Not all marijuana vape pens are the same. They’re one of the greatest new inventions toys for smoking herb – discreet, compact, easy to use, and efficient. But shopping for a vape pen isn’t easy if you’re not a big fan of following all the latest tech. There are a lot of options on the market, including disposable vape pens, separate batteries and cartridges, and a ton of oil cartridges available.
With dispensaries booming, and vaping the rage, you still have little access to cannabis oil-filled vape pens. Neither do you have competent help when shopping for one. Many at this time are buying via the black market – buyer beware. Some of the language used even confuses me still. So, here is a helpful shopping guide to help you navigate buying a weed vape pen.
Do you want to vape flower or concentrate?
There are two types of vaporizer options: you can vaporize a concentrate like cannabis oil, or you can vaporize straight up flower. If you want to the benefit of whole flower cannabis, opt for a conduction vaporizer like the pocket-size Pax or the larger Volcano. Forget about having to grind it up and roll a joint: you merely put your bud in a compartment and smoke the vapor from the heated up flower. If you prefer not to handle the plant material at all and want something easier like a pen, go for the oil cartridge vaporizers.
Do you want to regulate your dose?
Sometimes it can be difficult to tell how much THC or CBD or other cannabinoids you’re getting per puff. If you pull longer on the pen, take a deeper inhale, or hold it in your lungs for a longer amount of time, you’ll be getting variable amounts of cannabinoids. If you’d rather regulate your dose, opt for a pen like hmbldt — the disposable pens, named after the effects like “bliss,” “sleep,” or “arouse,” will buzz and won’t let you continue to pull on the vape after you hit a certain dose of 2.25 milligrams.
Be picky with batteries, oil cartridges, and disposable pens — they’re not all good for you
If you’re buying a cartridge, make sure it has a ceramic core and is made from stainless steel. Don’t buy one that’s made from plastic or low grade wire — it’s bad for your health. Also be sure that your vape oil is free of polyethylene glycol or PEG, a known carcinogen, or propylene glycol, which can cause sore throat, muscle pain, or strong smelling urine. And be sure that the terpenes, or aromatic chemicals, added back into the concentrate are from cannabis or some other organic source.
Buy a low-voltage battery with adjustable temperature settings.
Preliminary studies suggest that the hotter your vape battery gets, the more carcinogens you may be inhaling. Look for vape pen batteries that pack less of an electric punch, and don’t take long inhales that cause the electric coil inside a pen to get super hot.
Read the packaging and make sure your cannabis oil is free of pesticides
There’s little regulation around vapes. Often times, vape oil is made from bottom of the barrell cannabis that’s been sprayed with pesticides — and when extracted into a concentrate, those pesticides toxins get concentrated, too. Be sure your product is lab tested, so as not to defeat the purpose of using it for wellness.
Look for oil that is the consistency of honey.
Shopping in an unregulated market for hash oil with the right thickness can be frustrating. Like Goldilocks, you’re looking for something that is not too thick and sticky and not too thin – somewhere in the middle.
Thick or viscous oil likely retains the cannabis plant’s chlorophyll and cuticle waxes – which are not things you want to be vaping. But on the other hand, oil that looks more like liquid has almost certainly been mixed with synthetic flavorings or cutting agents like propylene glycol and polyethylene glycol. Many of these additives degrade into nasty carcinogens.
Trust your taste buds.
When it comes to flavor, your tongue is already primed to pick up on some of the yucky chemicals that you shouldn’t be consuming. “If it tastes really gross, it might be formaldehyde,” Marcu says. Generally, if something tastes bad, you probably shouldn’t be vaping it.
Unfortunately, clean cannabis oil might not actually taste like cannabis. Many companies now add synthetic versions of the same organic compounds found in cannabis to their hash oil in the hopes that it will remind stoners of the pot they already know and love. However, not all these additives are healthy so read the label.
Basically it’s still a crap-shoot when buying oils, and herb vape pens. You’re entering a brave new world, that is largely untested regarding the long-term effects. If you’re not comfortable with these issues, perhaps the best thing is to simply roll a fatty with some local herb and just go old school…but who am I to say.
