What is the origin of smoking oken?

Answer 1

The history of smoking can be dated to as early as 5000 BC, and has been recorded in many different cultures across the world. Early smoking evolved in association with religious ceremonies; as offerings to deities, in cleansing rituals or to allow shamans and priests to alter their minds for purposes of divination or spiritual enlightenment. After the European exploration and conquest of the Americas, the practice of smoking tobacco quickly spread to the rest of the world. In regions like India and Subsaharan Africa, it merged with existing practices of smoking (mostly of cannabis). In Europe, it introduced a new type of social activity and a form of drug intake which previously had been unknown.

Faster than an injection, more reinforcing than crack cocaine: Smoking a cigarette speeds nicotine to the brain faster than any other delivery method, giving smokers precise control over their exact nicotine dose with each puff they take. It turns out that those two attributes--speed and control--greatly enhance nicotine's addictive effect on the brain. "It's not just the drug, but how you take it," says Timothy Baker, associate director, University of Wisconsin Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention. "Cigarette smoking introduces nicotine to the pulmonary beds of the lungs, which means it gets to the brain in seconds, without achieving general venous circulation."

Nicotine mimics the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, binding to and activating a subset of receptors (the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors). Nicotine affects the brain in much the same way as cocaine, opiates, and amphetamines do; it is hard to say which drugs are more addictive. Animals can be trained to self-administer nicotine, just as they do other drugs; yet even though nicotine can be fatal, animals will not dose themselves to death, as they will with cocaine.

But once hooked, people cling to their cigarettes: Researchers have asked those with multiple addictions which drug is hardest to give up; nicotine is often the answer. "They all activate key brain regions that seem to be involved in addiction," says Baker.