by Nebula Haze
When it comes to patients using medical marijuana for symptom relief, it's important to make sure you're ingesting cannabis in the most healthy way possible.
The most common way to get the effects of cannabis buds is to smoke it, but it's actually a lot healthier and effective for a medical marijuana patient to "vape" (vaporize) their buds.
Why Vape Medical Marijuana?
- Healthier & less likely to irritate lungs – smoking is bad for you
- More discreet smell – although vaping still definitely has a smell, it won't smell nearly as strongly of marijuana, and the smell is less likely to stick to you.
- Harder to "overdose" since vaping provides slower and more gradual effects than smoking. It will take longer to vaporize a similar amount of cannabis compared to smoking, but this also allows a patient to dose themselves better.
- Bud lasts a lot longer/goes a lot further since vaping is much more efficient than smoking. Normally a lot of the "potency" is lost during the smoking process, while very little is wasted when vaping. In other words, you need less bud to achieve the same effects!
Which Vaporizer?
These are some of the most popular vaporizers. This is no where close to a comprehensive list. There are literally hundreds of different vaporizers available today!
Popular Table-Top Vaporizers
- The Volcano – famous type of vaporizer that comes with all the bells and whistles, but is incredibly expensive!!!
- Arizer – many of the same features at a much lower price
Popular Portable Vaporizers
- Pax
- Arizer Solo
- Magic Flight Launch Box (pictured) – has a learning curve and can be tough for first-timers to use, but probably the cheapest portable vape!
Big List of Common Vaporizers with Comparisions
(from the vaping experts at r/vaporents)
Tips for Vaping Cannabis
Vaping your cannabis at different temperatures can have different effects, because different cannabinoids are "released" at different temperatures.
- Low Temps for Head Effect – For more of a cerebral, in-your-head effect, keep the temperature relatively low. This gives you the highest percentage of THC since there's less of many of the other cannabinoids.
- High Temps For Stronger Body Effect – For more of a strong body effect, turn the temperature up higher. This burns many more cannabinoids, and alters/enhances the effects of THC.
- Vaped buds should be brown, not black – It's normal to see a little vapor when you breath out but if your vaped buds are turning black it means you are smoking them! After vaping, buds should appear to be a medium or dark brown.
- Save vaped buds for edibles! Vaped buds can be used to make butter, canna caps or other edibles. For most edible recipes, you have to cook the weed first to "activate" it for edibles, but vaping accomplishes the same thing so you actually get to skip that step and use your buds directly. By keeping your vaped buds (sometimes referred to online as Already Vaped Buds or AVB) and using them to make edibles, you get to use the same cannabis twice!
Conclusion: Time to Research!
I hope this short article helps you get started on your search for information. This website is mostly meant for growing cannabis and I know this article isn't comprehensive, but a lot of you have written in with questions about vaping and I wanted to share what I know. I hope this helps you start your journey towards finding the right vaporizer!
Jump to…
How Do THC, CBN, and CBD Relate to Marijuana Potency?
What Makes Some Strains "Medical"?
How Long Does It Take to Grow Weed?
Where Can I Get Good Genetics?
