“Weed. It makes me feel the way I need to feel.”

-Snoop Dogg (2008)

Ways to Ingest Marijuana

What is the best way to use marijuana? There are many different ways to consume cannabis, and which way is best is completely up to what you are looking for in your weed experience! For instance, some methods of marijuana consumption deliver quick but shorter lived effects, while others will take a while to kick in, but last for hours. Even the way you feel the effects of marijuana differ between the different ways of ingesting it. Some basic methods to ingest cannabis include:

• Smoking
• Vaping
• Edibles/Foods

Below is a basic overview of some of the ways you can consume your pot, with links to more detailed breakdowns where applicable!

Smoking

Arguably the traditional method for consuming your cannabis, smoking marijuana is a tale as old as time. Within the category of smoking, however, exist many different options. I’ve separated vaping into it’s own category (see below) – so this is all about burning that tree!

Smoking marijuana will cause you to feel effects almost instantaneously, with full onset at about 10 minutes after you smoke. The effects are somewhat shorter lived than other methods of consumption, with the effects lasting approximately 1 – 2 hours after you smoke. Personally, I have found that with regular consumption, the effects of smoking hit their peak at about 5-10 minutes after I smoke – meaning that 5-10 minutes after my list hit, I’m about as high as I’ll be. That feeling will last about 30-45 minutes, with a slow trailing downward into a softer, more relaxed high. At about the 2 – 3 hour mark, I’m ready for another bowl, or I’m essentially back to baseline.

Short version: smoking gets you high quick, and you won’t have to worry about feeling too high for too long if it happens. But how do you smoke marijuana? There are two main ways: pipes and papers. See below for a brief synopsis of each!

Pieces – a.k.a Pipes, Bowles, Bongs, Chillums, Steamrollers, Glass Blunts, Sherlocks, Bubblers, etc.

Starting with the method that requires little to no skill and gets you up and smoking in no time: using a pipe or piece of some form made for ingesting marijuana! You can simply buy a piece, pre-ground marijuana, and a lighter, and you’re ready to go. Of course, the options are nearly unlimited for whether you break whole marijuana nugs up and put them in the bowl, buy it pre-ground, use some keif instead or on top, and so on – but definitely break that weed down before you smoke it. It helps it to burn more evenly and you’ll have better air flow.

The options for pieces are also nearly unlimited – they come in different materials (glass, silicone, ceramic), different styles (dry vs. water pipes), with different types and shapes within each category. The most basic piece is a classic glass spoon bowl, which has a bowl for the ground marijuana, a “shotgun” or hole by the bowl for controlling airflow, and a mouthpiece through which you draw your hit from the bowl.

The options continue from there, with another popular category being bongs – these pipes incorporate a bowl that has a down-stem (or, a little tube that runs downward into the pipe from the bowl), which sits on the side of a compartment at the bottom that holds water. That compartment runs upward in a tube, from which a draw is taken from the bowl. The user pulls the smoke from the bowl through the down-stem and through the water before it fills the piece with smoke. The bowl is then slid out of the bottom of the bong and clean air is filtered through, allowing the smoke to be pulled out of the bong for a hit.

Joints – a.k.a a Jay, J., Doobie, Reefer, etc.

The most classic way to consume marijuana – but it also requires a bit of skill! Smoking a joint does, in fact, require rolling a joint. Although nowadays, you can buy them pre-rolled by someone who knows how (or, you can always phone a friend)!

A joint consists of ground marijuana and a rolling paper. Get yourself a lighter, and you’re ready to spark it up! Typically, ground marijuana is spread evenly throughout a flat, thin, rolling paper (think: cigarette papers), and then rolled moderately tightly to form what is, in essence, a cigarette of marijuana. Feeling fancy? You can put a filter in it too! The paper at one end is typically twisted tightly to a point, and then the joint is lit on that end. A drag is taken from the opposite side, and the marijuana smoke is inhaled!

Easy peasy, right? Unfortunately, rolling a good joint can be a bit tricky and takes some practice. Roll too tightly, and eventually it will end up clogged up with residue from the smoke passing back through the joint from the lit end. Roll too loosely, or unevenly, and your joint will “boat” – or burn unevenly.

There are many different styles and ways to roll joints – I won’t elaborate too much on them here. However, a variation is rolling a “cone” – or, rolling a joint where rather than being cylindrical, it tapers upward and wider at one end, in a cone shape. The wide end is lit, and drags are taken from the end that the joint tapers down too. You can buy these pre-rolled, and simply fill them with ground marijuana, twist the end shut, and you’re ready to go!

Blunts – a.k.a a Fatty, Bogie, Bone, etc.

Finally, to round out the most popular smoking methods, and arguably the most mentioned in popular culture, the blunt! Basically a marijuana cigar, most buy cigars from the store, remove the leaf, cut them open, replace the tobacco with ground marijuana, roll it back up (+ the leaf!), then light it up!

Again, not quite as easy as it sounds. Rolling a good blunt can take quite a bit of practice, and it is a pretty good amount of marijuana that you’re putting into each one. Definitely take the time to watch some tutorials and check out how-to posts to learn the basics before you waste a ton of weed (or wind up wayyyyyy too high).

Spliffs – is there even another name for this?

Honorable mention here for popular smoking methods (definitely more popular in Europe/outside of the U.S.) is the spliff. A spliff is a joint, except you mix tobacco and marijuana. The result is that you are ingesting less marijuana/not ingesting a large quantity of it at once, and you are also ingesting nicotine at the same time. The high that results is slightly different – and, if you don’t already smoke cigarettes/nicotine, could make you a little dizzy. I personally don’t prefer this method, because I don’t smoke nicotine and the combination just winds up making me dizzy/slightly nauseous.

Bonus points if you know what a snapper is: it’s a mix of tobacco and marijuana, usually just 1-2 hits, that you throw into a piece rather than a spliff. It’s definitely not as popular, because it will make your piece smell horribly and personally makes me dizzy.

Vaping

Vaping: think inhaling your THC, but without the smoke/actual burning of marijuana. Vaping is a method for heating your marijuana (or oil, see below) to inhale the vapors that are produced, rather than actually igniting/burning the marijuana (or oil).

You can, indeed, vape either flower or oil. Each will require its own tools, but in each instance the result is a cleaner and tastier hit, that doesn’t linger in the air quite as long. In fact, the odor of smoking is kept to a minimum if you choose to vape. Further, I’ve found that the effects tend to set in within 5-10 minutes, just like smoking weed, get a tiny bit stronger between 15-25 minutes, then maintain where they are for about an hour. It tapers off slowly after that, and you’re back to baseline by hour 3-4. Let’s talk about the basics of vaping flower versus vaping oil.

Vaping Marijuana Flower

Personally, I have a device that I invested in for vaping marijuana flower and it makes it super easy. I put ground marijuana in the device, turn it on and select a temperature based on the strain of marijuana and what I’m going for during that session, the little oven full of marijuana heats up – but not hot enough to actually burn the marijuana, and then I can just hit it. There are a multitude of devices, both portable and not portable (think: same size as a nicotine vape versus table-top pieces). What you choose is really up to you and your lifestyle/preferences!

There is also a “desperate” method (as me and my friends like to say), called knife hits. This is where you take metal kitchen/butter knives and heat them up on a stovetop, then drop marijuana on the tip of one, sandwich it with the other, and inhale the vapor that rises from where the knives criss-cross. It’s easy to burn yourself and this method is super smelly, so it’s not the most recommended.

Vaping Marijuana Oil

Now, vaping marijuana oil has about as many options as smoking marijuana out of a piece. There is everything from pre-filled cartridges that you throw on a battery like a nicotine vape, to full glass pieces with electronic heated nails that allow you to hit pipes as if you were smoking marijuana. Needless to say, there are a vast amount of options to customize your marijuana oil vaping experience.

Among the most popular are the pre-filled oil cartridges. There is a huge variety available, with different strains and broad array of THC strengths. These can be single-use, where they are pre-charged and contain anywhere from .5 gram to 1 gram of oil, or rechargeable. They also sell the cartridges by themselves, which can be affixed to a rechargeable battery and interchanged whenever you want to shake up what you are vaping.

As noted above, another popular method for vaping and consuming marijuana oil is to put a “dab” – typically a drop of oil about the size of a pen tip (and ranging up from there based on tolerance/experience/desired effects) – onto a “nail” – or, a heated ceramic or metal ring with an opening into the middle that allows air to flow into the pipe it is affixed to, where the bowl for marijuana would be – and then inhaling the vapor through the pipe.

There is an entire class of marijuana pipe dedicated to this style of vaping marijuana oil. There is also an entire class of nails, both those heated with a torch and those plugged in that stay heated at set temperatures.

Edibles/Eating (Food!)

Another popular way to consume marijuana is by eating it – literally! Unfortunately, eating raw marijuana won’t really get you high, because the THC needs to be activated – which is most popularly done with, you guessed it – heat! (Think: we typically smoke marijuana). However, there are other methods for extracting active components from the raw marijuana plant – too many to dissect them here (they’ll be getting their own article!).

Typically, consuming your cannabis results in effects 45 minutes – 2 hours after you ingest it, depending on your body composition and the foods you consume it with (as well as what you have already – or not – eaten that day). Effects can last anywhere from 5 – 8 hours, and I’ve personally had particularly strong edibles last up to 12 hours.

Cannabis Foods

Suffice to say, once extracted, the world of eating your cannabis is constantly expanding. High end chefs down to friends baking brownies in college have discovered the benefits and endless possibilities of cooking with THC – and it doesn’t even need to always be about getting high! Terpenes themselves (a component of the marijuana plant that doesn’t necessarily get you high in and of itself, but impacts the taste and effects of the marijuana) have been proving interesting as a compliment to the flavors/tastes available to chefs in the kitchen.

The most popular/every day way to consume cannabis is to extract the active components, using heat, into a butter or oil – anything high fat that the THC molecules can go ahead and absorb right into. They’re fat-soluble. This can then be used in any ordinary recipe, including things such as brownies and cookies – but also pancakes, steaks, breads, and candies. The possibilities are endless! Check back soon for posts with some of my personal recipes!

Tinctures

Along the lines of edible marijuana, tinctures are a concentration of the active components of marijuana that get you high, into a more liquid form (I love using coconut oil). These highly concentrated mixtures can be placed under your tongue (think: .5 ml at a time) or dropped into drinks, such as coffee or tea. You can even buy flavored tinctures to add a little chocolate or cinnamon flavor to your hot chocolate.

Capsules

Again, another one I’d put in the edibles category – THC oil capsules and Nano-Emulsion Capsules. Both are concentrated THC (ranging from 2.5 mg to 30 mg strength) in a swallowable capsule, together with some form of a delivery method that makes them readily absorbable by the body.

Depending on how these are made and their strength, these can set in anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours after you take them. The effects tend to be strong yet crisp, and you can typically function pretty well after taking them when made with a sativa. If they’re made with purely indica, get ready for a great nap.

I should note, I love using these for situations where I’m micro-dosing for anxiety, such as flying, but I need to be able to think clearly/function. Using the 2.5 mg capsules and taking them in small increments throughout the day when needed lets me have control over my high and my day, and helps to prevent accidentally over-doing it.

Conclusion: Consume Cannabis Your Way!

With so many different methods of delivery available, the ways to customize your cannabis experience are endless. All it takes it some research, some information/coaching by someone with knowledge, and a little trial and error!

Have smoking! Peace, love & kief dust!