Cannabis is definitely a hot topic these days, and thanks to the sheer number of science-backed benefits that this unique plant can provide, it seems to be growing in popularity. Nowadays, there are many products and ways to consume cannabis, like edibles, extracts, cartridges, and tinctures.
But good oldies never go out of style, and that's why the old act of smoking a joint or from a trusty pipe remains one of the most popular ways to consume cannabis. Whether you've decided to try cannabis for the first time, haven't smoked for so long that you can't quite remember how to do it, or even just want to confirm that you've been doing it right, this post is for you.
Keep reading, and you will find some handy tips on how to inhale weed correctly, either in a pipe of any type or a classic joint.
How to Properly Smoke Weed
Smoking weed correctly isn’t rocket science. For starters, it's good to know that some factors can significantly influence your smoking experience that aren't directly related to how you inhale smoke. If you want to master the art of smoking weed, we will break it down into a very simple step-by-step that you can follow to ensure that you are smoking weed properly.
- To ensure a good smoke, we must start taking care of certain things even before getting the buds we want to smoke. This is because poor-quality weed can make your smoke unpleasant, no matter how careful you are with how you roll your joint and how you smoke it. Make sure you get well-cured but fresh buds from the strain you like best.
- Once you have your good-quality cannabis flowers, break up the buds you wish to smoke and grind them using a grinder or other method. The idea is to grind your weed to a medium grind, not too coarse to avoid burning badly and not too fine to prevent your joint or pipe from ending up congested or clogged.
- Rolling the joint correctly is also essential to having a good smoke. The idea is not to apply too much pressure when putting it together. When you roll the joint too tight, you may not even be able to smoke from it, or it may be too uncomfortable. On the contrary, if you roll the joint too loose, it will most likely end up burning badly, and having too much oxygen input is likely to make the joint burn faster and feel harsher on the throat.
- The way you light the joint is also critical, so that it burns evenly and doesn't end up smoking. The correct way to do it is to light the joint by placing the flame on the joint tip opposite the filter for about 10–15 seconds, or until you see the joint end lit up, then inhale. It’s unnecessary to draw the joint while lighting it as you would a cigarette since tobacco and cannabis are not the same. In fact, inhaling the joint while lighting can cause the joint to burn poorly.
- Once you have your joint lit, fill your mouth with the amount of smoke you want to smoke. You don't need to draw the joint for more than a couple of seconds to get a good amount of smoke. By doing this before inhaling the smoke, you prevent coughing fits as the smoke cools down a bit before it enters your throat and lungs. After this, inhale deeper so that the smoke passes into your lungs.
- Avoid holding the smoke in your lungs for too long to prevent the formation of tar and combustion residues in your lungs. A couple of seconds is more than enough. Now exhale the cannabis smoke from your lungs and repeat this process until you feel satisfied.
- If you wish, you can use a mouthpiece or some sort of additional joint filter to prevent further inhaling harmful or unnecessary residue or compounds and prevent coughing or throat irritation.
How to Take a Bong Rip
Devices like bongs, bowls with carb holes, or dab rigs have carb holes or some similar system to control the pipe's carb. But, especially if you are not familiar with this system or this type of pipe, successfully smoking them can be a bit confusing. Still, it’s enough to understand how the carburetion system works so that it is easy and natural for you to smoke from it.
Although there are usually variations depending on the design of the pipe or bong you use, the system tends to follow the same principles almost always. In the case of pipes, they usually have the bowl where you put the ground flower, a smoke chamber that generally makes up the pipe's body, a carb hole, and the mouthpiece.
In the case of bongs, the simplest ones usually have a chamber where water is placed with two holes: one where the downstem goes and is connected to the bowl where you burn the grass, and another hole that serves as a carb. The chamber is attached to a tube or neck that serves as a mouthpiece and is where you inhale the smoke. It is pretty similar to bongs with dab rigs but with some significant differences.
Like bongs, dab rigs have a water chamber, neck, mouthpiece, and a joint where you attach the dab nail or banger on most dongs. The difference between bongs and bowls is that dab rigs do not usually have a carb hole as such, but you control the carb by sticking and unsticking the banger or dab nail from the joint.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a bowl, bong, or dab rig; the important thing to inhale weed correctly with this type of pipe is to cover the carb hole or fix the banger well to the dab rig joint so as not to interrupt the air channel. If you don't cover the hole well, it may be complicated for you to smoke. You can cover and uncover the carb hole to control combustion in the bowl and the airflow through the pipe's body.
While bowls, dab rigs, and bongs are all about cooling and filtering the smoke before inhaling it, some people like to add extra filtering by using an additional mouthpiece or filter. This adds an extra benefit: it double filters the smoke from impurities and harmful agents and freshens the smoke even more before it reaches your lungs, consequently delivering healthier hits that are also more gentle on the throat and lungs.
How to Properly Smoke a Joint
To truly enjoy a joint or blunt, aside from grinding your weed well and rolling it the right way, knowing how to smoke appropriately can be pretty significant. But first of all, it is vital to get quality cannabis to ensure a good smoke.
Cannabis buds of dubious origin or low quality may contain pesticides, fungi, or substances leftover from improper storage that can affect the quality of your smoking experience. If you are a lover of CBD-rich cannabis, you can choose your favorite from the best hemp strains currently available on the market.
Play it safe by getting some Sour Elektra flowers or some Cats Meow buds. If you lean more towards the psychoactive effects within the legal range, you can opt for some Delta-8 Zombie Kush nugs or even the delicious and outstanding Delta-8 Abacus 2.0 to ensure that the quality of your buds will not affect your smoking experience. After having some good buds and building your joint well, you can proceed to smoke it.
Learning to smoke correctly isn’t complicated; you just have to light the joint and fill your mouth with smoke. Doing this first will give you gentler, more enjoyable hits. Inhale deeper into your diaphragm after you have the desired amount of smoke in your mouth.
The smoke will pass into your lungs and penetrate them to generate the effects you are looking for from your cannabis, be it the relieving effects of CBD or the high of THC. Inhale, hold the smoke for a couple of seconds, exhale, and wait a moment for the high to hit.
How to Inhale Weed Without Coughing
Surely you have seen someone or have some friends of those who like to cough when they smoke weed because "it gets them higher." But the truth is that coughing while smoking is not a sign that you are smoking correctly. In fact, many cannabis users try to cough on purpose, take harsher hits, or hold the smoke for as long as they can when they smoke, and this isn't necessary.
Coughing while smoking is actually a symptom that perhaps you took too big a drag, the smoke is too hot, or the resin and tar resulting from combustion are entering your lungs. Coughing can also signify that your body is trying to expel something foreign from your lungs, such as tar or pitch.
You can use a mouthpiece when smoking to try to prevent this. Sometimes trying to hold in too much cannabis smoke can increase the chances of a coughing fit. It is best to try to learn to smoke without coughing or switch to smoking devices that have a cooling effect on the smoke, use a percolator, or smoke in devices such as ice bongs.
Does Weed Resin Build up in the Lungs?
Quick and short answer: yes. In fact, have you ever seen how a brownish film forms on your pipe as you smoke? Or have you ever had one of those pipes that you never clean and get clogged due to the build-up of an almost black substance? Well, something similar can happen in your lungs.
Many people call this black substance "resin," which is basically nothing more than tar and accumulated combustion residue. This black weed "resin" has nothing to do with the famous terpene- and cannabinoid-filled live resin that is becoming increasingly popular among cannabis connoisseurs. For that reason, we recommend you use filters to prevent tar and resin from entering your lungs.
How to Prevent Resin Buildup in a Bong
When you burn weed in your bong bowl, the smoke travels down the downstem and through the water chamber before reaching your mouth. But when cannabis burns, it produces combustion residues that also travel with the smoke all the way.
These residues accumulate over time, especially if you use your bong frequently; a sticky brownish film of residue can form on the walls of the downstem and the chamber of the bong, which can affect the flavor of your hits and even form mold. This actually happens with all pipes, and it's essential to keep them clean to avoid unpleasant smoke and mold building up or even your pipe becoming completely clogged.
Fortunately, you can prevent this by regularly cleaning your bong. Just as there is an ideal way to clean a metal pipe, plastic, glass, or wooden pipe, there is also an ideal way to keep your bong clean, and it is actually quite simple. There are even various tricks you can apply to prevent gunk from forming on the walls of your bong.
The primary and most effective trick to avoid dirt formation in your bong is to clean it well and regularly, preferably after each use. It is similar to keeping the stove clean to prevent fats and oils from building upon it. If you periodically clean your bong, it will stay neat and easy to clean.
On the contrary, if you spend weeks or months without cleaning it, you will have a laborious project on your hands when you finally decide to do it. Another trick you can apply is to add a few drops of lemon juice to the bong water before using it. The enzymes in the lemon juice break down the sticky resin that forms inside the bong and makes it harder for it to stick to the walls. This also prevents a mess from forming inside the bong and makes it easier to clean up after use.
Learning how to inhale weed correctly takes practice, but the results are completely worth it. In case you’re a newbie, products like live resin vape juice or Delta-8 live resin vaping cartridges, are way easier to smoke and have a softer, more mellow vapor.
Watch the video below for more tricks on inhaling weed correctly.
