Well, as you all know, we here at the Healthy Toker only enjoy one thing more than a good bowl of some high grade ganj, and that’s a good bowl of high grade ganj that doesn’t require us to inhale smoke.  Nothing revolutionary in this post, just some quick thoughts on alternatives to the usual flame to bud technique.

Vaporization -  The great thing about Vaporization is you get all the effects of smoking marijuana, including the fast high, with out the smoke.  The downside is vaporizers can be a little expensive in general.  Keep an eye peeled as we intend to eventually roll out comprehensive reviews on devices and vendors, but we’re still in the research process. The way a Vaporizer works, (especially a well made one, as
opposed to the one you tried to rig out of a soldering iron or light bulb using some random “how to” guide from Google) is that it heats up the cannabis to around 365-405 degrees farenheit.  At this temperature, THC will vaporize, but the plant its self does not catch fire.  What winds up happening is all of the THC (what we’re all after) is vaporized into a steam like substance that hits smooth and clean, and contains no smoke at all.  That’s right, no smoke, no carcinogens, no lung filling tar, just gaseous THC to get you stoned.  What’s more is, there’s little to no loss from combustion, which is a usual after effect of the tried and true fire and smoke method.  The big difference between a home made vaporizer and a retail one is the controls for the temperature.  Most home rigs will require you to keep an eye on the vaporizer and remove your heat source before it gets too hot, as opposed to the retail jobs that you simply turn on and control themselves with a thermostat.  Though some that are out there will still require user attention, such as the convenient, portable, Ubie.  The point is, vapor is healthier than smoke, and less wasteful, and being the green friendly guys we are at Healthy Toker, there’s no better solution.

Cooking – Now, cooking is something most of us have heard of, and probably tried.  It basically boils down to bonding the THC with a saturated fat (commonly done by simmering in butter) and then using said saturated fat in a recipe.  The upside is, you can get stoned from anything you’re willing to put butter on.  It’s great for taking pot treats out in public.  Once, I worked at a convenience store, and had a friend who regularly baked cookies and brownies.  She’d often give them to me back then.  I can’t tell you how many nights I stood at the counter, ringing people up, on the security cameras, reaching into my smock and grabbing a cookie from the bag I kept in my pocket.  It filled me with a strange delight to know that I was, in fact, getting stoned off my ass in front of strangers and regulars, cops and crooks, and even the man’s camera, but none was the wiser.  It made the end of my shift in the cooler more fun, too.  The downside is, saturated fat is fat.  If you really want to eat all your bud, you better figure out some ways to counteract the fat intake, like exercise and diet controls.  We’ll look into suggestions along these lines in later posts.

The Magnifying Glass – Now, when Healthy first mentioned this idea to me, part of me laughed.  After all, if you’re inhaling smoke, why worry about a little butane?  But after pondering our site, and its goal, I realized that some people might not have the means or ability to find a healthier alternative to inhaling the smoke, in which case, shouldn’t we at least try to suggest one way (if not more, presuming we can come up with them in this haze we lounge so often in) to help reduce the health risks when smoking?  Well, this idea is simple.  You skip the butane, you skip the phospherous of a match, and instead, you park yourself in a well lit area where you wont be disturbed and bust out a trusty magnifying glass to create a mini heat ray you can use to spark your bowl (this will work better if you have a bowl designed to keep the burning material burning, such as a ceramic bowl or something) or joint.   Sure it sounds geeky, sure its probably less practical than the previously mentioned Ubie, but it’s a lot better than when you used to sit in the yard frying ants with the magnifying glass, instead of getting your self fried.

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