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King James I in History of Drugs in America

King James I in History of Drugs in America

King James I (1566–1625) was King of Scotland from 1567 to 1625 and King of England from 1603 to 1625. He was the first English monarch of the Scottish Stuart dynasty.

In 1604, King James published A Counterblaste to Tobacco, urging his subjects not to smoke the drug. Ironically, the American colonial settlement that bore King James' name—Jamestown, Virginia, founded in 1607—was only able to survive through large-scale cultivation of tobacco.