Vaping Flowers Vs. Dabs which is healthier for you?

Oh I will never ever quit flower. And I will always embrace and enjoy concentrates with my herb, it's just more of a readjustment and realignment of my relationship with our sacred herb.

I'm about to embark on one of the hardest things in my life... but it must be done. Yesterday was my last dab, and i'm tapering down with the flower since I am a long term heavy user.

 

Great call! I had to readjust a few years ago after a very bad brain injury so I know what it's like. There's ups and downs, easy times and hard.

I will say I enjoy moderation alot now, mainly because it helps to avoid the negatives that come with extremely heavy use.

That being said, it appears I'm still at the heavy end of consumption in relation to my peers here on FC, which probably means there's room to go a little lower. Some would laugh at my use of the term moderation.

Even though I consciously use as little as I can get away with most days, I still enjoy a heavy session with the right people and can't see that going away, but I'm more likely to get a good sleep and exercise the next day now, which I find helps a lot with staying relatively stable.

 

What is your consumption? I'm at less than 2g/day, typically around 1.5-2g.day, however can do fine on 1g/day if i'm cognizant of it and just stay mindful.

To be honest, it's more the VAS and playing and testing with these toys that skyrockets my tolerance. Now that it's somewhat under control (lol), I can more appreciate and focus on the plant and medicine and make it work for me. The goal is ideally to get down to not requiring it as a sleep aid, and if I can't i'd like to see my usage around .25-1g tops/day and not regularly.

 

Had to re-read that as it looked like it came straight from my brain.

Prior to my injury usage was 3-5 grams of high quality kush per day, sometimes a gram of shatter in an afternoon, basically as much as possible. I'm currently between 1-2g/day, and like you said, 1 is being disciplined. 1 usually means there are edibles involved, like last night.

That being said, I've started noticing a bit of a "cycle", where use becomes heavier until I'm feeling saturated with cannabinoids and then I'll occasionally cut it back to nights only, which has its own benefits. Energy increases, days become more productive, and I level right back out.

Unfortunately I started the habit of use late at night directly before bed 9 years ago, and that's a tough habit to break. My goal is to gradually cut back how late I consume, as I find a major difference between consumption at 9pm vs consumption at 11pm, 12am, 1am..

I will say there are times when I am down to .25 before bed, or perhaps .6 over the day, and become acquainted with the gratifying feelings of self control. However, this is also contrasted with very heavy times of consumption (3-5g/day). Sometimes it depends on medical needs, other times it will be a matter of overindulging.

I think we can always be doing better in life, but I remind myself that prior to cannabis there were no less than 4 serious addictions, and I believe my life would be very different today had I not cut those out. Yes cannabis has the potential for abuse, but so does sugar, nicotine, opiods, alcohol and many other substances.

I think in the future we will be much more aware of nutritional supplements to compliment cannabis use, as well as best practices.

 

The micro dose thread is a good place to get inspired. I've read the whole thread a few times.

 

if the concentrates were made well, without harsh chemical processes, I would think they would be slightly cleaner.

However, I prefer flower because it is unaltered from the plant's natural form. Terpenes, all other cannabinoids, etc are unchanged. I can't imagine concentrates are much cleaner...

Many concentrates I've tried taste almost synthetic. I sometimes wonder if they flavor them.

 

...i would assume flower over dabs health wise solely based off the amount of reclaim from each...

...my dab rigs get gunked up much quicker than flower rigs...

 

This is exactly how I feel. I will always prefer flower because it's unaltered from nature..ratio of cannibinoids etc.
The only concentrates i touch are keif and the occasional hash. The only thing I could say is that with flowers you're vaping plant material...so correctly extracted concentrates have the upper hand there.

But really I don't see it as a significant difference. Plus I like having a relatively low tolerance.
To each their own though....I know dabs are all the craze now

 

But is it really unaltered from nature when it's ultra hybridized hand sorted, females only, grown indoors under synthetic light? Cannabis is not even a psychoactive plant until alchemy is performed.

 

i'd think endocannabinoid receptors were developed before selective breeding was done (when is the earliest example of it?)but idk

 

The same could be said for how many ancient plant medicines were made and/or prepared

 

selective breeding happened first with the little monk dudes High in the mountain cultivating hemp to cannabis... they are still doing it to this day

endocannabinoids were created billions of years ago from the original sea squirts... the squirts started to stabilize lipid fats into structures with crystalline integrity... crystalline molecular forms that are fueled via carbon lipids result in homeostatic stabilization of cells for the organism as a whole

 

praise the sea squirts

 

I apologize for not seeing this one til now! The stable up-temp method is wonderful, albeit time consuming. I do wonder if the hex-nail has automated this process yet though, if so, then it would be much easier to do more quickly

This is definitely the case if you continue to use escalating amounts of concentrates in the same way that gave one the initial large tolerance with flower.

As you say, tolerance can definitely sky-rocket either way. My starting material (flower) always ran out more quickly when I vaped flower only before I went to only vaping concentrates. I find that for medical scenarios like mine, if flower does not provide the required effects/longevity, it is even easier to overdo dosing than with concentrates which can provide the required effect with one small dose (flower also has the problem that some flowers from the same plant will have less resin than others which can make dosing more inconsistent). YMMV if you are using for different medical reasons or non-medical reasons of course.

I really can't relate to this, I've always gotten up and worked the next day as normal after a larger dosage the night before than I would usually have. This is profound because I have disabilities which would very often prevent somebody from EVER WORKING. Medical cannabis is the key to a productive, functional life for me.

I have no problems with staying mentally stable following the occasional larger intake of cannabis resin. Not to say that your experience was not exactly as you described, I of course take you at your word my friend This is no doubt just individual variation, as you said, you suffered a brain injury and of course that can change what happens in your ECS in a very big way.

As above, endocannabinoids and endocannabinoid systems even in mammals long predate any records of plants containing phytocannabinoids. I remember reading this in an article by Ethan Russo not too long ago. If I recall the title, I'll share!

Some cannabis trivia: Many stoners think that the discovery of the endocannabinoid system is proof positive that we were MEANT to consume cannabis. This claim does not hold water when we consider the best available evidence showing that endocannabinoid systems long predate phytocannabinoids.

 

OMG @muunch ! that is one of the happiest squirts on this board! that little dude was firing endocannabinoids for a natural high before anyone! they somehow knew that stress was on the horizon and did something about it..

please do share the Russo article if you find it. Thanks!

 

Thought I'd give my and maybe revive this interesting thread. About 6 months ago I switched from vaping flower to only dabbing rosin that I press myself. I had a great collection of high end flower vapes and bubblers, but the vapor still always irritated my throat and made me cough a bit.

Ever since I started dabbing only rosin my throat feels much better and I very rarely cough. I used to vape 1-2g of flower a day and now I dab .2-.4g of rosin a day. I squish all my own rosin so I know my average yield is 20%. That means I'm dabbing about the same amount of cannabinoids as I used to vape in flower.

My tolerance hasn't changed but now instead of vaping my usual .15g bowl I have a 30mg rosin dab and feel the same as if I'd vaped a bowl of flower. The differences I've noticed are a far better flavor experience, no coughing or throat irritation, less muddy high, less time and trouble, less build-up of vapor odor on walls and furniture.

I've dabbed plenty of high quality BHO too and I have to say that for me rosin feels much closer to the effects I get with flower. I've measured the temp of my dab dish at 390F which is even lower than I often used to vape flower, so I think I'm getting less potential toxins vaping one rosin dab than taking 4 hits of flower vapor at the same temp.

I never imagined cannabis could taste so good and be so easy to dose without throat and lung irritation. It's hard for me to see how it could ever be healthier to heat all the extra plant material in a vape instead of just the active compounds on a low temp enail.

 

I've seen mention that squishing that rosin effects the molecules like cartel brick pressed weed... I guess if you use it soon oxidation is not as much of a concern... the herb gave its life to that press= bless the herb

 

I wonder if part of the reason that concentrates can be more efficient for some people, is that the entire dose is usually consumed in 1-3 hits depending on how much you use. That allows it all to hit at once, which probably makes it feel stronger than the same amount spread over a 30-60 minute session.


Also, the last paragraph you posted makes a lot of sense. A lot of cannabis supporters, especially on this forum, seem to believe Cannabis is “supposed” to be consumed by us, and ignore the fact that it evolved it’s cannabinoid production for it’s own benefit.

 

Do people really have 30-60 minute flower sessions? If I did that I'd be vaping flower all day long!

My flower sessions used to take 5 minutes max for .15g bowls and that included grinding and packing. Now my dab sessions take about 2 minutes or less. That one dab in 2 minutes makes me feel almost exactly like the .15g of flower in 5 minutes. I don't think that consuming the same amount of cannabinoids in 2 minutes vs. 5 minutes makes it feel stronger at all.

 

It's mutually beneficial for the cannabis plant to produce something desirable to others, to ultimately result in having its seed spread and propagated. This is the same reproduction mechanism used by many fruiting species of plant. Adaptations to suit ones habitat are key for survival, and we all know cannabis sativa is one of the heartiest plants around.

 

I've has a session go 45 minutes on a tightly packed conduction vape... just sipping every now and then... the buzz almost came and went by the time the session was over...

 

Lol...maybe cause the last half of your session was mostly decarbed CBN!

 

Those longer sessions are basicallly taking a hit every so often while doing something else, like reading stuff online, or watching videos. It wouldn’t take that long to just cash the load and move on, but it’s more like sipping a nice glass of wine than doing a quick shot of something more potent.

If your sessions are only decreased by a few minutes, you probably wouldn’t notice any difference in strength, as a result.

Maybe you’re leaving something out when making rosin (perhaps less CBD gets extracted or something along those lines), that makes it feel stronger. Maybe it’s just a psychological thing.

That is true, however, I doubt that Cannabis “evolved” the ability to produce psychoactive chemicals as a result of contact with humans. We definitely increased the levels of such chemicals, with selective breeding and culling, but IMO, it’s more likely that they are produced to serve some other purpose (perhaps protection from consumption or from intense sunlight).

Also, if the chemicals are produced to entice mammals to consume the buds, it makes little sense that it has evolved to produce ones that require decarboxylation before becoming psychoactive. A plant that produces a pleasant sensation upon being eaten raw (i.e. sweet fruit) would be much more likely to have its seed spread by animals, than a plant that needs to be heated to temperatures that would destroy any of its living tissue.

 

that would explain the droopy eyes LOL and me looking down at that thing thinking it's still going??

 

This is actually genius on the part of the cannabis plant. Animals get nothing from eating the live plant so it doesn't get inured or killed while alive. But when the flowers die in the fall and it naturally decarboxylates with time and sun exposure then the animals do eat it and spread its seeds.

Of course, that's assuming that animals get no effect from eating growing cannabis. I actually believe animals do get some effect from growing cannabis because deer eating cannabis plants is a problem in outdoor grows. Remember Sugar Bob?

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