When Caribbean natives gave large, pungent, dried leaves as welcome gifts to Christopher Columbus and his crew, the Europeans didn't know what to do with the things. At first, they threw the leaves away. Then Rodrigo de Jerez and Luis de Torres witnessed Cuban natives who formed the leaves into a tube, wrapped in a corn shuck or palm leaf, lit one end and "drank" from the other. The two Spaniards decided to try this drinking of smoke. Jerez got hooked and took the nasty habit back to Spain, where the sight of a man breathing smoke frightened folks. They though it looked like some kind of witchcraft. Inquisition authorities threw Jerez into jail for seven years.

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