Hey everyone! It's been about a week since I checked in, but it feels like eons. I just can't stay away. What are we to do - oy vey! Well, now that we're both here I should tell you, this email may surprise you. It's Nick by the way. How you doin'?
I have a few hot takes on how it is that we do what it is, that we, in fact, do.
I'm talking about shmokin' that herbo. Rippin' that hemp choochang. Burning the midnight oil and by that I mean burning that twelve o' clock hemp pre-roll joint. Smoking hemp blunts. Eatin' them tasty eddies. Blastin' your face hole with hemp dabs (ask your 18 year old), getting squiggly off the Volcano, going to Blinkertown via the Penjamin Express, tasting the terps of a fine hemp rosin extract via a $10,000 glass sculpture...All the ways people enjoy cannabis.
So what's my main point? Well - it should be noted that exactly none of these methods of enjoying our favorite plant should come without considerations regarding health. What do I mean by this?
First of all, I would like you to consider all the ways in which you have (or someone you know has) smoked when options weren't abundant. Some people have used tin cans, apples, saxophone mouthpieces, tools from the shed, and worse - just to come up with a pipe in their time of need. Others habitually use Cigarillo tobacco to roll blunts multiple times a day. Some people use high quality glass to filter and inhale the smoke more efficiently. Some people use thin hemp or rice paper to roll up.
The options are almost limitless, and I won't list them all here - but it should be noted that each unique way to enjoy cannabis comes with various levels of health concerns. It should also be noted that in my lifetime I have used all of these methods and more, and I speak from experience - there's levels to this cannabis stuff.
Below I list 10 of my favorite ways to enjoy cannabis and rank them by health, with commentary for each.
Using a vaporizer such as this one can offer the finest experience with the least health hazards. This is a small handheld unit.
Various Popular Methods Ranked by Health
Number 1: True Vaporization of Flower
The cleanest and least processed form of ingesting cannabis flower is via the vaporizer. I'm not talking about those vape devices with the little tanks on them, I am referring to devices which heat the flower just enough to release its active compounds without getting so hot as to burn the plant matter. What you are left with is pure cannabinoids and terpenes going into your body and none of the tar or plant matter being inhaled.
Number 2: Low Temperature Rosin Concentrates
These are as special as they are rare. By squishing the goodness out of raw hemp with nothing but pure pressure and heat, you can extract the natural plant rosin from the plant matter. Heating this to a perfect temperature in order to vaporize it using special glass equipment will result in the cleanest dabbing experience known to man with no obvious side effects or additives at all.
Number 3: Tincture / Capsules
Using a tincture of cannabis has long been one of the most used solutions for ingesting its coveted active ingredients. There used to be cannabis sativa tinctures in every sanitorium and hospital before cannabis was wrongfully prohibited in the 1930s. I can think of no issues with this method.
Number 4: High Quality Edibles
So long as the ingredients and manufacturing practices of the supplier are good, edibles offer some of the safest alternatives to smoking. Best if you make the edibles from scratch and infuse the butter yourself, I say!
Number 5: Smoking Flower with Water Filtration
Using a pipe with water filtration such as a typical bong will drastically improve the quality of your smoking experience as well as filter our debris and tar from the smoke you inhale. It is recommended that you use hemp wick to avoid butane contaminating your flower and pipe. Number 6: Smoking Unfiltered Flower Smoking your hemp via papers or a regular pipe is a common way to ingest it. While I can't say this method is too drastically dangerous, make sure you consider a clean hemp or rice paper and don't use anything but glass for your pipe. This method does nothing to filter harsh smoke containing high levels of tar from entering your lungs. Consider using hemp wick here as well.
Number 7: Dabbing Regular Concentrates (BHO)
Dabs are alluring to many because of their high potency and cheap price. For us in the States, it basically replaced the concept of hash, hence the name: Butane Hash Oil. Oh what's that? Butane? In my cannabis? Avoid dabbing BHO if you value your lung health.
Number 8: Smoking 'Blunts' with Cigarillo tobacco
Ah, a classic American past-time. Seriously, if I had a gram for every blunt I ever smoked, I'd have like 5 pounds. Unfortunately, the honest truth of the blunt as a medium can be summed up quickly. Low quality, fake flavor filled carcinogen laced tobacco shell covers your hemp. These were initially meant for low quality bud.
Number 9: Smoking Vape Carts
Ubiquitous. Infamous. Convenient. Deadly? Not if you are buying name brand hemp products from a reputable source. I'm really referring to the unlicensed, unregulated, and often fake home made carts which have plagued this country for a few years. Disposables are often even worse. The additives found in these devices have been shown to cause serious illness in the past, and the numbers on the COAs are always fake when it comes to cheap Delta 9 vapes especially. Know sourcing always.
Number 10: The Dreaded Home-made Pipe
We've all been there. You have some fire hemp you're trying to smoke but nothing to roll up with. No pipe. No technology at all. So you reach for that Gatorade bottle and jam the cylinder from a pen inside it at a 45 degree angle and add water. Instant bong, right? Or better yet, you go for the soda can and bend it after adding a small hole in the side. Fantastic. Please don't do either of these or anything similar - you will flood your system with carcinogens and potentially cause brain damage. Maybe use an apple! Just drill holes in the top and in the side and make them connect. You're welcome. Buy a freakin' pipe.
