It’s generally agreed that vaping is safer than smoking because it releases fewer toxins. And as marijuana becomes legal in an increasing number of states, you may be wondering how to vape weed. It’s a more manageable method than edibles since you can control your intake better, so let’s look at some pertinent factors involved when you’re into THC/CBD aerosols.

How to Vape Weed

Tip 1: Check for Legality

Cannabis regulations vary across the United States. In some places, you can only use medical marijuana so you need a prescription. In others, it’s legal for recreational use but you might get in trouble if you have enough to distribute. So before you start looking for the weed-laced e-liquid, make sure you can use it without getting arrested. Confirm your building policy too.

Many places have an indoor smoking ban. And that sometimes extends to vapes even if it’s not explicitly mentioned. Also, while nicotine vapes have little to no scent, weed has a very distinct aroma. You can’t hide it as easily as a flavored nicotine pen. Granted those weed aerosols dissipate faster than smoke, but you can’t disguise that fragrance from neighbors.

Tip 2: Decide on the Kind of Weed You Want to Vape

This goes beyond the THC and CBD of it all, though we’ll touch on that next. But first, decide if you want dry herb, dabs (wax concentrate), or cannabis oil. They need different devices so you have to be sure what’s compatible. At the most basic level, some gadgets work through combustion i.e. they have exposed coils that directly touch your weed to burn it into vapor.

This process produces ash, so it may release additional toxins. It’s commonly referred to as vaporizing. Other vapes work by convection, where the coil is in a separate compartment and hot air turns the weed into aerosols. This is technically safer since it doesn’t release any by-products and the used weed can be recycled. Dab pens conduct heat to melt concentrates.

Tip 3: Get the Right Weed Vaping Device

You might think it’s smarter to source your weed first. But you can probably find marijuana anywhere. Vape pens are trickier, especially for weed. You may even find vape stores that don’t have suitable marijuana vapes. And no, you can’t use a nicotine pen or flavor pen for weed. If you plan to vaporize dry herb, you need a vape that has a filter or screen on top.

This prevents spent flecks of weed from getting into your airway. Vaporizing pens can be combustion or convection. Weed pens are like vape pens without wicks or filters. They use cartridges with a built-in metal heating rod that vaporizes the weed oil. And for weed wax or dab, you need a customized dab pen to melt cannabis concentrates through conduction.

Tip 4: Find the Right Product

Weed has hundreds of natural chemicals in it, and they work together to produce various effects in your body. The two most popular ones are CBD and THC. Cannabidiol is great for pain, inflammation, anxiety, sleep, appetite, etc., but it isn’t psychotropic so it won’t change your mental state. Tetrahydrocannabinol does all the above … and it can also get you high.

Typically, you can get weed that has both THC and CBD for recreational purposes. But most medical marijuana users prefer a CBD-heavy strain. Go to a legal marijuana dispensary and try the different variants and concentrations. The staff can also recommend what works best for your needs, and they can suggest the right weed pen or dab pen if you don’t have one yet.

Tip 5: Use a Weed Cart

The simplest technique when you’re learning how to vape weed is to use a 510 cartridge. A weed cart is a small canister prefilled with weed oil, and the 510 describes the connecting threads on both the battery and the pen. Both nicotine cartridges and weed carts come in 510 so it’s easy to interchange brands. But remember, you can’t vape weed oil in an e-juice pen.

This is because the fluids have different densities and consistencies so they don’t evaporate at the same temperature. Weed pens have a much higher temperature setting to break down the carrier oil containing weed. The upside is you can use any 510 weed cart with any 510 weed pen. Otherwise, get a specific weed pen brand and buy compatible carts to go with it.

Tip 6: Try a Dry Herb Vaporizer

The pens used for weed oil are basically batteries with a threaded tip or clip. You screw in your weed cart or snap it into position. Vaporizing pens are slightly different. They might have an exposed coil that directly burns the weed (combustion) and a filter to keep weed flecks out of your lungs. Or they may have a heating chamber with a sealed coil (convection).

For best results, grind your dry herb before you pack it into the atomizer. On auto-inhale weed pens, you press a button that controls the heat setting and activates the battery. But for manual-inhale pens, breathing in triggers the battery to heat the weed in the chamber or cartridge. Also, remember that weed oil and dab are way more concentrated than dry herb.

Tip 7: Go With Disposables

When you buy a reusable weed cart pen, you’re buying a battery and an oil canister. Some carts can be refilled. Others are simply disposed when you buy a new cart. With vaporizing pens, you’ll use the same chamber for combustion or convection so you’ll have to clean it each time you add a new batch of dry herb. With disposables, you can dodge all this drama.

They look a lot like nicotine vape pens but they don’t offer cutesy flavours like California Cherry. Disposable weed pens only give you an option between THC and CBD oil, though you can mix and match percentages. After use, it’s best to pile up your disposable weed pens and drop them off at your local budtender for recycling. Way more responsible than trash cans.

Tip 8: Consider Making Your Own Weed Oil

If you’re sold on oil vs dry herb, you may end up spending a lot on weed carts. You can trim your budget significantly – pun intended – with DIY weed oil. You may already have infusion experience if you routinely cook with cannabis. And the process for making canna-butter or canna-oil can be quite drawn out. But it gives you full control over your strains and potency.

You can bake your flower on low heat, cool them, then soak them in carrier oil to infuse. Try VG, coconut, vegetable, palm, corn, or olive oils. You could also steep the weed into the oil by sealing both in a mason jar then double-boiling. Keep the temperatures in the oven or water below 100°C or 200°F. Any higher and you might degrade the weed, reducing potency.

Tip 9: Invest in a Dab Pen

Earlier, we noted that dabs are highly concentrated forms of weed wax. You can vape dabs in specially designed dab pens. Open the heating compartment to deposit your dab onto the coil. When you inhale (for manual models) or press the button (for auto models), the dab pen battery heats up the coil and melts the weed wax, releasing a vapor that you can inhale.

Apart from weed wax, you can also use a dab pen for other forms of concentrate e.g. budder, badder, shatter, etc. And since you’re consuming the concentrate as an aerosol, it won’t stick to your clothes or cling to surfaces. It still smells, but not as strongly as smoking blunts and bowls. Plus, just like nicotine vapes, the clouds will be gone in minutes. Pleasantly discreet.

Tip 10: Maintain Your Equipment

Vape pens have a maximum temperature setting of about 450°F (over 230°C). You can vary the resistance levels for classic vaping or sub-ohm vaping. In comparison, pens for weed, dab, and wax hit 700°F (over 370°C). So no, you can’t do weed oil in a vape pen or vape e-juice with a weed pen. But in both cases, the coil gets clogged with oil, ash, or flower residue.

For weed vaporizers and dab pens in particular, clean the coil aka the atomizer with cheap vodka, vinegar, or rubbing alcohol since weed comes into direct contact with the coil and gets gunky. For vaporizers, clean the filter too. For weed pens, the oil is in its own cart chamber and doesn’t touch the heat source. Clean both their threads to keep the cart and battery snug.

Is Vaping Weed Different from Vaping E-Cigarettes?

No. When you’re learning how to vape weed, the technique is the same – MTL or DTL, just like nicotine vapes. But the pens used for weed are vastly different. To vape weed, you can use a filtered vaporizing pen for dry herb, a cartridge pen for weed oil, or a dab pen for concentrate. Their heat settings are higher so they’re not interchangeable with vape devices.

Sharing is caring!