Ultimate Guide for Vaping Weed

You might be interested in vaping weed for medicinal purposes or for recreation. Your doctor might have suggested it, or you might be experimenting with alternative ways to treat some ailment, or you might simply be looking for an optimal way to relax after a hectic day at the office. There are many reasons to be interested in cannabis but they all have one thing in common: you usually end up inhaling it.

“Inhaling it”, in most cases, means smoking it. Like a typical cigarette. And that includes combustion. The main reason vaping has been rapidly pushing cigarettes into obsolescence is exactly that it doesn’t rely on combustion – which, as we now know, is very very bad for us.

Vaping is all about turning a liquid into vapor by using heat while avoiding combustion. That’s one of the most important reasons it’s considered safer. Apart from all the additives in cigarettes, the burning that turns tobacco into smoke is one of the main culprits for the carcinogenic properties of cigarettes. Inhaling smoke, either from tobacco or cannabis, can lead to inflammation of the lungs and even bronchitis. Long-term smoking has been associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

So, why burn your cannabis, like a typical cigarette of the 20th century, when you’re living in the here and now and you can vape it?

Wait, I can vape cannabis?

Vaping is mostly presented as an alternative to typical tobacco smoking. That’s probably why most people don’t realize that it’s not “a different type of cigarette designed only for nicotine” but an alternative to the whole “having to burn stuff to inhale some of its active ingredients”. It’s not (just) “another option for nicotine consumption” but the swapping of burning with the vaporization of… Well, that’s where it gets a bit more complicated than “simple” vaping.

“Typical” vaping, when we’re talking about nicotine, in most cases refers to the vaporization of “juices”. Liquids made from a combination of Propylene Glycol, Vegetable Glycerine, Nicotine, and flavorings. And, in some cases, distilled water. Vaping cannabis, though, can refer to both the vaporization of a similar liquid, but with CBD and/or THC (where legal) instead of nicotine as its “primary ingredient”, or of solids or wax. And each option also needs different gear and a somewhat different approach.

Different types of vapes for weed

Let’s take things from the beginning. Cannabis originally comes in the form of plant leaves. You can crumble them, put them in a rolling paper, add some tobacco if you like, turn them into a cigarette and smoke it. That’s how people have been doing it for eons. That way you don’t deviate from the original form of cannabis in nature. Apart from the whole crumbling and burning it to turn it into smoke, that is. As it is, it can be considered “a solid”.

For something different, more “advanced” and arguably better, some people turn to waxes. No, nothing to do with shoe polish or candle making. Cannabis can be mutated from its plant form into a wax-like substance. It is, obviously, different than its original form, but it still remains “solid-y” and is mostly used in the same ways (aka: smoked). Mostly. We’ll get to that later.

Finally, you can find cannabis in liquid, “oil” form. There are different processes through which the active elements of cannabis can be extracted, transfigured to liquid form. The result is usually found as Hemp Oil. This was usually used “to give a cannabis twist to a normal cigarette”, with the user wetting a tobacco cigarette with some drops of Hemp Oil. Nowadays it’s what most people vaping cannabis know as the main ingredient of their juices. If you’re interested in cannabis in its liquid form, you could try to morph it yourself from plant form to liquid. Even the easiest procedure of doing that is somewhat complicated, though, takes time and wouldn’t probably be successful until you’ve tried it out a few times. For those reasons, we think it’s better if you start with a commercially available product, like the Hemp Bomb lines od CBD Oils we’ve reviewed right here. If you have nearby recreational or medical marijuana dispensaries, then you can swing by and purchase legal THC oil. 

Different gear for different needs

Just like you can vaporize different “materials”, liquids, waxes, or solids, you also have different options on how to vaporize them. Or, rather, you’ll have to pair the optimal method of vaporization with the material you’re going to be using. Yes, that means that there are different types of vaporization, each following a different approach than the other, each better tailored to a specific type of “material”.

This makes it almost impossible to use two different kinds of materials with the same gear, forcing you to make a decision – and be sure about it – before buying an expensive vaporizer. An even simpler way to explain it would be “no, you (probably) can’t use liquids in an atomizer for solids, or wax in an atomizer made for liquids”. And, to explain the “probably” in the parenthesis, we should add a “well, up to a point, it depends on the atomizer”.

Wait, I’m already a vaper, can I use my existing equipment for marijuana?

Yes and no. When you say “I’m probably a vaper” you probably mean that you’re using either an All-In-One (AIO) kit, like a Joyetech eGo, or a pair of a box mod and an atomizer, like a Smoant Charon mod with a Dead Rabbit RDA. Using them to vaporize some kind of “juice”. In liquid form. Quite different from waxes or solids. If your cannabis is in liquid form, there’s nothing stopping you from vaping it in that kind of “kit“.

It would be better, though, instead of vaping it as it is, to first try only adding some drops in some e-juice you’re already vaping. Your cannabis liquid might be too strong to vape on its own. Since this kind of equipment is designed for vaping liquids, you can’t vape cannabis in wax or solid form with it. Those forms need different equipment.

Your DNA-powered squonker might be awesome for getting your cinnamon cookies – flavored nicotine fix, but it simply can’t do what a device like the PAX 3  will offer you. Tailored for dual dry herb and extract use, more than sixty temperature settings, vibration notifications, and more fine-tuned control when communicating through Bluetooth with its smartphone app, the PAX is one of the most high-end experiences for anyone interested in vaping cannabis. Note that we don’t mean that DNA-based mods are bad when compared with the PAX. It’s like comparing apples to oranges, like wondering if a Vespa would be enough when moving house (hint: it’s not). One is best for vaporizing nicotine-based liquids. The other for dry herbs and concentrates, translating primarily to cannabis. Twin worlds, but worlds apart.

But a friend of mine *does* vape nicotine and cannabis with the same gear!

OK, we lied: you *can* use your DNA-powered mod for vaping solids and wax. Or any other regulated or, even better, Temperature Control – supporting mod. What you need for this is a specialized Dry Herb / Wax atomizer, you can screw on your mods 510 connectors instead of your typical one. But you’ll probably find the experience far from optimal. This type of atomizer isn’t something ultra-advanced, bringing missing features and “proper” herb/wax support to your usual box mod.

Quite the opposite, since in most cases they work simply like this: instead of having a small, swirly metal coil, wrapped around some wick, they’ve got a metal or ceramic coil either shaped like a bowl or in contact with one (so as to heat it up). You place the dry herb or wax in them and then… Well… That’s the problem: the fiddling. There’s no definitive guide on how to “tune” such a setup for vaping cannabis in solid or wax form. Too low settings will lead to a subpar experience. Too high and you’ll scorch your materials. And when you find the middle ground, after lots of trial and error, you realize you might have destroyed your coil. And need to replace it. And start hunting for never-to-be-found replacements on every online and offline retailer you might have heard about.

Temperature Control also helps in that you can tune-in a low temperature and increase it step by step until you find a sweet spot where you have vaporization without scorching. The ability of a TC-supporting mod to “lock” a specific temperature means your coils won’t go higher, like when using a “simple” Wattage / Power mode, offering a better end result. Of course, that holds *if* the coils for the atomizer you bought *also* support TC. And that’s not always the case.

If you just want to try the experience of vaping cannabis, though, and you’ve already got a mod for vaping liquids, The Price Is Right for such atomizers can usually be found for around $20. A search for dry herb vaporizers on popular Chinese online shops will show you results from companies like Longmada or Seego, that won’t give the PAX a run for its money but are worth their (relatively low) cost. It’s for the best if you treat this kind of “add-ons” to your existing mod as more of a “demo”, a “sampler taste” and not something you’ll end up using in the long run. Most people who start with such gear find themselves upgrading to higher-grade, specialized equipment sometime later. To something like Storz & Bickel’s Mighty vaporizer.

What are the effects of vaping weed?

The effects of vaporized cannabis can be different depending on not only its variant but also the temperature used for its vaporization. Higher temps will give you more energetic “highs” and lower the opposite, help you calm after a busy day.

It’s also worth keeping in mind when traveling, that the use of cannabis is still considered illegal in some states and most countries. Even though CBD oils (the type that contains no THC) are completely legal in the United States, they are still illegal in most of the world. Make sure it’s allowed wherever you are before you start clouding the room. If not, restrict yourself to vaping in private, if unable to postpone it all together for a while. You could try “camouflaging” the very nature of the juice you’re using by adding different flavors to the mix, but keep in mind that the cannabis smell is strong and easily recognizable by lots of people, even if mixed with bananas. Plus, that wouldn’t auto-magically turn your juice “legal” if it’s considered the opposite where you are.

Lastly, if you want to avoid inhaling anything into your lungs altogether, there’s always an alternative: you can eat some edibles.