Chile’s hairy tale of long-term addiction

Tests on the hair of mummies from the town of San Pedro de Atacama in Chile have indicated that the people in the surrounding region had a nicotine habit spanning from at least 100 BC to AD 1450, according to a story on LiveScience.com.

This finding rebuts the popular view that the group living in this region smoked tobacco for just a short time before moving on to hallucinogens.

Research has apparently shown too that nicotine consumption occurred on a societywide basis, irrespective of social status and wealth.