I vape. Its prob still worse than edibles, but better than smoking. Lower temps at least
I vape once a day before sleep most days (can’t sleep without it, I’m old, tried everything else). I also use an edible (vape let’s me sleep, edible keeps me sleeping).
I usually dry herb vape but on a recent trip I picked up a cartridge and battery. I find it’s less harsh (if temp is lower) but you need to take way more drags to get medicated.
To be clear, I’m a lightweight and typically do one “dynavap” which is about .1g I think.
Based on that, I think dry herb vaping is “better” than carts.
Thoughts?
Edit: homemade edibles in case people think I’m a Richie Rich.
I use an erig for concentrates.
Typically 545 F.
I know on days where I have the luxury to smoke more than usual, I end up kinda wheezy with my breathing. Then again my usual is typically a super small dab to aquaint my throat/lungs, and something more normal sized. Then another normal sized one before bed. I predominately use it for anxiety, appetite booster and anti emetic, and sleep. I don’t have like cancer or aids or anything, just a shitty touchy stomach that has plagued me my whole life. Eating pretty much anything is guaranteed to make me nauseated.
But when I first got into it (as opposed to flower) I was way overdoing the amount I loaded each time. Ended up wheezy every day.
I’ve now cut it back to a fraction of what I used to load, and am having a much better experience over all.
Something about vaping it (carts, erigs, dry herb vaping) makes me cough a lot, where as burned flower does not generally. The exception is massive bong hits, but the bong I bought is fucking ridiculously overkill for personal use. I just had the money at the time and wanted something nice lol. Then one of my buddies had to quit for work reasons, so I’m looking forward to him coming over and trying it out when he can.
I have some concentrate in a syringe dispenser that I can use as an edible (rosin, I guess, new to that despite using cannabis for decades) and I can pop a little into a bit of organic cotton and into the dynavap.
With the dynavap and dry herb I get a consistent dose. I’m not really interested in getting baked so tolerance can be a good thing in my case since I can get a few things done before bed.
With concentrates I find it much harder to know when to stop so I just take about three drags and put it away. With the carts they don’t seem to have the same potency per hit which makes me think a lot of the vapour isn’t what I’m after.
Having fgured out the dynavap concentrate method, it’s a nice balance. I can use live rosin (resin?) and you can really load up that cotton so it’s like having a cart. I got four nights worth out of my last one (and it was a tiny fraction of the very affordable concentrate).
I will do more research to be sure I understand it but live rosin (resin?) in cotton is probably my goto now for convenience with flower on nights when I have more time. I still (like once a month) dig out a pipe and some hash and get nostalgic about the 80s. :)
If you are wondering about health effects, my doctor said vaping weed is probably the worst way to consume weed. She said the oil/syrup in the vape really fucks up your lungs. At the end of the day, it is up to the user what they choose to do tho.
Vaping concentrates/extracts are very different from dry herb vaping.
[Cannabis] extracts are not diluted in propylene glycol or glycerol like nicotine due to their hydrophobic properties. Instead, various forms of oils including vegetable oils, terpenes, and tocopheryl acetate (vitamin E acetate) have been reported as diluents. In most reported cases of EVALI, additional flavoring additives are also added to products.
Although many of these diluent agents and flavorings have been “generally recognized as safe” for oral ingestion by the FDA, recent research shows that when heated to form an aerosol and inhaled, conditions including bronchitis, bronchiolitis, acute hypoxic respiratory distress, lipoid-associated pneumonia, and pneumonitis may result. [1]
The terpenes used in vape carts to dilute and reintroduce flavor and aroma (which is lost in some extraction methods) also produces harmful byproducts when vaped. [2]
Another problem with cheap vape pens and e-cigs is the cheap atomizers/coils used. There have been confirmed cases of these coils/atomizers leeching heavy metals into the vapor produced.[3]
However, dry herb vapes do not have these problems. Dry herb vapes only vape the flower itself. Unless you are running the vape high enough to result in benzene (205–365°C / 401–689°F) [4], then the only thing to worry about with dry herb vapes the quality of their coils. Again, cheaper atomizers/coils have been known to leach heavy metals into the vapor.
I don’t know the last time I saw a cartridge that had vitamin e oil in it. Most cannabis products have moved away from using fillers. Usually the only additive, which is mainly used in distillate carts, are botanically derived terpenes. And BHO does not strip cannabis extracts of their aromatic compounds, that’s blatantly false and doesn’t even make sense scientifically. It’s hard to take advice from a study like this that can’t even get established facts correct.
Edit: Nice edit above. Still not very convincing when looking at today’s cannabis market though
