all tobacco's

mapacho or N. rustica is my all time favourite though.

For offering to spirits as food, any Tobacco will do, including commercial Tobacco. The additives, pesticides, etc., seem to have no effect. Also, the various wild Nicotianas (many of which are rare, even endangered) can be used (if they can be obtained).

For human ingestion for shamanic purposes, Nicotiana rustica (of which Mapacho is a variety, but not the only variety -- Hopi Tobacco, Huichol Tobacco, etc., are also rusticas) is much more effective than Nicotiana tabacum.

Bryan-

You've gotten plenty of good replies so far.

I have been working with both N. rustica and N. tabacum (additive free). My main work with Tobacco these days is by way of Singado, which has been discussed here at some length. If I want to smoke, as an offering to the spirits or during healing work, I'll either add a bit of Mapacho to one of my pipes or, depending on the situation, I'll smoke a cigarette.

I've smoked American Spirits and, for some reason, they give me a raging headache. I recently found Nat Sherman cigarettes, and have come to appreciate their "Naturals". I believe all of their varieties are made only with additive free Tobacco. They also tend to burn longer (due to being additive free and more densely packed), so they're nice for offerings/prayers/etc.

I keep a pack of Nat Shermans with me. Sometimes it may be awkward to pull out a pipe and smoke it, particularly in public. Smoking a cigarette draws much less attention in those cases.

You can find more information on Singado here. Gayle and VS offered some great words that helped me on this road, and I'm grateful to both, as well as to the spirit of Tobacco.

Take some time to read, research, understand the gifts and risks and move forward with care.

Love,
Veg

p.s. Richard, the "Parliament " comment made me laugh out loud.