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susanc's avatar

Please explain how a vaporizer keeps you from hurting your lungs when you smoke.

Asked by susanc (16139points) December 1st, 2008

Just explain it.

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16 Answers

La_chica_gomela's avatar

It burns what you’re smoking at a lower temperature, so that less gunk goes into the air that you breathe in. That’s why the smoke from a vaporizer is a lot lighter and more “airy” than that from a pipe or a cigarette or joint.

When you smoke from a vaporizer, the leaves don’t really get burned the same way as with a cigarette or joint.

You can think of it kind of like the difference between grilling and steaming. Steaming is just kind of more delicate, it doesn’t produce a ton of smoke in your kitchen.

Using a vaporizer doesn’t make smoking completely safe, it just makes it less harsh.

damien's avatar

From wiki: “A vaporizer heats the material in a controlled manner so that the active compounds contained in the plant boil off into a vapor. This new gas is not smoke from combustion, but an evaporated vapor that has the appearance of light smoke. The vapor ideally contains virtually zero particulate matter (tar) and reduced noxious gases such as carbon monoxide.”

I have always thought they heated it at a higher temp, but I’ve never used or even seen one outside of a shop, so what do I know? ;) I’ll stick to my good ole’ fashioned bong, thank you.

dynamicduo's avatar

It reduces the hurt in a few ways: one, the temperature of the smoke is not as high, so the lungs are not physically heated up as much (continuing, since the vaporizer essentially ‘steams’ the substance, the smoke has time to cool down before you breathe it in). Two, less plant particles/components are in the smoke, so less stays in your lungs, which means less hacking and coughing later on.

Response moderated
dynamicduo's avatar

In that it has air in it? Cause that’s about the only comparison I see between the two.

richardhenry's avatar

[mod says:] Your analogy sucked, Richard. Be quiet.

augustlan's avatar

Gotta’ love those mods!

TitsMcGhee's avatar

In my experience, vaporizers are a more steady stream of less harsh smoke and hit better than most other things, they’re just a pain in the ass because you can’t have them just anywhere and they make noise and require some maintenance… could be easier to just pack a bowl and deal.

El_Cadejo's avatar

Not only are vaps healthier, you get WAYYYYYY more ripped from a vap and use less than half the marijuana you would use if you were to pack a bowl or whatever. Plus you can set the temp as to not release all the THC and then make cannibutter with the leftover :).

someone i know smokes for free because of this. Smokes and then sells the butter.

TitsMcGhee's avatar

I need some cannibutter too… my suitemates wanted to cook up some brownies (with a dime bag, which I tried to explain wasn’t NEARLY enough, not even in the same ball park as enough to make decent brownies) and I also didn’t want them to because I wasn’t interested in having my whole living space smell like fried ganja for weeks and weeks and weeks. I give that person some mad props for that arrangement.

blastfamy's avatar

OoO !! Gadzooks, i didn’t know that the mods could rewrite quips. Scarry…

I wouldn’t smoke. period. besides, what’s the real draw from tobacco anyways? honest question [not meant to be loaded…]

TitsMcGhee's avatar

Weed = funny high.

Tobacco = little bit of a buzz, NOT a high.

Plain and simple.

dynamicduo's avatar

Nicotine is both a stimulant and a sedative depending on how much one consumes. It is also an appetite suppressant. Wikipedia has more info about nicotine’s other effects: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotene#Psychoactive_effects It’s also highly addictive as we all know.

El_Cadejo's avatar

The only reason i smoke tobacco is because i enjoy the act of smoking plain and simple.

TitsMcGhee's avatar

@uberbatman: Yeah, I’ve tried to avoid cigarettes because two of my grandparents died from lung cancer, but weed smells so tasty…

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