What are those clouds of smoke that young people are billowing out of their mouths during the day? Well, that’s vaping. That’s short for vaporizing and some of you may be new to that phenomenon. I know I was not too long ago.
Vaping is the creation of a vapor that patients can inhale and get a medicinal benefit. It’s different than smoking. We will discuss this important topic today.
Hi. I’m Dr. Dan Stein, board-certified neurologist and medical cannabis expert. We know that in the clinic, patients need to get medication the way that they feel comfortable using it.
Some people feel comfortable taking a capsule or using a cream or a patch and those methods are available for cannabis therapy. But one of the most effective ways to take cannabis therapy is to inhale it. There are two main ways to inhale cannabis therapy. The traditional way which is smoking where you light the cannabis on fire like smoking a joint or a bowl or a bong and that causes combustion of the plant material. Smoke is created and inhaled into the lungs.
The other way that you can inhale cannabis therapy is by vaporizing the cannabis plant of by vaporizing an extract of the plant, which is a form of oil usually.
Vaporizing occurs when the cannabis material is heated to a boiling point but not to the point of combustion. So there’s no burning. There’s no smoke but there is a release of the cannabinoid molecules along with other important molecules into a vapor.
It’s like the steam that rises over the top of a boiling pot of water. When that vapor is inhaled, it creates the same type of effect that smoking creates. But it’s actually much more easy on the lungs because there’s no particulate matter. You’re not inhaling burnt plant material. There’s no cellulose. There’s no chlorophyll. There’s no stems and seeds certainly. Vapor is a lot cleaner. There’s no hydrocarbons and basically no tar.
So vaporizing your cannabis products is easier on the lungs. But you have to be careful because nowadays, there is a condition called vape-induced pulmonary disease due to inhaling contaminants of the cannabis oil.
So be careful. Vaporizing can be better than smoking but you have to know what you’re vaporizing. Some patients enjoy vaporizing actual plant material by heating it up in a portable or a desktop vaporizer. Other individuals prefer to smoke.
There are chemical differences in what the body absorbs from those two different methods and we can certainly talk about that more another time. But for now, you have your own questions and you’re watching this video because perhaps you want to ask something special.
So if you are a Florida resident, permanent or seasonal, and would like to come in and ask me a question or call, I’m here. We see patients every day and we answer questions all the time. Feel free to call 941-400-1211 or email info@neurologyofcannabis.com. That’s our video for today. I’m Dr. Dan Stein. Have a great day.