It’s a bit of a different feeling. When vaporizing, the THC is absorbed through the lungs, whereas when eating an edible, the THC must first pass through the liver before crossing into the bloodstream. Smoking weed is nice because it’s fast acting and you can feel it almost instantly, but edibles work well for people who have really high tolerances to weed or for those who are looking for a more relaxing effect.
With smoking/vaporizing, you inhale the cannabinoids and they enter your bloodstream quickly through your lungs. The effects are felt within a few minutes and typically last 3-4 hours.
With eating edibles, it takes longer to feel the effects because digestion must occur first. The THC passes through your stomach and then gets processed in your liver where it turns into 11-Hydroxy-THC which is a more potent version of THC (has a higher affinity for cannabinoid receptors). It can take up to 2 hours to feel the effects of an edible and these effects can last 6-8 hours.
It’s often recommended that if you’re going to try edibles for the first time, start with just 1/4 or even 1/8 of whatever you’re planning on eating so that you don’t eat too much at once.
So the biggest difference between edibles and vaping is how long it takes for you to feel the effects. With edibles, you’ll start to feel high about an hour after eating. With vaping, it’s almost immediate. It’s also easier to control the amount of THC you get with vaping.
Regardless of whether you vape or eat your cannabis, there are many ways to make sure your experience is enjoyable and safe. Know your limits and go slow. Start with a low dose, such as 5 milligrams, and wait at least 2 hours before trying more. A little bit of cannabis can go a long way? Be cautious when sharing or trying out new products, especially if you don’t know what’s in them or how much THC they contain.
A study published in the journal Addiction in March 2018 finds that cannabis edibles and vaping products can be differentiated by the different responses they elicit. The researchers conducted a survey of 1,000 cannabis users, 500 of whom vaped and 500 who ate edibles.
In general, those who used edibles reported more anti-social effects, such as anxiety, paranoia and distorted sensory perceptions. In contrast, vaping was associated with social effects such as increased sociability and talkativeness.
The study’s authors suggest that these differences may be related to the different ways in which THC Edibles and THC vapor are absorbed by the body. THC is absorbed through the stomach when ingested orally but through the lungs when inhaled.
If you’ve ever eaten a weed edible, you’ve been through the five stages of a weed edible trip.
- Stage 1:
“This can’t possibly be working.”
- Stage 2:
“Oh yeah, it’s definitely working.”
- Stage 3:
“I’m definitely stoned and there’s nothing I can do about it.”
- Stage 4:
“I just have to ride this wave until the high wears off, which will probably be about six hours from now.”
- And finally, the last stage is acceptance.
If you don’t want to go through all five of those stages every time you smoke, then maybe it’s time to try vaping weed. Vaping THC is gaining popularity as an alternative to smoking weed. It’s convenient because you can vape pretty much anywhere since it doesn’t create a strong odor like traditional smoking methods. Plus, many people find vaping to be more discreet and less noticeable than smoking flower (buds), which can make for an easier social experience overall.
There are two ways to vape THC: with a vaporizer pen that uses a cannabis concentrate like wax or oil, or with a dry herb vaporizer that uses flowers (buds) or ground-up bud. Both devices work by heating up your cannabis without burning it, which releases active compounds.
With the new popularity of cannabis (legally or illegally) comes a new way of consuming it – vaping. What exactly is vaping, what’s the difference between vaping and smoking, and how does ingesting cannabis compare?
Vaping simply means using a vaporizer to “vape” out the chemicals from cannabis. Vaporizers are devices that heat the cannabis just enough that it releases the active ingredients without burning them. This avoids creating any smoke in the process, which is much more harmful than vapor. In contrast, smoking involves burning the cannabis and inhaling it in as smoke. Ingesting cannabis means eating or drinking products containing cannabinoids such as THC or CBD, which are usually extracted from the plant and formulated as oils, edibles, tinctures, capsules or beverages.
The main difference between vaping and smoking is that when you vape, you avoid releasing carcinogens and toxins associated with smoking into your body. Research shows that while vaporizing reduces exposure to harmful toxins by 95% compared to smoking, ingesting eliminates them completely! However, vaporization has a much higher bioavailability than ingesting – meaning that more THC Edibles your vapor enters your bloodstream than if you were to ingest it. In fact, only about 4-12% of ingested cannabinoids enter your bloodstream.
There are many ways to consume cannabis, but three of the most popular methods are vaping, smoking, and ingesting. Each has its own pros and cons depending on the user’s preferences.
When smoking cannabis, the heat from the flame causes combustion. This means that as you’re inhaling through a joint, pipe or bong, you’re also inhaling ash and tar into your lungs. Inhaling these substances can cause damage to lung tissue and airways, which can lead to an increased risk of respiratory infections, asthma attacks, chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Some studies have even found a link between smoking cannabis and developing lung cancer.
Luckily there’s an alternative method of consuming cannabis that offers all the benefits without the risks: vaping. Vaping involves heating cannabis oil at low temperatures until it turns into a vapor that you then inhale through a vape pen or similar device. This process doesn’t combust the plant matter, so it does not release any ash or tar into your lungs.
There’s also a third method for consuming cannabis: eating it. You’ve probably heard of edibles like weed brownies before, but there are other ways to eat or drink your pot too — for example in the form of weed gummy bears.
