There are a handful of different ways you can choose to consume your cannabis. To help you choose, here’s a guide to the basic cannabis consumption methods.
Cannabis Consumption via Smoking
Smoking is easily the most well-known and most common method for cannabis consumption. Smoking cannabis involves lighting the actual cannabis flower and inhaling the smoke. There are a few ways you can approach this method, including:
- Joints: These are created by rolling your cannabis flower into rolling papers before lighting one end and inhaling from the other.
- Blunts: Similar to joints, blunts are made by rolling your cannabis into cigar paper rather than joint paper. The usual approach to this would be to hollow out a cigar and replace the tobacco with cannabis. You can also purchase blunt raps as an easier approach. Blunts typically contain much more cannabis than a joint. That means you can consume more cannabis by smoking blunts.
- Pipes: Pipes are a perfect way to consume cannabis without the hassle of rolling a joint or blunt. Your average pipe is pretty small and easy to carry and use, although large pipes can certainly be sought out. To use a pipe, simply add cannabis to the bowl-shaped area at one end and light. Smoke will travel through the pipes chamber and exit through the mouthpiece on the other end. Pipes tend to have chokes, which is a small hole on the side of the bowl. You’ll want to cover that with your finger as you inhale, in order to create a vacuum of suction.
- Water Pipes: These include bongs and bubblers. They work similarly to normal pipes except the smoke is filtered through water that is held in a chamber of the device. The water cools down and filters the smoke, creating a smooth inhaling experience. This helps in seamless cannabis consumption. Bongs can come in various shapes and sizes, even 35 inch tall big bongs, or just under three feet.
Oral consumption of cannabis
There are two principal ways to consume cannabis orally.
- Edibles: Nowadays you can find cannabis-infused gummies, beverages, brownies, even full-on meals. When you eat/drink an edible, the cannabinoids will be absorbed through your digestive tract. This method of cannabis consumption takes a much longer time to feel the effects of cannabis in comparison to smoking or vaping. Depending on when you last ate and your body’s ability to absorb cannabis, it could take anywhere from 20 minutes to a few hours to feel effects. Don’t make the mistake of being impatient and eating more. Remember, you can consume more cannabis if you’re not high enough, but you can’t consume less.
- Tinctures: Tinctures are absorbed through the blood vessels under the tongue and through the digestive tract. All you have to do is choose your desired amount of cannabis to consume, use the dropper, and drop the cannabis under your tongue. Let it sit there for roughly 90 seconds and swallow so that nothing goes to waste. Tinctures have a more rapid onset in comparison to edibles but are by no means fast; so be prepared to wait after consuming cannabis.
Vaping
Vaping is the most recent form of cannabis inhalation that has gained popularity with the rise of nicotine vapes. To put how they work simply, vaping uses a device to heat cannabis concentrates to a point just below the point of combustion. This process transforms the active compounds into vapour, which is promptly inhaled. There are a few methods to vape cannabis:
- Vape pens: These tools are specifically designed for both cannabis oils and distillates. They are typically made up of a body, containing the battery, and interchangeable cartridges that contain the oil or distillate. You should avoid purchasing vapes and vape cartridges from illegal sources as they have been linked to lung disease. It is especially important to avoid oils or distillates that contain Vitamin-E acetate as it may produce a highly toxic gas called ketene.
- Vaporizers: Vaporizers work with both dry cannabis flowers and concentrates as they’re able to make both hot enough to activate the THC. Simply add the cannabis to the heating chamber, adjust the temperature accordingly, and inhale the vapour through the mouthpiece to consume cannabis.
- Dabbing: Interestingly enough, dabbing is a method of vaporizing cannabis because the cannabis concentrate must be added to a heated piece of glass or ceramic to be turned into vapour for cannabis consumption.
What’s your favourite way to consume cannabis? Let us know in the comments below and don’t forget to follow us @cannalifenet!