WI tobacco never popular in Europe or White America

1) What would be needed?

2) what are the demographic consequences?

3) What impact on British Colonization the South East of North America?
 
As to 1, I think an early, strong taboo. If tobacco was more strongly narcotic, that could do the trick. That could keep it a minor pharmaceutical, like cannabis indica or opium. The problem is that tobacco is mildly pleasant and strongly addictive, and the health impact is delayed.

As to 2, I think they will be minor for a long time (at least outside of Virginia). Tobacco smoking is harmful, but the effects take so long to show that they would mostly be swamped under general mortality in a pre-modern population. I doubt lung cancer would even be recognised as a distinct phenomenon.

As to 3, Virginia is screwed.
 
1) What would be needed?

2) what are the demographic consequences?

3) What impact on British Colonization the South East of North America?

I dunno; this is a fairly early POD, and difficult to pull off; at least with marijuana IOTL, a significant part of the reason it became so taboo, especially when it came to the South(and parts of Western society, too; remember, opium was the subject of a similar panic in California earlier on.), is because it was indeed associated with "those people", i.e. minorities, like the Latinos(Mexicans, mostly) and blacks.....(of course, the *whole* situation was a bit more complex than just that one thing, but no doubt that prejudice did play a notable role in "Reefer Madness", etc.).

But without race as a fully developed concept, it becomes that much more challenging to convince people not to engage in tobacco consumption. Dragos did, however, mention the "A Counterblast to Tobacco", and it possibly gaining more traction.....the question is, how?

Alternatively, try to have the Puritans spread out a little further than they did IOTL.....maybe they make it to OTL Delaware or *northern Virginia, even?
 
But without race as a fully developed concept, it becomes that much more challenging. Dragos did, however, mention the "A Counterblast to Tobacco", and it possibly gaining more traction.....the question is, how?

Thanks, and, yeah, that's the problem; King James I was unpopular, and even if he wasn't, his attacks on Tobacco are still likely to be forgotten.

Perhaps associate Tobacco with Native American 'savages'?
 
The big issue is that tobacco is extremely addictive and the "high" is very mild, like coffee or sugar. The government won't be able to stop it (just look at how attempts at prohibition have gone historically), and as a result of the addictiveness and pleasure from it tobacco is incredibly lucrative. Even today, after decades of anti-smoking campaigns and regulations, the top 6 tobacco companies make roughly the same amount as Microsoft, McDonald's, and Coca-Cola combined.
 
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