Author of Wicked Plants, Amy Stewart was asked,
"What's the most wicked plant of all?"
"Tobacco. It's killed over 90 million people. That's a truly wicked plant."
Here's a quote from Patricia Jones who supposedly helps people stop smoking in Britain.
"Tobacco is a serial killer and we actually pay for the dubious pleasure of risking our lives - crazy isn't it."
T
NO, IT ISN'T. The only crazy thing is how distorted things get in the absence of investigation.
How easy it is to blame a plant. Human blames plant, and the plant is supposed to blame...
who?
Tobacco is dangerous? You can't get poisoned by touching it and you cannot be poisoned by ingesting moderate amounts. So where's the danger compared to a plant you eat and it kills you by the time it reaches your bloodstream? Tobacco may not cause the damage we think. Let's look into this a little further and get the facts straight, forget opinion.
Tobacco is a not a natural plant. It's a nightshade. It has to be cross bred with another plant in order to be produced, just like eggplants, peppers and tomatoes. Evidence for its use may go back as far as 3,000 years in South America, with ritual tobacco going as far back as 8,000. Shamans traditionally used tobacco for ceremonial purposes. High doses of tobacco were either masticated or smoked, and produced strong hallucinations that put some men in a stupor for the greater part of the day or night. They came back to their senses with reports of visions and visits to the gods. Sorcerers chewed and smoked it before casting a spell, chiefs blew tobacco smoke on their tribes believing it gave them fortitude to overcome their enemies and some medicine men chewed it with coca leaves in order to diagnose diseases in patients. Indians used balls of tobacco to relieve thirst and hunger when they went on long trips without food and water. Tobacco use in South America was almost exclusively limited to horticultural peoples.
“In the Tropical Forest tobacco was the principal and nearly universal intoxicant used (Steward 1949:678).”
However, in the united States Of America tobacco is used as a stress reliever. When smoking a cigarette, the deep inhalations cause the daiphragm to expand and it gives the body a false impression of relaxation. Anyone who wants to quit smoking would do well practicing simple deep breathing exercises. Besides its use, the way it's grown is very different also.
Tobacco grown in the U.S. is often fertilized with the mineral apatite, which partially starves the plant of nitrogen. This is done so a more desired flavor will be produced. Apatite contains radium, lead 210, and polonium 210 — which are known radioactive carcinogens. Combine those chemicals with the other 4,000 chemical substances added to one single cigarette and you don't have a tobacco product, you have a chemical product with a little tobacco in it.
The nicotine in tobacco is the major alkaloid. While commercially made cigarettes and freshly rolled tobacco differ, tobacco is still water element and activates kidney energy. Smoking it can cause fear, anxiety, dizziness, increased blood flow to skeletal muscles and cooling of the skin's temperature by restricting blood flow. Nicotine is excreted through the kidneys through urination. The reason why heavy smokers crave salty and fatty foods like steak, fries, cheese and chips is because of weak kidneys. One of the easiest ways to balance this energy out is to eat more vegetables. A major detox of the kidneys and liver would help strengthen these organs.
"I've been smoking my own cigarettes for about 3 months now and it took 3 days for me to stop wanting to buy commercial tobacco when I switched to using only my home grown tobacco. I'll bet there's something other than nicotine in commercial tobacco that is addicting." -Anonymous Tobacco Grower
The dangerous part of tobacco seems not to come into the picture until greedy humans do. The result is another plant getting a bad name because of ignorance.
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