Is There a Best Way To Consume Cannabis?

What’s the best way to consume cannabis?

Is There a "Best" Way to Ingest Cannabis? (Smoke, Vape, Tinctures, Edibles, etc) from CannabisNet on Vimeo.

The other day I wrote an article about smoking cannabis versus vaping cannabis – which one is better? While most people agreed that vaping does have less of a toll on the body, there were some people who claimed that the article was “bullshit”.

Now, I won’t dive into the details about why vaping is a healthier alternative to smoking, but today I want to focus on the best ways to consume cannabis.

Before I continue however, note that any way you choose to consume cannabis is the “best way”. There are no set of rules that dictate that cannabis should be consumed in one particular way – this despite that certain lawmakers in Colorado wants to introduce a universal cannabis dispensing device.

There are different ways to consume cannabis – the real question we should ask is, “which is the right way for YOU!”

The Different Ways You Can Consume Cannabis

First, let’s quickly take a look at the most common ways of consuming cannabis.

Smoking it – The first most common method of consuming cannabis is smoking it. You can smoke it in a pipe, bong, joint, blunt or even an apple. The heat releases the THC into the smoke, you inhale it and get high. The problem with smoking weed however is that you burn off a lot of beneficial compounds, terpenes and so forth. You do get a concentrated dose of THC, but you’re not getting the full effect of the plant.

Vaping it – Vaporizing your cannabis will heat the plant up but will never reach combustion. Vaping at different temperatures will activate different chemicals within the plant. Also, considering that it doesn’t burn, you get to ‘vape’ it for longer. In a typical pipe, you would get roughly 3-5 tokes per bowl. With a vaped bowl, you could easily get 10-15 tokes per bowl. You also preserve more of the beneficial compounds lost when burning the plant material.

Eating it – Edibles are a huge part of the cannabis marketplace and for good reason. Not only do you get way higher eating weed than smoking/vaping it, it lasts a lot longer too. The reason why edibles get you higher is because when you eat weed, your body converts the THCa into Delta-11 THC, as opposed to Delta-9 THC [smoked]. The THC slowly disperses all over your body and gradually wears off. Depending on your dose, you could easily be high off an edible for 8-10hrs.

Concentrates – With Concentrates, you are essentially “vaping”, however there is absolutely no plant matter involved. As the name suggests, concentrates are extracts of the essential oils of the cannabis plant. Using a rig or some vaping device equipped for concentrates, you simply heat up the oils and inhale the vapor. Concentrates can deliver extremely high doses of THC with some concentrates reaching 90% THC purity. The taste is also completely different from smoking it and personally, I also feel a different effect. In my personal experience I’m a bit more ‘agile’ as compared to smoking weed.

Topicals – Another category often forgotten with cannabis are topicals. These are usually used within a medical setting, but the way this works is that the topical can be in the form of a lotion with activated THC in it, or an epidermal patch. Your skin absorbs the cannabis. This won’t make you high, but if you’ve got some part of your body hurting…cannabis topicals is the way to go!

Juicing – Many people also opt in to consume cannabis raw, without activating the THC. Juicing fresh cannabis provides you with the full cannabinoid experience. It won’t get you high, but you’ll be consuming 100% of what the cannabis plant has to offer. This, in my opinion, is a dietary necessity. Everybody should be juicing raw cannabis every morning.

Which is the best way for you?

In terms of the “best way”, you have to consider the effects of each method. What is your objective with cannabis?

If you just want to get high, then smoking or vaping it is probably your best option. Smoking/Vaping is the quickest method of feeling euphoric with cannabis. Overtime, as you build up tolerance to the plant, you can become quite efficient at measuring your doses to remain functional while benefitting from the effects of the quick release of cannabis.

If you need it for a medical condition, then you’d probably not want to smoke it. For quick relief, you’d be better off with vaping extracts. This would give you a high dose of THC and almost immediately activate the side-effects. For longer lasting effects, you’re going to want to eat it. Also, juicing it would definitely not be a bad idea and eating cannabis oils every day would also help.

If you want to be healthy, then the best way for you would be to juice it. You could also be using topicals for any injuries sustained during your physical activities [assuming ‘healthy’ would require some sort of physical discipline to sustain]. You don’t have to get ‘high’ to benefit from the cannabis plant.

In the end, you have to find YOUR best method of consumption. It comes down to objectives, desired side-effects catered to your own personal life style. Understand ‘what you want’ from the cannabis plant will dictate the best approach to achieve your goals.