Teens discover the advantages of scentless cannabis vaping
It’s a distinctive smell. Some describe it as skunky, others pick up an earthier tone. Whatever the scent associated with marijuana once was, times are a changin’.
In the age of vaping, the act of heating a liquid which generates an aerosol, or “vapor” inhaled by the user, cannabis fans have found a way to ingest weed without the distinguishing smell that turns heads all the way down the block.
For adults, vaping can be a discreet way of getting high, but for teenagers it can make smoking weed a whole lot easier to get away with. The trend is catching the attention of big tobacco, high school administrators, health institutions and teenagers across the United States.
A report by the California Department of Public Health shows more than a quarter of California high school students who have used an electronic smoking device or vape used it with some form of cannabis.
Why vape over smoke?
While the days of smoking cannabis flower, or the typical weed found in a joint or bong, are not over, there is a definite difference in the ways of ingesting cannabis today.
Eli Melrod is the chief executive officer at Solful, a Sebastopol cannabis dispensary focused on quality of product. He said vaping is an ongoing, everyday part of conversation in the cannabis world.
“Everybody has heard of vaping, but a lot of people don’t know what it is,” he said. “It’s like this elusive thing.”
While visiting community organizations and talking about cannabis, Melrod breaks down vaping on a basic level.
“By definition vaping is essentially heating the flower or the oil to a temperature where it activates the cannabinoids and the terpenes and turns them into a vapor without actually combusting,” he said.
Vaping can be a better option for adults who want to use inhalation as the cannabis delivery method. When smoking a joint or using a pipe to inhale cannabis Melrod said, “you’re getting burnt plant matter in addition to the cannabinoids and all the things you want to ingest and so for some people if they have compromised immune systems, it can be irritating or unpleasant.”
Following a national trend, Solful has seen an explosion in vaping product sales. Melrod said when Solful opened in 2017 about 35% of sales were cannabis flower and 20% were vape cartridges.
“We now sale 25% vape cartridges and 25% flower,” he said. “One out of every four dollars spent at Solful is on vape cartridges.”
The vape cartridges hold cannabis concentrates. In plain terms it can be viewed as liquid weed or a concentrated form of the cannabis flower.
“You’re essentially taking the flower and amplifying it,” Melrod said.
The liquid form leads to other perceived advantages of vaping, a swift response time and high potency. Melrod said vaping cannabis allows for a quick onset.
“The minute you take a puff you feel differently whether that’s a psychoactive effect or your using CBD for anxiety or pain relief,” he said.
The unknown risks
Cannabis concentrate is legal for all adults in the state of California and the products sold at Solful fall under strict regulations. Each product comes with a list of ingredients and percentages of content on the outer packaging.
“At Solful we are really committed to knowing what we are selling, everything is pure and clean.” Melrod said.
In order for teenagers to get their hands on cannabis concentrates, they must find other ways. Melrod said that is where things can get dicey.
“You’ve got to be really careful, particularly with the vape oils,” he said. “There are many products on the market where they are cutting it with things like polyglycol, propylene glycol, glycerin, things that really have not been researched or approved.”
A common way of getting cannabis concentrate is purchasing online. The unregulated market can mean there is no way to tell what is in the concentrate.
Reports from the California Department of Public Health show that researchers do not fully understand how using cannabis oils in vapes affects health. A potential risk when ingesting unregulated vape oils comes with the unknown amount of THC, the cannabis ingredient responsible for psychoactive effects such as anxiety and paranoia.
Another danger can be in adding smells to the vapor. Flavored vape oils are a popular product. Adding fruity or candy smells may make for a pleasant aroma, but the health consequences are not known.
“We don’t know the health impacts when you take flavoring like that and smoke it,” Melrod said.
Cannabis over tobacco
As with the generations before them, teenagers continue to be one step ahead of adults on finding new ways to bend the rules. According to statistics, the addition of electronic smoking devices like vapes does not seem to be causing an increase in cannabis use among teens.
A California Department of Health report stated most teenagers are not using cannabis. The 2016 report showed only 15% of students used cannabis in the last 30 days.
However, the same report showed more than 64% of California high school students who had both tried cannabis and smoking tobacco cigarettes said they had tried marijuana first.
