Yeah, up to a certain point it does. But I don't get less high when the abv is already pretty darkish brown as I do when it's darker brown.
Do you think that this may be due to the fact that you are still extracting a similar amount of cannabinoids, prior to the hits which continue to darken the AVB? I wouldn't be surprised, because after the first few hits, whe you are just getting wispy vapor, the AVB still darkens. but you get a smaller dose with each successive hit.
So much to unpack here.
First, you say "just decreases..." implying that there is no other difference. Since changing the temperature changes the ratio of actives released, there are obviously other effects.
Next, you are asking a question about something that is heavily subjective. If you think that lower temperatures will not be as effective, then they won't be. The pyschoactive experience is strongly influenced by your mental state.
You don't make it clear whether you are referring to staying at one low temperature or using temperature stepping. If the former, then of course you will not get the full effects of the actives that require higher temperatures to release. You'll get some because the actual release is not binary, so at lower temperatures some high temperature components are released, just in much lower quantity.
If you step up, then you will eventually release all of the active components but you will have changed the ratios. The effects will therefore be different because various cannabinioids, terpenes, etc. interact and mitigate each other. Whether the overall effect is decreased is, as I already pointed out, subjective. I don't feel that there's a decrease but that's just me.
Finally, a point about combustion: burning not only destroys some of the active components, it also releases combustion by-products. Probably the most significant of these is carbon monoxide, which causes slight giddiness among other much worse things. Smokers who complain that vaping doesn't give them the same high are missing this, and confuse cannabis effects with combustion effects.
Nice, thorough post. I'll clarify each of your paragraphs, in order, for the sake of easy reading.
1. Perhaps, "just" isn't the best term, as I do agree that there would be some cannabinoids that are not released, as well as some that may even be destroyed by higher temps. "Mainly" or "predominantly" would have been better options.
2. It may be subjective, but if a lot of people feel that way, there may be something else to it that's worth looking into, or at least discussing.
3 & 4. I was referring to just vaping at a lower temperature, without stepping up to reach the higher ones. If you step up in the same session, I would imagine you'd get a very similar overall dose of cannabinoids, with some more "terpy" tasting hits at the lower temps.
5. I wasn't even counting combustion, because of the byproducts that are produced, which definitely modify the effects. I agree with your points, here.
Well it depends if you want to be medicated or just get high?
I don't put medicating and getting buzzed in different categories. I consider them to be the same thing, with the difference in this case being how high you get. If a very mild buzz is enough to solve your medical problem, that's excellent. I would still consider it a milder effect, though. It's just that a milder effect is all that may be needed in certain situations.
Consider taking just enough Xanax to get rid of acute anxiety, compared to taking a rather large dose to put yourself in somewhat of a stupor. The first is enough for medical use, and the second is for fun, but the first is still just a weaker effect, due to a lower dose. Weaker isn't necessarily worse.
If you check out the Volcano studies from Leiden University they found the vape had to be set to the highest temperature to produce more cannabinoids than the joint.
This chart makes it seem like 446F/230C may be the best option, since the ratio of cannabinoids to byproducts seems to be better than the others, and the small increase in byproducts may be offset by the ability to get the desired effects while using less overall material.
I also might suggest that after a sufficient and full absence of actual smoke, maybe self repaired lungs make vaporized cannabinoid absorption more efficient.
Just a postulation though.
I wouldn't be surprised. I can imagine tarred up lungs having more trouble functioning at any level, compared to healthy ones.
the more material, the more THC total, the more THC vaporized per inhale.
