New article out in Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science exploring the most controversial plant on Earth.
The paradox: Tobacco kills 8+ million people yearly through cigarettes. Yet for Indigenous peoples, it’s sacred — a messenger plant, vehicle of prayer, teacher of humility.
How can the same plant be both poison and medicine?
My journey from tobacco control researcher fighting Big Tobacco to student of Indigenous plant ways revealed the answer: pharmakon — the Greek understanding that substances are poison or cure depending on relationship.
The tobacco industry didn’t just sell a plant. They:
? Stripped its natural defenses (milder species, chemical processing)
? Added 7,000+ chemicals to maximize addiction
? Removed the plant’s circuit breakers
? Weaponized what remained for profit
Traditional use with Nicotiana rustica? Harsh, ceremonial, non-addictive. The plant’s wholeness was honored.
“Tobacco treats one as it has been treated.”
This pattern repeats everywhere: GMO tomatoes, industrial corn, pharma extracts. Extracting “desirable” properties while discarding protective wholeness = disaster.
My conclusion: Tobacco is too powerful to be sold at a profit. It belongs in gift economies, grown and shared reverentially — not commodified.
The deeper lesson? Reciprocity vs. extraction as fundamental orientations to the living world.
Grateful to the curanderos who taught me reverence, and to public health colleagues continuing the fight.
Full article (open access): https://doi.org/10.16995/zygon.17672
