e
             pain. Tobacco smoking performed an important part of religious rites, with
             paintings of priests smoking a tube pipe found in ruined temples. It is
             also believed that the Mayans rolled crude cigars from wild tobacco leaves.
             When this culture disintegrated, scattered tribes carried tobacco into
             South America. Tobacco also found its way into the pipes and the religious
             ceremonies of the Mississippi Indians in North America (Gatley).
             Many hundreds of years later, the European explorers discovered
             tobacco in the Americas. In 1492 Christopher Columbus landed on the island
             at the so-named San Salvador and was greeted by the natives, who gave the
             men fruits and dried leaves. Not knowing what the latter was, Columbus
             threw them away. Soon, Rodrigo de Jerez and Luis Torres landed in Cuba and
             became the first Europeans to observe smoking. They saw the residents
             wrapping tobacco leaves in maize; they lighted up one end and smoke came
             from the other. The white man now began the fad, as well (ibid).
             By the 1530s, the Europeans were growing the plants in the Caribbean.
             This soon spread into France and Portugal. The word "nicotine" came about
             when Jean Nicot de Villemain, the French ambassador to Portugal, described
             tobacco as a way to cure a wide variety of ailments. A decade or so later,
             England became hooked, and it was not long before the word tobacco became a
             listing in the English dictionary (Heyes).
             However, regulations also started very early. In the early 1600s,
             although Pope Clement VIII threatened anyone who smoked in a holy place
             with excommunication, the habit became increasingly popular with Europeans.
             James I did not like tobacco any more than the Pope did. When Sir Walter
             Raleigh was executed during this king's reign, some say it was because
             Raleigh introduced tobacco into Britain (ibid).
             The growing of tobacco quickly increased significantly. However, bans...