lets talk marijuana economics

The best vaporizer temperature for marijuana/thc vaporization is approximately 365°F (185°C), but is better thought of as a range between 355°-385°F (180°-195°C). The quality of your herbs and the type of vaporizer you're using have a big effect on what temp setting you should use.

As you increase the vaporization temperature past certain thresholds the various terpenoids found in cannabis are released. This is why your vapor will taste different when vaped at 350° than it does at 385°. My recommendation is to experiment yourself to find what temps suit you best. Start out low and slowly increase the temperature until you reach your desired level of strength and flavor.

The Volcano Vaporizer (my personal fave) is best set at about 6 on the dial, or roughly 374°F (190°C). When you factor in the temp flux of the heating element (+/- 9°F) your actual vape temps will be between 365°-383°F (185°-195°C) as it cycles on and off. The digital model is slightly more precise with a flux of only 2.7°F. Lately I've been experimenting with increasing the temperature past 6 after the first balloon, but it's all personal preference so see what works best for you.

Even Willie Nelson vapes now:

?I?ve changed my habits a little bit. I?ve smoked so much and I got congestion from it, wheezing in the night and coughing. So I switched over to a vaporizer. You don?t get any smoke, and you don?t get any heat. And for a singer, or someone?s lungs, it?s much, much healthier. There?s pot in the vaporizer, but when you puff it in, you?re getting vapors, but not heat and not smoke. I think it?s even stronger, too.?

Some friends of mine got together and bought a vaporizer. They have smoked off of it for a week, and the reaction towards it has varied from "I hate it, it doesnt get me high" to "Wow... this is the highest I've ever been in my life." So they got together to talk about their experiences with using a vaporizer and have come up with a few observations.

The things that they found to be true should be similar for any high-end vaporizer. I would recommend against using any vaporizer that costs less than 300 dollars, namely because these vaporizers often use substitute parts that can be hazardous to your health, such as plastics that release toxic fumes, and often have little control of temperature, sometimes releasing tars in the process.

- Weed will seem to last up to four times as long. You can buy a gram or a gram and a half and get a whole group of people high. None of my friends were ever able to successfully finish a full bowl off of the volcano to themselves, they simply got too high to keep going. It's funny to see a group of people slowly just shake their head when a bag off of a volcano vaporizer is passed to them, refusing to let themselves get more stoned.

- Vaporized weed tastes GREAT! Stems and seeds turn into schwag, schwag turns into KB, KB turns into chronic, and chronic... well, there is no name for the way it tastes whenever you vaporize it.

- Vaporized weed smells very little. The smell is there, and noticeable, for all of 2 minutes.

- The vaporizer high is VERY different from the smoking high. The vaporizer high seems to ignore couch lock and allows you to function, albeit it will still leave you stoned and happy, possibly more stoned and happy than you've ever been. Its a very energetic brain-buzz.

- The vaporizer high DURATION seems to be shorter than the smoking high duration. This may be because smoking is done over a longer period of time, but people complain about not being able to get high for as long as they can on a joint or a blunt.

- Cigarette smokers seem to crave cigarettes VERY heavily after smoking out of the volcano. We are not sure why this is.

If you have some comments on my friends' observations, please go ahead and let them out. Feel free to also add your own friends' observations.

The high from a vaporizer is mostly THC. This is the quality to which SWIM attributes the "clear, clean" high from a volcano, unlike when normally smoking, which adds in many other cannabinoids which, though fun, can cause mild sedation/laziness

There are a few reasons for lost THC in combustion-based ingestion, one of which is in fact the destruction of THC via pyrolysis which yield up to 100 different chemicals. A major portion lost, especially in joints is due to slipstream smoke. For glass, adhesion is a primary loss factor.

Some numbers*
Efficiency of:

Unfiltered joint:
1/13 Cannabanoid/Tar
~20% THC in sample
Single Percolation Waterpipe or Bong:
1/16.9 C/T
Small waterpipe ~25%, Bong ~15% of THC in sample
Filtered joint:
1/16.9 C/T
~20% of sample
Hotplate Vaporizer:
1/9.75 C/T
~10% of sample
Modern Hot Air Vaporizer:
~9/1 C/T
~60% of THC in sample

Notable difference between vaporizer and combustion-based methods: Due to prolonged exposure and reduced pyrolysis, THC oxidizes to CBN and CBD at a much higher than usual rate, resulting in a less psychoactive smoke, with more physically stimulating components. Thus, more of a "stoney" inebriation results from a vaporizer.

CBN (Cannabinol) and CBD (Cannabidol) are the oxidized analogues of THC. They are non-psychoactive as in have no impact on neurological functions but rather stimulate physical receptors as opposed to psychologically active receptors. This does not mean that the smoke is less inebriating, but that the intoxication is physical rather than psychological.

CBN and CBD ingestion results in physical analgesia and pleasure, as well as other physical stimulations commonly associated with a 'stoney' high as opposed to a 'giddy' high. These analogues are also employed in pain-management based medicinal marijuana.

Simply put, there will be less giggles, and more 'chill-time'. This degradation is not only a process caused by heat and heat-based decarboxylization (as well as decarb. in the stomach), but also a natural trait of production that varies between strains.

Indica dominant strains (Kushs) have higher CBN and CBD contents, while Sativa dominant strains have higher THC v. CBN/CBD contents. Kafiristanica, or "diesel" strains have an even higher THC content with a remarkably low CBN/CBD component, resulting in an almost entirely psychoactive intoxication with little to no physical action.

Vaporization is a technique for avoiding irritating respiratory toxins in marijuana smoke by heating cannabis to a temperature where the psychoactive ingredients evaporate without causing combustion.

Laboratory studies by California NORML and MAPS have found that vaporizers can efficiently deliver cannabinoids while eliminating or drastically reducing other smoke toxins.

Like tobacco, marijuana smoke contains toxins that are known to be hazardous to the respiratory system. Among them are the highly carcinogenic polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, a prime suspect in cigarette-related cancers.

These toxins are essentially a byproduct of combustion, separate from the pharmaceutically active components of marijuana, known as cannabinoids, which include THC.

Although there is no proof that marijuana smoking causes cancer, chronic pot smokers have been shown to suffer an elevated risk of bronchitis and respiratory infections. Respiratory disease due to smoking may therefore rightly be regarded as the primary physiological hazard of marijuana.

Cannabis vaporizers are designed to let users inhale active cannabinoids while avoiding harmful smoke toxins. They do so by heating cannabis to a temperature of 180 - 200° C (356° - 392° F), just below the point of combustion where smoke is produced.

At this point, THC and other medically active cannabinoids are emitted with little or none of the carcinogenic tars and noxious gases found in smoke. Many medical marijuana patients who find smoked marijuana highly irritating report effective relief inhaling through vaporizers.

Users who are concerned about the respiratory hazards of smoking are strongly advised to use vaporizers. Alternative devices, such as waterpipes, have been shown to be ineffective at reducing the tars in marijuana smoke

December 2013 - Spurred by growing reports of the medical efficacy of cannabidiol (CBD), the second leading active ingredient in marijuana, patients are increasingly seeking out high-CBD varieties for treatment of conditions ranging from severe epilepsy and multiple sclerosis to anxiety and cancer pain.

CBD has long been overshadowed by delta-9-THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), the primary active ingredient in marijuana, because unlike THC, it does not produce a psychoactive ?high.? CBD has nonetheless long been known to have useful anti-spasmodic, anti-epileptic, anti-anxiety, and anti-psychotic properties.

Although CBD lacks noticeable effects when taken alone, it has a calming, sedative effect when combined with THC, cutting down on the anxiety, paranoia, and memory impairment that many users find unpleasant or debilitating with regular marijuana. CBD-rich strains accordingly have particular appeal to older users and medical patients who are uncomfortable with the THC high.

Public interest in CBD was aroused by a recent CNN report on medical marijuana by Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Previously a skeptic on medical marijuana, Dr. Gupta admitted to having been ?brainwashed? by government propaganda.

Gupta featured the story of a 5-year-old girl, Charlotte Figi, who suffered continual epileptic seizures from a rare disease known as Dravet?s syndrome. Conventional treatment having failed, Charlotte?s condition dramatically improved after she was treated orally with an extract of CBD-rich cannabis.