smoking
Sign in to saveSmoking is a human behavior which involves the combustion of a substance, usually plant material, and the inhalation of resulting fumes. Today, smoking is mostly practiced by rolling the dried leaves of the tobacco plant into a cigarette. Other forms of tobacco smoking include the use of a smoking tobacco with a pipe or cigar, or using a bong. Cigarette smokers almost always inhale the smoke; most pipe and cigar smokers do not inhale.
AI overview
Smoking is the practice of burning a substance—typically tobacco leaves—and inhaling the resulting smoke, with cigarettes being the most common form today. It matters as a widespread human behavior that takes various forms, from cigarettes to pipes and cigars, with different inhalation patterns depending on the method used.
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Article
22 sectionsContents
- Health effects
- Physiology
- Psychology
- Prevention
- Prevalence
- History
- Early uses
- Popularization
- Opium
- Anti-tobacco movement
- Other substances
- Society and culture
- Art
- Film and TV
- Literature
- Music
- Economics
- Smoking in the armed forces
- See also
- References
- Further reading
- External links
Smoking is a human behavior which involves the combustion of a substance, usually plant material, and the inhalation of resulting fumes. Today, smoking is mostly practiced by rolling the dried leaves of the tobacco plant into a cigarette. Other forms of tobacco smoking include the use of a smoking tobacco with a pipe or cigar, or using a bong. Cigarette smokers almost always inhale the smoke; most pipe and cigar smokers do not inhale.
Smoking is primarily practiced as a route of administration for psychoactive chemicals because the active substances within the burnt, dried plant leaves (or other chemical) can vaporize into a gaseous state and be delivered into the respiratory tract, where they are rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream through the lungs and can reach the central nervous system. In the case of tobacco smoking, these active substances are a mixture of aerosol particles that include the pharmacologically active alkaloid nicotine, which stimulates the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in the brain, and other non-psychoactive chemicals that result from combustion. Other notable drugs inhaled via smoking include tetrahydrocannabinol (from cannabis), morphine (from opium), cocaine (from crack), and methamphetamine. Designer drugs, or "research chemicals", can also be smoked.