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3 april 2020

What to smoke with?

Smoking herb after a long, satisfying day of work is sacred to many Cannabis users around the globe. Whether it is with the trusty pipe or a self made plastic bong, a tightly rolled joint or a messily wrapped abomination in newspaper, smoke will rise to the sky nonetheless. Over the years, people created a copious amount of techniques to inhale their beloved strains of ganja. In other words, there are various methods to attain the high enthusiasts are looking for. Needless to say, some methods are safer than their counterparts. In this article, we will cast our gaze at the many smoking instruments conceived by cannabis users throughout history.

Joints

The first and most common way to smoke in modern society is by rolling a joint. To roll one, you will first be needing some supplies. Luckily, there is an abundance of choice in types of paper, roaches and rolling techniques to acquire the results you are looking for. A broadly used type of paper is “Ricepaper”. The company named Rizla introduced the concept by using rice instead of rag paper (used for cigarettes) to produce rolling papers. Rice paper has a tendency to burn at a slow pace, fitting the sluggishly smouldering sensimillia. Nowadays, rice is excluded from the manufacturing of rice papers and replaced by wood fiber. The name is only a reminder of where the paper originated from. Papers made from wood fiber appear brown. Most paper is bleached, giving them the distinct white look some prefer to use.

The content of a joint depends on the one rolling. Many like to smoke their spliff with tobacco, especially in the Netherlands. Instead of using tobacco, you can buy tobacco replacements to avoid smoking nicotine, or you can just roll with exclusively weed. More often than not you will see Dutch people smoke a mix of tobacco with weed or hash.

Other than paper, you can also use blunt wraps. These are famously used by rapper snoop dogg for his joints. Blunt wraps are made from tobacco leaves, like cigars. In the days of old, smokers would dismantle cigars and reroll them with weed instead of tobacco. Most blunts are built with purely weed. Today, you can buy blunt wraps from various shops.

Pipes

The both ancient and modern way to smoke is via a pipe. They come in numerous shapes, sizes and materials, granting every single one a personality of its own. A wooden pipe provides a classy sherlock holmes type look, while metal pipes fit the current 420 like culture. If you like using pipes, make sure to clean them properly. A lot of gunk can get stuck in the barrel, sometimes ruining a good pipe.

One Hitter

If you wish to take a single hit once in a while, the One Hitter is the type of tool you are looking for. Some are, for example, shaped like a cigarette or joint. The lighting end holds a small empty chamber you can put weed into. It fits just enough for one or two tokes. After that, you can tap out the ashes and reload!

Vaporizer

Vaping is a completely different way of getting high. Instead of inhaling smoke, you inhale vapors. These so called vapors are produced by hot air passing through marijuana. Vaporizers often reach a temperature of 200 degrees celsius, which is hot enough for oils covering cannabis buds to release. The hot air packed with cannabinoids is then inhaled, gently instead of roughly (referring to smoking) delivering THC and other substances to the lungs. Vaping is by far less damaging to the lungs than smoking. Users note that the high received from vaping is more uplifting than from burning and smoking. There exist both portable and stationary vaporizers. Pick one that compliments your vaping habits!

Bong

Another commonly used smoking instrument is the Bong. Here, smoke gets filtered by water, lowering the temperature and filtering the smoke from high heat and damaging substances. Seen in many movies as the stoners’ staple, the bong offers a heavy but clean toke. Bongs are largely made from glass, allowing the smoke to be seen during the process of taking a hit. The impressive look and effectiveness of a bong compels numerous people to keep it their main instrument throughout their smoking career.

If you thought the joint or pipe were king of choice, the bong takes the crown. There is a humongous amount of artistic and unique looking bongs on the market. I bet anyone can find a bong befitting their style.

Bubbler

The Bubbler acts as a tiny bong like filter, easy to take on the road. It is an accessory you can attach to a vape or other smoking device. Inside is a compartment of water which smoke can pass through, filtering some of the nasty substances released and lowering the temperature of the smoke when burning cannabis.

Chalice

Unknown to many people, the chalice is a celebrated instrument within the Rasta movement mainly located in Jamaica. A chalice, also know as a wisdom chalice, uses a coconut as the base for its construction. Rastas remove all the flesh from inside the coconut and sand down the outside, removing hairs and generating a smooth surface. Next they drill three holes in a specific pattern. The first and largest hole gets a rubber tube and bowl leading into a reservoir of water. Another gets a long, hollow bamboo stick or tube to smoke from, and the last serves as air hole. The mechanics are very bong like.

A group of Rasta practitioners gather in a drum like circle and smoke the chalice to give thanks and praise to Jah Rastafari. They say they “Lick the Chalice” to commune with Jah. Ganja in particular is smoked for it is believed to be a gift from Jah, to relieve the spells of evil cast from a “Babylonian” society.

Shisha

Also known as a Water Pipe (same mechanism as the bong and bubbler), the shisha or hookah is used in the middle east to smoke many different kinds of herb and tobacco. The use of Shisha can be tracked down far into the history of the Middle-East. Hash is popular in the region, so naturally, the local population use their prefered smoking device the shisha to burn hash on many of their social occasions.