Vape It Up!
Something strange is happening in the streets, bars and pubs of the UK. Hundreds of thousands of people can be seen sucking on small pen devices, which light up at the end and produce clouds of fruity smelling steam. Yes, the vaping craze is sweeping our nation and the high streets are now full of e-cig and vaporiser stores, all cashing in on the trend before our beloved government swoops in and taxes the arse out of it!
Something strange is happening in the streets, bars and pubs of the UK. Hundreds of thousands of people can be seen sucking on small pen devices, which light up at the end and produce clouds of fruity smelling steam. Yes, the vaping craze is sweeping our nation and the high streets are now full of e-cig and vaporiser stores, all cashing in on the trend before our beloved government swoops in and taxes the arse out of it!
Something strange is happening in the streets, bars and pubs of the UK. Hundreds of thousands of people can be seen sucking on small pen devices, which light up at the end and produce clouds of fruity smelling steam. Yes, the vaping craze is sweeping our nation and the high streets are now full of e-cig and vaporiser stores, all cashing in on the trend before our beloved government swoops in and taxes the arse out of it!
But tobacco users are way behind the times; cannabis users have been enjoying the benefits of vaporising for years, partaking in their favourite strain the healthy way, albeit in the privacy of their own homes. Now, an influx of lower priced, discreet pocket-sized vaporisers means that you can enjoy a toke on the go, or at least take your vaporiser round to a friend’s house without needing a suitcase to carry it in!
Interested? Let’s take a look at why it’s a good idea to vaporise in the first place and a few of the vaporiser options available…
Firstly, what is a vaporiser? Put simply, a vaporiser is a device that heats up plant material or oil to the point that the material releases its active ingredients. A vaporiser doesn’t actually burn the material; instead, it heats the material at a much lower temperature. So, rather than releasing the active compounds in smoke, it releases them as vapour. Vaporisers work by heating up to the point where certain cannabinoids “boil” and literally evaporate, leaving behind just fibrous plant matter. When you’ve vaporised your weed, you’ll be left with brown, dried out plant material. In contrast, when you light a joint, there is no plant material left over and the smoke is a mix of cannabinoids and also a number of fairly toxic combustion by-products.
So vaping is obviously better for you than mixing your cannabis with tobacco in a joint, but why not just use a bong? Well, a bong still involves combustion, i.e. you put a flame to your weed and release the active compounds as smoke. You then draw the smoke through water to cool and filter it. This removes some, but not all, of the nasty by-products that are released during combustion and it also removes some of the active herbal goodness. Another pro point for vaporisers over bongs is that they can be carried around with you, are far less fragile and are much stealthier, because the vaporiser isn’t producing smoke.
A desktop ‘bag’ style vaporiser
Inhaling cannabis vapour is far better for you than smoking. Even when you smoke a pure cannabis joint with no tobacco, over three quarters of the smoke produced will be non-cannabinoid waste products, including carcinogenic compounds like; tar, carbon monoxide, nitrogen monoxide and benzene.
When you combust cannabis only around 10% of the smoke will contain the active cannabinoids that you are looking for. When you vaporise cannabis, a massive 95% of the vapour will contain active cannabinoids. Plus, when cannabis is burned lots of the active ingredients are actually destroyed, this doesn’t happen when you vaporise. Which means that vaporising your weed will make it last longer… bonus!
People who’ve always wanted to use cannabis, but haven’t been able to due to medical conditions like asthma, allergies or just not being comfortable with smoking, will enjoy using a vaporiser.
A cheap and simple pipe vaporiser
How does it feel?
In general, vapor is described as providing a longer lasting, lighter and clearer high when compared to smoking. The immediate effects of smoking – whether using tobacco or not – actually comes from the smoke itself. Filling your lungs with smoke and reducing the amount of oxygen in the blood stream, for example, will give you a head rush. So, when you first use a vaporiser you often can’t feel any immediate sensation at all. There’s very little sensation in your throat and lungs like there is with smoke and the effects of the cannabinoids fully hits you after a couple of minutes.
Speaking on a personal level, having smoked joints with tobacco for over 15 years, I find the high from a vaporiser much clearer and energetic than smoking. It took a little time to get used to the fact that I couldn’t ‘feel’ any smoke and I did miss that at first, but soon got over it. The high comes on stronger than smoking a joint, although you can obviously regulate this with practice. I found that my weed went a lot further than when I was smoking, BUT I must say that in the long run I probably used more weed because I much preferred the high that I got from my vaporiser… so I used it more often!
Grind it, pack it, vape it!
I also think you get the real benefits of vaporising the next day. Whereas usually a heavy smoking session would leave me feeling a bit fuzzy in the head and ‘tight chested’ the next day, I feel absolutely great if I’ve been using a vaporiser. Plus there are no stinking ash trays lying around and my clothes don’t smell of smoke.
Types of vaporiser
Desktop vaporisers – these are large sized vaporisers that are plugged directly into a power outlet. They usually deliver vapour via a whip system that allows the user to inhale through a silicone or vinyl tube. Some desktop vaporisers have an advanced forced air system that slowly fills a balloon (made from the same food grade plastic used to make oven-roasting bags) with vapour. The balloon is then detached from the unit and the user inhales the vapour through a valve. Great for parties! Desk top vaporisers tend to produce lots of vapour and some have really nice features like digitally adjustable temperature control. As a general rule, they are more expensive than portable types.
Portable vaporisers – these are perfect for vaping on the go. Portable vaporisers are operated without any wires or cords and are quick and simple to vape with. In their simplest form, portable vaporisers can be glass pipes where you use a naked flame to heat an element that, in turn, vaporises your weed. You can also get butane gas powered vapes that light at the push of a button and start to release vapour within seconds. Recently there has been a real influx of new, hi-tech battery powered portable vaporisers. Some of which look very close to e-cigarettes, so it is possible to go on a nice vape session in broad daylight, without anyone noticing. Unlike smoke, the smell of vapour doesn’t travel very far or linger in an area or on clothes. Vape pens can also be hidden very quickly which makes them ideal for getting high on the go, taking to parties or bars and nightclubs. Believe it or not, there’s even a vaporiser designed to look like an asthma inhaler! Now that’s covert. Portables are considerably cheaper than the more complicated desktop vaporisers. If you need a vaporiser that can go wherever you go, then a portable vaporiser is the one for you.
How do they work?
Basically, there are two different types of heating techniques; conduction and convection;
In conduction vaporisers, the cannabis touches the heating element. Conduction vaporisers use a hot plate or screen which transfers the heat directly to the herb, rapidly releasing the cannabinoids into vapour. This means that there’s no waiting around for the unit to heat up, vapour is produced immediately. Most portable vaporisers use conduction heating, particularly the pen style or e-cig versions.
There is less control over temperature in conduction heating which means the user will take a little while to get to grips with how quickly or slowly to inhale. Also, because the herb is physically touching the heating element there is a risk of combustion.
In convection vaporisers, the herb is heated up with hot air and is separated from the heating element via a screen or gauze, which protects it from burning. The heating element warms the air to a precise temperature, which is blown through the cannabis, heating it up and causing the cannabinoids to vaporise.
Convection vaporisers allow for more accurate temperature control than conduction vaporisers and usually have a variable temperature setting. They’re very straightforward to use and beginners are less likely to burn their weed because there is no physical contact between the herb and the heating element.
Covert portable Vapbong
Most of the desktop vaporisers use convection heating. The only real downside is that they are more expensive that conduction versions and, because the herb doesn’t touch the heating element, they tend to take a few minutes to heat up.
Vaping your herb in 4 easy steps
Step 1 – Get your grind on
The first step to successful vaping is to make sure that you grind your herb properly. Herb preparation is one of the most important parts of the entire vaping process. It’s no good just throwing leaf trim or coarsely ground herb into your vaporiser and expecting to get the best out of it. The key is making sure that you increase the surface area of your herb as much as possible, because the greater the surface area, the more active compounds will be released per vape. You’ll need a grinder that produces a fine grind and you’ll want your herb to be nice and dry.
Step 2 – Use the right amount of herb
Simply put, less is more. Packing out your vaporiser doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get a stronger hit or denser vapor. In fact it can produce the opposite result. Loosely pack your herb into your vaporiser, this will allow air to travel through it when you inhale and pick up all those tasty cannabinoids that are being released.
Butane gas powered portable vaporiser
Step 3 – Get your temperature and draw right
The range in temperature that all cannabinoids evaporate is between 157 - 220 °C. Certain compounds are released at different temperatures and will give you a different kind of hit. For example, vaping at the lower end of the temperature range will give you a more cerebral, heady high, whereas vaping at a higher temperature will give more of a body stone or ‘couch lock’. This is because THC vaporises at around 157°C – that’s the cannabinoid that feels buzzy and euphoric – the CBD evaporates between 160°C and 180°C and CBN will evaporate at 185°C – this is the compound with sedative qualities. It’s worth noting that dry herb can actually start to combust at 200 °C so it’s best to keep your temperatures below that point.
In theory, this means that you can set your vaporiser to a lower temperature and vaporise off the THC, then set it to a higher temperature to get the CBD and CBN hit, effectively using the same weed twice!
If you have a vaporiser that is suitable, you can also vape cannabis oils and extracts. This is when you’ll need to set to your vaporiser to a higher temperature – around 220°C. It’s also worth investing in a bottle of isopropanol (alcohol) to clean the oil off your vaporiser.
Covert vaporiser disguised as an inhaler!
Portable vaporisers that don’t have a temperature setting function can be controlled by the rate at which you inhale (or draw). This may take a little practice, but drawing at a slower rate will allow the vaporiser to reach a higher temperature. Draw quickly and you’ll pull more air through the vaporiser and cool it down. Try it for yourself, it works.
Step 4 - Know when to change your herb
Unlike using a bong, which hits your entire weed in one go, herb put in a vaporiser can be vaped several times. Not all of the active compounds will be evaporated in your first vape and some vaporisers can actually hold a decent amount of herb, say 0.5g. If your vaporiser has a clear screen that allows you to view the weed, you’ll want to change it when it looks brown. If it doesn’t have a screen, you’ll need to go on taste. When your starts to taste like burnt popcorn, it’s ready to be changed.
So, what are you waiting for? Get yourself down to your local head shop and get yourself a vaporiser.
Happy vaping!
S
Soft Secrets
