If you want to take marijuana without damaging your lungs, use edibles. Candy, brownies, tinctures, ghee. Garlicky marinara sauce. Mmm.

Of course, the most popular pot ingestion technique worldwide is the light-and-burn method, which produces an almost instant high. And most folks (myself included) can’t handle the “creeper” aspect of edibles: it can take up to two hours to feel the full effect of the drug, and then it can come on too strong. It’s harder to regulate dosage, at least for me. And harder to drive.

If you must inhale burned marijuana into your lungs, here’s a list of intoxication devices that we think are good, bad, ugly and monstrous. If you must use marijuana, please use it properly. Your lungs will thank you.

Good
Vaporizers. The “healthiest” way to get THC into your lungs. Unfortunately, the really good ones cost upwards of five hundred dollars. According to wikipedia, “Rather than burning the herb, which produces irritating, toxic, and carcinogenic by-products, a vaporizer heats the material in a partial vacuum so that the active compounds contained in the plant boil off into a vapor. No combustion occurs, so no smoke or taste of smoke is evident.” Source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporizer
Water pipes, glass. Filters out some impurities, cools the smoke.
Pipes, glass. Better than metal. Pipes made from other natural materials can be OK, too.
Apples and other fruit. Real nice when done properly.

Bad
Plastic water pipes (“bongs”). Plastic is toxic.
Metal pipes. They burn too hot, and you might be inhaling trace amounts of heavy metals.
Rolling a joint. Paper looks white because it’s bleached with chlorine. Burns too hot. Wastes pot.

Ugly
Blunts. These might get you stoned, but who in their right mind would inhale cheap cigar tobacco? Not even Winston Churchill after two bottles of brandy, I tell you. Not even Amy Winehouse. Still, we all know that tobacco and pot combine quite nicely.

Monstrous
Pipes contaminated with tobacco or other drugs.
Scented sprays, K2, fake pot from “legalbuds.com.”
Smoking pot out of an aluminum can.

by Valerie Spratt

This story originally published in Mary Jane Magazine #1, Spring 2010.