As Tucker Carlson has noted in the past, the governing authorities’ mission is to deny the peasants any of their unapproved animal joys, such as tobacco, unless they have some other utility — as does fentanyl, for example — for wrecking society.
Joe Biden, for example, before his handlers realized that it would cost them electorally with black voters, was gunning for a ban on menthol cigarettes.
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In the Peruvian Amazon, however, not only is there no prohibition on tobacco use, but it’s actively encouraged, as tobacco is considered a “master plant” used in various therapeutic contexts.
Via Ethnopharmacology (emphasis added):
Harmful usage of tobacco is a public health problem of global concern and, in many countries, the main risk factor for non-communicable diseases. Yet, in the Peruvian Amazon, the geographical region believed to be tobacco’s historical birthplace, this plant is associated with a strikingly different usage and repute: Tobacco (especially Nicotiana rustica L.) in this area is described as a potent medicinal plant, used topically or via ingestion to treat a variety of health conditions. The goal of this transdisciplinary field study was to investigate clinical applications of the tobacco plant as per Amazonian medicine exemplified in the practice of a reputed Maestro Tabaquero, an Amazonian traditional healer whose medical specialization focuses on tobacco-based treatments.
Mapachos, widely consumed in the Peruvian Amazon, are rolled cigarettes containing no chemical additives of any kind.
But the most entertaining avenue of tobacco administration is a pre-Colombian concoction called rapé (not pronounced like the English transitive verb), a blend of tobacco and various herbs (there are many kinds of rapé). It was adopted by the conquistadors and exported to Europe, where it became known as snuff.
Via EntheoNation (emphasis added):
Rapé – pronounced ha-PAY – is a preparation of powdered medicinal herbs, often with a tobacco base, that is taken through the nose. This practice of consuming powdered plant medicines through the nose is pre-Columbian and was first observed among the Brazilian indigenous tribes.
In Europe, herbal snuff was introduced by the doctor and botanist Francisco Hernández de Boncalo in 1577 and the elites often took snuff as a headache treatment. During the 18th century inhaling snuff became fashionable among the European aristocracy.
The conceptualization of plants as having personalities was a generally new notion introduced to me by the natives of Peru, who practice traditional medicine. Tobacco, I learned, is considered a masculine spirit — which, based on its smell and its psychoactive effects, makes sense in an ethereal kind of way.
While I was down there, I was encouraged to smoke mapachos with abandon, a prescription that I took full advantage of and for which I have no regrets.
So, if you want to see beautiful landscapes, from barren high plains in the Andes (called the altiplano) to lush jungle to 1,500 miles of coastline with pristine, surfable waves, I highly endorse Peru. It might be one of my favorite countries I have ever visited — and let me tell you, that’s not a short list.
