The first European smoker was arrested because people thought he was possessed by the devil!

His name was Rodrigo de Jerez and he was a Spanish crewman who sailed to the Americas on the Santa Maria with Christopher Columbus. Jerez first encountered tobacco at San Salvador island in the Bahamas, in 1492, where he was presented with dry leaves. At first, they thought they were worthless and threw them away. 

It wasn't until a month later that Jerez realized that the natives were smoking the tobacco. They would make rolls of palm and mais leaves, and light one side while 'drinking' the smoke out of the other. Jerez was the only crewman to pick up the habit and when he returned to his hometown in Spain, his neighbors were terrified by the smoke that came out of his mouth. 

The Spanish Inquisition imprisoned him for his sinful habit, because they believed only the devil could allow a man to exhale smoke. Jerez was imprisoned for seven years and by the time he was released the act of smoking had caught on throughout Spain.