People of the past weren't dumber than people of today, they just knew different stuff. But basic-bitch level stuff like "coughing up blood = bad", they knew from the stone age. Women miscarried when they partook too much of the peace pipe, therefore, the gods clearly mean for women not to smoke, it is bad for them. It's not rocket science, it's basic observational skills, and then the society adjusts around it.
Why doesn't everyone just take the spirit-seeing plants all the time? Because they KNEW it wasn't good for long-term societal or personal health. Knights and monks alike would drink just water instead of ale, because they knew that, at the very least, hangovers were a thing. It wasn't some mystery to them, Ancient Egyptian farmers at the cradle of civilization knew that "alcohol -> next day feel sick" was a sequence of events.
I'm addicted to caffeine and refined sugars. I make no illusions that either of them are in any way healthy to me in the amounts and regularity I intake them. 30 years from now when they ban caffeine, they'll say "oh, we didn't know back then", but bullshit. I know it causes heart disease, blood pressure issues, insomnia issues, stress management issues, bloodflow issues, etc etc. Smokers of the bygone era were the same way. That's why so many societies had rules along the lines of women and children not smoking.
People of the past weren't dumber than people of today, they just knew different stuff. But basic-bitch level stuff like "coughing up blood = bad", they knew from the stone age. Women miscarried when they partook too much of the peace pipe, therefore, the gods clearly mean for women not to smoke, it is bad for them. It's not rocket science, it's basic observational skills, and then the society adjusts around it.
Why doesn't everyone just take the spirit-seeing plants all the time? Because they KNEW it wasn't good for long-term societal or personal health. Knights and monks alike would drink just water instead of ale, because they knew that, at the very least, hangovers were a thing. It wasn't some mystery to them, Ancient Egyptian farmers at the cradle of civilization knew that "alcohol -> next day feel sick" was a sequence of events.
I'm addicted to caffeine and refined sugars. I make no illusions that either of them are in any way healthy to me in the amounts and regularity I intake them. 30 years from now when they ban caffeine, they'll say "oh, we didn't know back then", but bullshit. I know it causes heart disease, blood pressure issues, insomnia issues, stress management issues, bloodflow issues, etc etc. Smokers of the bygone era were the same way. That's why so many societies had rules along the lines of women and children not smoking.