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Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as an organic pesticide, and in the form of nicotine tartrate it is used in some medicines. In consumption it most commonly appears in the forms of smoking, chewing, snuffing, or dipping tobacco, or snus. Tobacco has long been in use as an entheogen in the Americas. However, upon the arrival of Europeans in North America, it quickly became popularized as a trade item and as a recreational drug. This popularization led to the development of the southern economy of the United States until it gave way to cotton. Following the American Civil War, a change in demand and a change in labor force allowed for the development of the cigarette. This new product quickly led to the growth of tobacco companies until the scientific controversy of the mid-1900s. |
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A hookah (Hindi: हुक़्क़ा, Urdu: حُقّہ huqqā), nargile in Turkish, or nargila (Hebrew: נרגילה nar-gee-la), or shisha (Arabic: شيشة ""shee-sha"") is a single or multi-stemmed (often glass-based) water pipe for smoking shisha (a type of tobacco). The concept of filtered smoke through a pipe originated in India and gained immense popularity, especially in the Middle East; it is gaining popularity in the USA, UK, and elsewhere. Today, some of the highest quality and most extravagant hookah pipes come from Israel, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iran and Turkey. The hookah operates by water filtration and indirect heat. They can also be used for smoking fruits.
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