HOW TO SMOKE WEED
Long before cannabis was legalized, smoking was already the most popular way to consume it. In fact, smoking cannabis dates back to ancient times. The Scythians, who lived in Central Asia around 600 BC – 400 AD, used to inhale cannabis smoke by throwing it on hot rocks inside a tent. Nowadays, the most popular way to consume cannabis is still by smoking the flower. Whether you prefer joints, pipes, or bongs, smoking is arguably the simplest way to enjoy the benefits of cannabis.
Today, cannabis flower is the most sold cannabis product. Smoking that flower in joints, pipes, or bongs are some of the most popular ways to consume weed.
Arguably the simplest way to consume, to smoke, all you need is some weed, a device, and a lighter, and you’re good to go.
Learn all about the different ways to smoke weed below.
How is cannabis smoke absorbed by the body?
After you take a drag off a joint or a pull off a bong, inhaled smoke travels from your mouth into your lungs. The inside of your lungs are lined with millions of air sacs called alveoli, and combined, they have a huge surface area.
Compounds in cannabis smoke, such as THC, enter your bloodstream via the air sacs in your lungs, traveling first to your brain, and then the rest of your body.
This happens within seconds, and the cannabis consumer will likely feel the effects of smoking within minutes.
Different ways to smoke weed
Smoking methods haven’t evolved much since the times of our ancestors. These methods have been around for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, and continue to be some of the most popular ways to consume flower.
Smoking methods include:
- Rolling (joints, blunts, and spliffs)
- Pipes (including bubblers and one-hitters like chillums and dugouts)
- Bongs
Each has its pros and cons and provides a different experience.
Rolling
Joints are arguably the most classic way to smoke weed. Other ways to roll up weed include blunts and spliffs, which incorporate tobacco. Portable and versatile, these rolls can be consumed almost anywhere with the flick of a match.
It used to be that you or someone you knew had to have the skills to roll one, but not anymore with the advent of pre-rolls.
Pipes
Pipes are probably the most common smoking device because they are small, portable, convenient, and easy to use. Just break up some weed, pack a bowl, put a flame to it, and inhale.
They are available in different materials and come in many shapes and sizes, and price points.
Pipe glassblowing has evolved into an art form, while other pipes are prized for their functionality.
Bongs
Bongs also come in a variety of styles and designs, and usually increase in sophistication from pipes because they incorporate water and need a chamber for it.
The addition of water cools the smoke, making hits smoother and cleaner, but it’s uncertain whether it acts as an effective filter for harmful substances.
Benefits of smoking weed
Flavor
Smoking flower is the purest, most basic way of consuming cannabis—it hasn’t been altered or turned into dabs, edibles, or other products and allows you to taste the flavor of a strain. Growers have different growing practices as well, which can come out in the flavor of flower.
Variety of strains
You can enjoy all the different varieties of strains and the different flavors and effects each has to offer when smoking flower. Other cannabis products could be a mix of many strains.
Ritual of the session
There’s nothing like lighting up a joint or packing a bowl and passing it around a circle of friends, or sitting on a couch taking bongloads while watching a movie. Whatever your ritual, smoking methods lend themselves to one, while other forms like edibles, tinctures, and topicals don’t. The session can be a way to hang and bond with fellow stoners.
There can also be a ritual to rolling up—it takes some time to roll up a joint or blunt, which is part of the experience missed in other consumption methods.
Vaping
Cannabis vaping is a way of consuming cannabis by inhalation, to get high or receive therapeutic benefits from weed. Vaporization of cannabis occurs at a lower temperature than combustion, which occurs when smoking weed.
Vaping does not use a flame, but heating methods called convection and conduction, which regulate temperature to ensure cannabis doesn’t burn and produce smoke. Vapor often imparts a fuller flavor and smoother inhale than smoke.
In smoking and combustion, a flame such as a lighter or match is applied directly to cannabis flower, producing smoke and a harsher hit.
Vapes certainly aren’t going anywhere, but few consumers seem to understand where they came from, how they work, and what they can offer new consumers or those who are tired of other consumption methods. Here’s everything you need to know about vaping weed.
The history of cannabis vaping
For most of our millennia-old relationship with cannabis, humans have consumed it in the most straightforward and accessible way: smoking. Along the way we found ways to imbibe it via tinctures and infused drinks like bhang, and condense it into more potent forms such as hash. Then, we invented vaping.
In the last couple decades, interest in vaping technology has boomed, largely due to our fondness for tobacco and nicotine, and to find healthier inhalation methods. One of the first filed patents for an electronic vaporizer for plant compounds came from Joseph Robinson in 1927.
Other endeavors followed throughout the 20th century, including a device by nicotine patch inventor Jed Rose, meant to find a solution for minimizing tobacco’s negative health effects. In 1993, the Cherokkee medicine man Eagle Bill invented the Shake and Vape, a pipe that vaporized cannabis.
In 2000, Storz and Bickel unleashed their first iteration of the Volcano Vaporizer. In 2003, Chinese entrepreneur Hon Lik invented the e-cigarette. Within a decade, cannabis oil vapes were hitting dispensary shelves, and dabbing cannabis was re-emerging amongst cannasseur circles after it was suppressed in the 1970s. Today, vaping is just another cannabis consumption option, and cartridges and disposable vapes raked in over $2 billion alone in 2021.
Benefits of vaping weed
The very invention of vaping was driven by the belief that it was healthier than smoking tobacco or cannabis and inhaling carcinogenic-laden smoke. Most people today choose to vape because they perceive the health risks as lower.
People also like a more discrete device that is portable and can be used without the pungent aroma of weed smoke in the air or on their person. Additionally, controlled, low temperatures allow for more activation of cannabinoids and terpenes before they are burned off. Some suggest that vaping produces stronger effects than smoking, and oil-based vape pens also offer more potency than cannabis flower.
But there is some contention. Cannabis smoke, like any burnt substance, contains carcinogenic substances that can impact lung function and immunity, but whether or not vaping is healthier is debatable.
A study from the University of Michigan argues that vaping weed is even more harmful than smoking weed or even cigarettes. Our own 2022 article questions the idea as well. Additionally, cannabis smokers tend to hold in their hits longer than cigarette smokers, so exposure is amplified.
But because cannabis remains a federally illegal substance, it’s difficult to investigate vaping’s long-term effects and more research is needed.
How do vaporizers work?
Weed vaporizers can vape dry flower and/or concentrates and use one of two heat processes: conduction or convection. Each has its pros and cons.
Conduction
Conduction is heating a substance through direct contact with the heat source. Think of it like a frying pan: You heat the pan and the food in the pan cooks.
In conduction weed vaporizers, the heat source is typically a ceramic or metal element heated by electricity. For example, with a Pax vaporizer, flower or dabs are packed into a chamber, the chamber heats up, which comes in contact with the cannabis, creating vapor that you then inhale.
A majority of weed vaporizers use conduction heating, including vape pens. Conduction allows for quick heat up times, but may not heat the product evenly because it might not touch all material. Conduction can burn material because it comes into direct contact with it.
Convection
Convection vaporizers work indirectly—the heated element never makes contact with the herb or concentrate, rather, the device heats the air inside a chamber with weed, which then produces vapor.
Think of it like an oven, which consistently circulates hot air, distributing it evenly throughout the product. Convection weed vaporizers often take longer to heat, but there is less risk of burning weed.
Vape pens and atomizers
Vape pen cartridges heat by conduction. The cartridge of cannabis oil has a heating element called an atomizer, usually a wick, ceramic coil, or metal plate. A battery device is screwed onto a cartridge full of oil, which powers and heats the atomizer, vaporizing the oil that you then inhale through a mouthpiece.
Types of weed vaporizers
Vape pens
By far, the most popular cannabis vaping option is the vape pen. It’s discrete, potent, portable, and inexpensive, and they are a huge part of the cannabis market.
Unfortunately, cannabis prohibition and the illicit market has allowed for the proliferation of fake vape cartridges that aren’t lab-tested or regulated. Be sure to only buy your weed vape cartridges from licensed dispensaries and reputable producers, as they could be cut with harmful substances.
Portable
Portable vapes have come a long way in just a decade. Their popularity can be traced back to the invention of the Pax 1 by Pax Labs, released in 2012. This vaporizer was designed for use with dry flower, and newer models also allow for concentrate vaporization at multiple temperatures. Pax vaporizers use conduction heating, but other portable vapes can use convection or a mixture of the two.
Tabletops
These large vaporizers can’t be taken outside the house and require electricity and/or batteries. The most well-known tabletop vaporizer is the Volcano, invented in Germany and popularized in North America 20 years ago.
Most tabletop vaporizers are convection vaporizers, and they can create a large amount of vapor from a small amount of weed.
Vaping cannabis flower vs. concentrates
Flower is still the most popular cannabis product and most people still smoke it, but vaping flower is more cost-effective and allows you to zero in on a specific strain’s flavor profile and unique characteristics. When vaping flower you won’t have to deal with weed smoke or the aroma lingering on your clothes.
You’re also able to adjust temperature to get the most out of flower and how it impacts you, as different compounds have different decarboxylation temperatures.
Best temperatures to vape weed
Most people vape flower and concentrates way too hot. For example, you should never be dabbing at 710ºF, despite the myth that the term “710” comes from temperature.
To vape flower hot enough without compromising your high, set your temperature between 325-430ºF. We recommend starting low and gradually increasing the temp to your liking to ensure you don’t ruin your flower.
Concentrates have less plant material than straight flower, so you can go higher, between 400-600ºF. But many dabheads argue that going above 500ºF will compromise the full flavor spectrum and balance of cannabinoids and terpenes in your dabs. There should always be residue left over in a concentrate vaporizer to wipe away—if you burn it all off, turn the temp down.
What is already-vaped bud (AVB)?
When you smoke a joint or pack a bowl, you inevitably get to the roach or cash the bowl—it’s done, all the weed reduced to ashes. But if you vape flower, the weed never gets hot enough to completely burn away or turn to ash.
What you’re left with is already-vaped bud, or AVB, which usually looks brown and feels dry, but can still be used. AVB has a lot of potential, and might have a little bit of cannabinoids and terpenes in it still, and can be used for making edibles, infusing an oil, and even smoking.