The Black Market + Media Tried to Kill Vaping 🔪
Did the Vape crisis scare you away from vaporizers?
Vaping was very popular when it came to the marketplace just about the time when Cannabis was made legal. It was a way for cultivators to use the trim and the failed crops they were producing. Since legalization, testing cannabis for impurities and safety became the norm and cultivators had to adjust. If something fails for pesticides, it has to be destroyed in most states.
If a batch fails for microbiology, most states have determined that it can still be used for the production of cannabis oil. Now, I’m not trying to gross you out here, but a LOT of marijuana oils are made from crops that have failed microbiology screening. The reason they are allowed to use this raw ingredient to make oil that we all ingest is because the process to turn cannabis and hemp flower into oil uses high heat and VERY high pressure depending how you choose to do it.
The good news is that the techniques used to make these oils will kill all living microbials. More good news is that it has to be tested again AFTER the oil is made to ensure it is not contaminated.
It is with this in mind that makes the decision very easy to stay away from the black market vape pens and only purchase fully tested cartridges and oils.
Last year there were multiple reports of vape pens causing lung damage. After it was all said and done, it turned out that it was the black market products that were causing the problems. Some common additives used in the black market are in vape pens are Propylene Glycol (PG) and polyethylene glycol (PEG), which can result in exposure to harmful carcinogenic compounds when heated and inhaled. PEG, PG, and some pesticides degrade into stronger toxins at temperatures that vape pens can reach.
Numerous thinning agents and flavoring additives have been safety tested for ingestion and topical application but not for inhalation as heated compounds.
You should avoid vape oil products with PEG, PG, and other flavoring solutions that have not been properly safety tested for heating and inhaling and use a good vape battery.
So is Vaping Dead? The simple answer is no. It’s alive and well. There are tons of new batteries on the market today that heat up the cartridges so you can vaporize them. There are the standard batteries that will usually come with the first cartridge you buy and there are designer ones that look like key chains, discreet mascara vapes and even lighters.
Both are available at atomicblaze.com
According to BDS Analytics, the leader in cannabis statistics, vape products are the largest segment of the concentrates category and vape sales are growing across the country.
- 62% growth in Maryland from April to May 2020; $7.4 Million in Sales
- 115% growth in Massachusetts from April to May 2020; $5.8 Million in sales
- 29% growth in Illinois from April to May 2020; $28.4 Million is sales
- 55% growth in Nevada from April to May 2020; $10.6 Million in sales
- 9% growth in Arizona from April to May 2020; $20.3 Million in sales
- 15% growth in Oregon from April to May 2020; $14.3 Million in sales
- 11% growth in California from April to May 2020 which was $67 Million in just vape sales alone.
And that’s just vape cartridges in 7 states that BDS Analytics tracks. But cartridges aren’t the only way to vape cannabis. Lots of people are vaping flower now too. And according the BDSA flower is still the number one cannabis product sold in dispensaries. There are a lot of new devices on the market that allow you to vape your flower. Basically vaporizers heat up your cannabis or hemp flower without using fire (so there is no combustion) and some researchers say it is the healthiest way to smoke because combusting cannabis or hemp sometimes creates toxins including some carcinogens that can really mess with your respiratory system. Vaping heats the cannabis and hemp flower at a much lower temperature than fire and releases the cannabinoids and terpenes into a vapor instead of smoke, without those harmful toxins, plus you don’t have to smoke the paper!
Cannabinoids begin to vaporize at about 284°F where combustion (fire) starts at 446°F. Flower vaporizers apply heat using two different heating methods somewhere in between 284°F and some of the vaporizers on the market allow the user to make adjustments to the temperature so you can control the amount of terpenes and cannabinoids.
Vaporizers either use conductive heating or convective heating. Conductive heating works by placing the flower directly onto an electronically heated surface or container, solid metal or a screen. It acts as a hot plate of sorts and when heated to the ideal vape temperature, it directs the heat throughout the chamber and then converts the cannabinoids and terpenes into vapor. Convective heating usually made with ceramic works a little differently as the flower does not come into contact with the actual heating element. Once the air is heated to the proper temperature it is moved by either a fan or by the user inhaling and moving the heat to the component containing the cannabis or hemp flower, which in turn vaporizes the terps and cannabinoids into a vapor.
Vaping flower provides a very tasty experience because you get the actual taste of the terpenes on your first couple of hits making for a truly wonderful experience. I’ve used several different vaporizers and loved a couple of them. The Davinci IQ and IQ2 work very well and deliver a nice even draw that doesn’t burn the flower. It uses convective heating with a ceramic chamber. The one flaw in this one is that the whole thing heats up and sometimes gets too hot to hold. They do however offer a sleeve accessory they call a “glove” which I would recommend. It has an easy to use USB charger so you can surge it in your car if you want.
The other one I really like is The Vapor Cup. The VaporCup looks exactly like a “to go” coffee cup complete with a sleeve that covers up the LED window and a straw (which is actually the glass mouthpiece). The Cup uses a stainless steel heat chamber for conductive heating with a temperature range of 200ºF-420ºF. This unit has an auto-off after 18 minutes as a safety feature and The VaporCup is powered by a Lithium Ion rechargeable/replaceable battery for longer battery life.
So by the looks of things, Vaping is definitely not dead!
Did you quit vaping after the media hype or just keep enjoying the smooth, consistent hits of your favorite weed vape?
