Tobacco:  ¿medicine or vice?
D.Anton

Anti-tobacco campaigns are actually campaigns against industrial cigarettes, modified to increase addiction.
Native tobacco "Nicotiana tabacum" originated in America, in the Andean zone between Peru and Ecuador, where the first cultivations took place between 5,000 and 3,000 years b.c.e.
When the Europeans arrived in America, tobacco consumption was widespread throughout the continent for medicinal or ceremonial purposes..
The first seeds were taken to Europe in 1559 and planted in Spain. From there they spread its the rest of the world.
Industrial cigarettes came later, the tenors of nicotine (which in native tobacco, because of their intense effects make it almost impossible to fall into addiction) were artificially decreased and its comsuption was generalized worldwide, becoming one of the more profitable businesses.

Native tobacco in America was not a vice but a medicinal or ceremonial tradition.
We should not confuse the native tobacco plant with industrial cigarettes.
In America it was a medicinal plant that during millennia had spread throughout the continent.
It was considered medicine in most Native American cultures. It was used as a healing substance, or for ceremonial and visionary purposes.
The properties of the various varieties of wild and traditional tobaccos are little known.
It is known that tobacco was (is) smoked by the shaman for answers that allow him to cure the sick or decide the best decisions for communities. The Charrúas of Uruguay smoked tobacco before making transcendental decisions. Among the Guaraní m'bya, during important ceremonies and meetings, women throw tobacco smoke at their husbands and children to give them strength.

The Amazonian peoples, besides smoking it and using the leaves for healing purposes, ingest the leaves whole or ground, in order to obtain visionary experiences. In that sense, its role is very similar to ayahuasca, although with a less intense psychoactive effect. There is general agreement among native shamans that tobacco is the little "sister" of ayahuasca.
The medicinal use of tobacco did not diffuse in the same way as its hedonistic consumption. In America, ritual use was gradually abandoned by Creole societies.
In contrast, tobacco smoking, especially of certain varieties selected for their low nicotinic tenors, was adopted by the Europeans, who quickly became fervent addicts. The custom spread in Europe, and then, to the rest of the world.
From "Peoples, Drugs and Serpents", D.Antón, Piriguazú Ediciones