"Smoking Marijuana vs. Using a Cannabis Vaporizer"
There are many ways
people inhale marijuana.
Most people smoke it either in a bowl,
pipe, joint, or bong.
This is concerning, since in some ways
smoke is smoke, and using a bong
doesn’t help in terms of the tar exposure;
where there’s fire there’s smoke,
and where there’s smoke there’s
inflammatory irritants.
In fact, the regular smoking of cannabis
is associated with the kind of
airway inflammation you see in the
lungs of cigarette smokers,
which can result in prolonged respiratory symptoms,
such as chronic coughing,
excess sputum production,
wheezing, and shortness of breath,
as well as an increased incidence of
bronchitis and other respiratory infections.
In many ways, smoke is smoke,
whether it’s from burning plants in a forest fire
or burning plants in a joint or cigarette.
There are harmful by-products
of combustion—any combustion—
like carbon monoxide.
In fact, you get five times more
carbon monoxide per puff
in cannabis than tobacco,
since pot smokers inhale more deeply
and then hold the smoke in.
Now, you can avoid that completely
by eating cannabis instead,
but the slow, erratic drug absorption
doesn’t give the same kind
of immediate high.
Inhaling cannabis vapor, however,
could potentially offer the
best of both worlds,
giving the same kind of high
in terms of subjective ratings
compared to smoking it,
but with significantly less
carbon monoxide exposure.
So, similar effects with fewer
toxic by-products,
though not necessarily all
toxic by-products.
Both cannabis smoke and just vapor
can evidently contain
high concentrations of ammonia,
and sometimes, vapor can be
even worse.
So, yeah, vapor has less tar,
but may have more ammonia.
This was with a direct heat vaporizer,
the so-called Blue Meanie.
Using a hot air vaporizer,
like the Volcano brand,
results in ammonia levels in your
bloodstream more comparable
to smoking it.
But, the only reason we care
about contaminants is we're trying
to cut down on the inflammation.
Does cannabis vapor produce fewer
respiratory symptoms than smoke?
According to this study,
the first of its kind, yes.
Now, vaporizing doesn’t help
with dependence issues,
or impaired driving,
or brain damage among heavy
adolescent users,
but may improve cannabis drug safety
by minimizing lung troubles.
They conclude that regular users
of joints, blunts, pipes,
and water pipes might decrease
respiratory symptoms by switching
to a vaporizer, but this was just
based on a snapshot-in-time
internet survey asking people
about their symptoms.
You don’t know for sure until you…
put it to the test.
In a study funded by a
pro-legalization group, they recognized
that respiratory symptoms are
a stumbling block in their efforts,
so suggest that inhaling cannabis vapor
rather than smoke might minimize
respiratory complaints.
So, they had 20 frequent cannabis smokers
with respiratory symptoms switch over
to using a vaporizer instead
for a month.
And, those that didn’t happen to fall
ill with a respiratory illness
during that period experienced
a significant improvement
in their respiratory symptoms.
But, wait a second,
8 out of 20?
40%—got a respiratory illness
within a single month?
That doesn’t sound good.
And, indeed, it’s something they noted.
Additionally, the self-reported
improvements may have been tinged
with bias, as smokers might think
such results might be good for the cause.
This may backfire though,
as there are calls in the
medical literature to just
legalize smokeless forms,
or at least set it up so that
smoked marijuana is more
heavily taxed or something.