The Walleye Magazine

CANNABIS CORNER

Checking Out Vape Pens

By Justin Allec

The following article discusses cannabis oil vaporizers. While these products are distinct and separate from nicotine vaporizers (i.e. e-cigarettes) there is some overlap in terminology and technology. Current research suggests that burning cannabis releases over 100 chemicals, some of which are potentially carcinogenic. While cannabis oil vaporizers aim to avoid releasing those chemicals, the vapour cannot be considered harmless—you’re still ingesting something that will change your body chemistry.

One of the first topics Cannabis Corner looked at was vaporizers. At that point, just after legalization, dried flower was all anyone was thinking about and vaporizers—both handheld and tabletop models like the Volcano—held rarified status. In the years since, though, vape pens have largely supplanted the conversation about vaporizers due to their convenience and reliability. They aren’t for everyone, but there’s many advantages over the usual paraphernalia.

The big attraction is that vape pens are a self-contained system that avoids all the messiness and smell of other consumption methods. You simply screw a cartridge onto the slim body of the vaporizer, push a button to fire the battery, and then inhale. Use it once, use it all night, keep it in your pocket, whatever—a vape pen uses the same components as a regular vaporizer but packed into a slim aluminum body the size of a Sharpie. Along with size, the main difference from regular vaporizers is that vape pens use a pre-filled cannabis oil cartridge. These cartridges replace the old method of having to load your own dried flower. I’ve been trying a model from San Rafael ‘71 the last while and here’s what I’ve found.

Convenience is probably the vape pen’s biggest feature. No lighter to carry, no loose flower to pack, little maintenance aside from charging the battery, and the lower vaporizing temperature means no nasty, smelly smoke. Like many vape pens, the

San Rafael model uses a USB adaptor for charging the battery and it has a fairly long life, though if you’re using your vape pen every day, you’ll probably want to charge it as often as you do your phone. There are usually some temperature settings you can play with as well, though nowhere near the precision you’d get with a tabletop model. The convenience extends to use as well. Since vape pens work at the push of a button, you can really measure how much you want to consume without feeling overwhelmed. If you’re a beginner, vape pens are probably the best way to consciously track the effects of how much you’re using.

Containing between a half-gram and one gram of cannabis oil, vape cartridges run the range in potency and price. Initially, manufacturers focused on ridiculously high-THC strains, but now offer everything from CBD-specific blends to balanced strains. Cartridge technology is still evolving, so do a bit of homework because the kind of vape pen you choose will determine if you’re using 510 thread, PAX Era, or closed loop cartridges. Each system has subtle differences, but for choice of strains, I would recommend the 510 thread cartridges as they’re the most common.

The best-quality cartridges use a full spectrum extraction process that preserves all the cannabis’s active compounds and terpenes. There’s a whole discussion around oil viscosity and vape pens that’s beyond this introduction, but just know when you’re purchasing cartridges the best-quality ones offer a CO2-extracted full-spectrum oil. Compared to distillates, which require additives (both natural and unnatural) for ideal viscosity, full spectrum cartridges retain the natural terpenes found in the cannabis, guaranteeing better flavour. For example, the San Rafael ‘71 Pink Kush cartridge (THC 72.5 – 88.5%, CBD 0 – 10.0%, $39.95 / 1.88 grams) was delicious, a spicy, lemony mixture that crept up just enough.

A final consideration for using vape pens is sustainability. Thankfully, cartridges are, in most cases, recyclable, and can be returned to participating retailers much like your dried flower containers. In my mind this adds another layer to the vape pen’s closed system, and another reason to recommend them. Whether vape pens will work for you has a lot to do with your own habits and preferences, but it’s hard to beat the overall convenience.

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2021-09-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-09-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

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