sheep sorrel (asthma); tea-of-everlasting-life / life-everlasting (for colds). There’s a lot more, but it’s hard to tell if most of the plants are smoked, or if the smoke from burning plants is just inhaled. Based on the variety of things smoked in traditional folk medicine, I suspect that smoking things may pre-date tobacco, but as medicine rather that recreation or spiritual act. I don’t have any data to support that, though. ---
**Author:** ![jakesteele](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ed8c4c/32.png) [@jakesteele](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jakesteele)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-smoking-anything-other-than-tobacco-or-marijuana-even-been-popular/484639/7 "2009-02-06T08:16:33Z")
> [@Duke](#): > > [Clove cigarettes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kretek), aka “kreteks,” are very popular in Indonesia. When I was in high school an E. Indian kid had a cigarette called a “bidi” (sp) that wasn’t clove cigs but something else that seemed to work fairly well if you were out of Marlboros. Also, I used to smoke dried maple leaves when I was a kid. The only thing good about it was it felt like you were getting away with something you shouldn’t be doing. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-smoking-anything-other-than-tobacco-or-marijuana-even-been-popular/484639/8 "2009-02-06T08:56:48Z")
Kinnikinnik (Algonquian for ‘item for mixing in’) is the leaves of _Arctostaphylos uva-ursi_ mixed with other herbs such as the bark of _Cornus stolonifera_, and sometimes tobacco. It was the usual smoke of American Indians. (I know it’s usually spelled “kinnikinnick,” but I prefer the alternate spelling _kinnikinnik_ because that’s the longest single-word palindrome in the English language.) ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-smoking-anything-other-than-tobacco-or-marijuana-even-been-popular/484639/9 "2009-02-06T08:59:54Z")
> [@jakesteele](#): > > When I was in high school an E. Indian kid had a cigarette called a “bidi” (sp) that wasn’t clove cigs but something else that seemed to work fairly well if you were out of Marlboros. Bidis are tobacco, wrapped in the leaf of an ebony tree instead of paper. In India they’re the poor man’s cigarillo. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-smoking-anything-other-than-tobacco-or-marijuana-even-been-popular/484639/10 "2009-02-06T09:03:56Z")
I’ve seen Iraqis and Turks smoke this fruit-smelling stuff that looks like hard candy in their houka pipes. ---
**Author:** ![terrymiff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/898d66/32.png) [@terrymiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terrymiff)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-smoking-anything-other-than-tobacco-or-marijuana-even-been-popular/484639/11 "2009-02-06T09:04:03Z")
Kippers, Ham, Turkey 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-smoking-anything-other-than-tobacco-or-marijuana-even-been-popular/484639/12 "2009-02-06T09:04:57Z")
I was in a bar once that rented out hookahs with some kind of flavored smokable that didn’t seem to be tobacco and certainly wasn’t anything illegal. I think there’s an East African weed called Qat that enjoyed some popularity among American servicemen during the Somali incursion. Astonishingly, the vice did not follow them home in any major sort of way. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-smoking-anything-other-than-tobacco-or-marijuana-even-been-popular/484639/13 "2009-02-06T09:06:44Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Bidis are tobacco, wrapped in the leaf of an ebony tree instead of paper. In India they’re the poor man’s cigarillo. I bought a pack of those once in College (Mincer’s Pipe Shop in Charlottesville was out of Kreteks that week, I guess). Yecch. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-smoking-anything-other-than-tobacco-or-marijuana-even-been-popular/484639/14 "2009-02-06T09:21:33Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > I think there’s an East African weed called Qat that enjoyed some popularity among American servicemen during the Somali incursion. Astonishingly, the vice did not follow them home in any major sort of way. Qat is chewed not smoked. It is also extremely popular in Yemen and people drive, work, and do all sorts of stuff while under its influence. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-smoking-anything-other-than-tobacco-or-marijuana-even-been-popular/484639/15 "2009-02-06T10:06:14Z")
For a time recreational opium smoking was very popular in China. The Chinese got it to catch on in North America and France, and to a lesser extent Britain. (according to the [Wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium#Recreational_use), writers and journalists in London heavily sensationalized the iniquity of the opium dens there, but it wasn’t really as prevalent as they would have had the public believe) ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-smoking-anything-other-than-tobacco-or-marijuana-even-been-popular/484639/16 "2009-02-06T10:15:05Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > I was in a bar once that rented out hookahs with some kind of flavored smokable that didn’t seem to be tobacco and certainly wasn’t anything illegal. It may have been [Damiana](http://www.erowid.org/herbs/damiana/damiana.shtml). There are a number of such legal, quasi-legitimate smokable herbs. From Erowid: > [@Erowid](#): > > Some claim damiana tea has a relaxing effect not-unlike low doses of cannabis. Others argue that Damiana has no active ingredients, and that its medicinal reputation is based on damiana tonics from the late 1800s which were inactive, or contained enough alcohol and/or coca to produce unrelated effects. ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-smoking-anything-other-than-tobacco-or-marijuana-even-been-popular/484639/17 "2009-02-06T15:01:28Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > I was in a bar once that rented out hookahs with some kind of flavored smokable that didn’t seem to be tobacco and certainly wasn’t anything illegal. They smoke all kinds of sweetly flavored stuff in hookas, see [wiki link (scroll down).](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hookah) ---
**Author:** ![Bewildebeest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@Bewildebeest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bewildebeest)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-smoking-anything-other-than-tobacco-or-marijuana-even-been-popular/484639/18 "2009-02-06T21:31:40Z")
Indian tobacco [Lobelia inflata](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobelia_inflata) Has anyone mentioned that the insert link doesn’t work the way it used to? ---
**Author:** ![powerjacob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f05b48/32.png) [@powerjacob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/powerjacob)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-smoking-anything-other-than-tobacco-or-marijuana-even-been-popular/484639/19 "2009-02-06T22:20:35Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Kinnikinnik (Algonquian for ‘item for mixing in’) is the leaves of _Arctostaphylos uva-ursi_ mixed with other herbs such as the bark of _Cornus stolonifera_, and sometimes tobacco. It was the usual smoke of American Indians. > > (I know it’s usually spelled “kinnikinnick,” but I prefer the alternate spelling _kinnikinnik_ because that’s the longest single-word palindrome in the English language.) I’ve actually tried this by picking it in the wild. It’s not good, just a substitute for tobacco, if anything. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-smoking-anything-other-than-tobacco-or-marijuana-even-been-popular/484639/20 "2009-02-06T22:45:06Z")
Plains Indian tribes in Montana smoked (and sometimes still do smoke) sweetgrass. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-smoking-anything-other-than-tobacco-or-marijuana-even-been-popular/484639.md?page=2)