Information about Smoking Pipe

A pipe is a tool used for smoking. The designs of pipes vary considerably, but for the most part they are reusable and consist of a chamber, or bowl, in which the substance to be smoked is placed, a stem of some sort and a mouthpiece through which the smoked is inhaled.

History

Herodotus described Scythians inhaling the fumes of burning leaves to induce intoxication. The substance they enjoyed was probably cannabis, as that has been smoked in Africa and Asia since ancient times.^[1]

In the Middle East and Central Asia, cannabis resin was collected from living plants and used to make hashish. The hookah of Persia and the narghile of India, both of which filter smoke through water, were both developed as a means to smoke this gummy brown substance.

Native Americans smoked tobacco in pipes long before the arrival of Europeans. The calumet, or peace pipe, was smoked in ceremony to seal covenants and treaties. Tobacco was introduced to Europe from the Americas in the 16th century and spread around the world rapidly.^[1]

In Asia during the 1800s, opium (which previously had only been eaten) was added to tobacco and smoked in pipes. Madak (the mixture of opium and tobacco) turned out to be far more addictive than orally-ingested opium, leading to social problems in China which culminated in the Opium Wars.^[1]

In the 20th century, pipe smoking has been adopted as a preferred method of consumption for a variety of psychoactive drugs and some users claim it is a more intense method of ingestion.

Some scholars cite the development of smokable crack cocaine as the genesis of a law enforcement problem of a scale not presented by cocaine's previous nasally-ingested form.

Likewise, methamphetamine has gained popularity in a crystalline form which may be either smoked in a pipe or crushed and inhaled through the nose. When not applied to a cigarette or joint, the liquid form of PCP is typically smoked in a pipe with tobacco or marijuana.^[2]

Instruments

Pipes have been fashioned of an assortment materials including briar, clay, ceramic, corncob, glass, meerschaum, metal, porcelain, stone, wood and various combinations thereof, most notably, the classic English calabash pipe.

Some are designed with special mechanics, such as the different forms of Water Pipe. Others are designed with the demands of the smoking material in mind, such as the all-glass pipes used for smoking cannabis. ^[2]

Pipes also vary across a wide spectrum of cost and complexity, from hookahs made with hand-blown glass and fitted with precious metals to the pipes of un-glazed clay that were popular in Europe and the Americas for centuries.

Culture

The customs, vocabulary and etiquette that surrounds pipe smoking culture vary across the world and depend both on the people who are smoking and the substance being smoked.

For example, in the Western world, tobacco pipe smoking has sometimes been seen as genteel or dignified and has given rise to a variety of customized accessories and even apparel such as the smoking jacket, and the Pipe Smoker of the Year award in the UK.

Cannabis culture has its own traditions concerning pipe smoking and these differ from tobacco pipe smoking. For example, unlike tobacco smokers, marijuana smokers typically follow a custom of sharing a single pipe among two or more people.

By necessity, pipe smokers ingesting methamphetamine and the smokable forms of cocaine put great importance on the proper application of heat so that the drug liquefies and vaporizes without carbonization.

In recent years, "hookah bars" have appeared in college towns and urban areas in America and are seen by some as a chic and novel way to embrace multiculturalism.^[3]

See also

• Smoking pipe (tobacco)
• Smoking pipe (non-tobacco)
• Health effects of tobacco smoking

References