Home Lifestyle 7 Best Ways to Smoke Weed - Pros, Cons, and More

By Ayad Maher

What is the best way to smoke weed? A question ran into my mind when I started smoking weed, and after trying all the different ways, I came to a conclusion; no matter what you're using, marijuana is a great herb that has so many benefits. It helps you reduce anxiety, and improve your athletic performance. With cannabis involved, life just cannot go wrong.

Nevertheless, when it comes to smoking weed, users recently have more options than ever, and once you find your favorite smoking method, you will stick with it for a really long time. The best way to smoke weed is your best way to smoke weed, however, that doesn't mean it's the best way. It’s difficult though to recommend "the best" way to smoke weed because new methods are popping out every day and ultimately it gets down to the user’s preferences, for instance, easiest way to smoke weed vs. most efficient way to smoke it, level of discretion needed, smoking frequency, health priorities, cost, convenience and more.

1. Vaporizers

I started with vaporizers because it's THE healthiest way to smoke weed. Vaporizers were first introduced to cigarettes smoker as an alternative for their unhealthy habit and hopefully help them to quit, it wasn’t long before marijuana smokers started experimenting and applying herb vaping science to their ganja.

Related article: The Ultimate Guide To Buying Your First Best Marijuana Vaporizer

An herb vaporizer allows you to smoke weed with no combustion, it involves heating the herb rather than burning it. Cannabinoids, the main active ingredients in marijuana (check our blog post THC and CBD, and the Entourage Effect!), vapor at a much less temperature than burning the bud or the leaf itself, so as a result of using a vaporizer, you will be inhaling the pure vapor of your marijuana, no tar nor other harmful chemicals in the pulmonary alveoli.

Related article: Vaporizer high or Smoking high

Let me elaborate briefly, a butane lighter for instance burns at around 3500℉, to put this number in prospective, your bud can turn to smoke at around ONLY 450℉. The cannabinoids, however, need even lower temperatures to evaporate (around 284℉). Exposing the bud to very high temperatures will destroy large amount of your cannabinoids that you desperately want to inhale rather demolish, it will also release toxic chemicals that you don't want to inhale. If you smoke weed regularly, these toxic materials may accumulate in your lungs and eventually cause all type of health issues.

The taste of vaporized weed is clean, sweet and much smoother to the lungs. It is the best "smokeless" way of consuming marijuana.

Related article: Best Temperature to Vape Weed.

Pros: Discreet in smell and appearance (hint: you didn't hear this from me, but it can up your public consumption game). It's cleaner healthier and you can add classic and hybrid flavors. It's also strong in taste and can get you wicked high.

Cons: Comparing to the other methods, it takes few more hits to get to the high you need. Another issue, good high end vaporizers are relatively expensive.

So if you were a regular marijuana smoker, a nice high quality vaporizers can be a great investment, you will pay more, but it will save you a lot for the long run.

2. Glass pipes

When in thirst of marijuana, you will probably wish to smoke as soon as possible, and your best choice in this case is a glass pipe. Smoking from a glass pipe is quick, easy to use and highly efficient. They, also known as bowls, are the most common utensils marijuana smokers use.

It's very convenient; small enough to throw in your backpack, purse or you car's glove compartment. It's very easy to use, all you need to do is pack a glass pipe up with your favorite weed, cover the carb hole with your finger, light the herb, release the carb and inhale slowly.

Use warm or hot water for a smoother hit. Using cool water or ice in an ice catcher will cool the hit but make for a harsher throat hit, much more likely to make you cough. Whereas warm water will help keep the hit moist and gentle!

Related article: 7 Tips For Your First Time Smoking Marijuana

Most glass pipes nowadays are made of high-quality borosilicate glass, which is the ideal material for such high temperatures exposure.

Pros: Glass pipes have been always popular due to their portability and ease of use. Plus they are work of art; glass blowers have become very creative to provide massive variety of colors and designs that will suit your interest. Check our awesome Glass Pipes Collection on 421Store.

Cons: Unlike bongs, it won't give you big hits. Glass Pipes also are easy to break, so make sure you get a case or a pouch for it. If you dropped it, you will break it, so be careful. Furthermore, it won't be very convenient for large group of people, maybe only up to 3 or 4.

3. Bongs and bubblers

A bong, or a water pipe, is a water-based device that allows smoke to pass through water before inhaling it through the mouthpiece. Its main advantage is that you get smooth hits that don’t burn your throat especially when yo use cold water or adding ice. The water doesn't only cools the smoke off, but also filters it from resin and some harmful chemical components. The base water can be flavored to enhance a sweeter taste of the herb. There are various and very creative designs of Bongs, make sure to look around before you buy one.

As far as using it, the concept is similar to using a hand pipe; load the bowl piece with bud, light it up, start inhaling slowly, and once the chamber filled with smoke, you remove the bowl and then inhale deeply.

Pros: Comparing to glass pipes, bongs provide bigger, cooler and smoother hits. It doesn't take much effort to get you as high as the Empire State Building, considering the amount of smoke you can inhale with just one puff. The bigger the bong, the bigger the hit, nevertheless, the less affordable and portable.

Cons: It can be a bit bulky and uses more weed comparing to the other methods, especially in large groups. Beware of the plastic or acrylic bongs, they're much more dangerous to your health than glass ones.

4. Blunt

Blunt is a cigar rolled with tobacco leaf and then opened outward to be filled with any type of your favorite herbs. However, in recent days, it's been used solely for weed smoking. When you smoke it, you will get combined buzz from the nicotine and weed, which will give you a unique high. It might not be your thing though, but you won't now till you try it. Flavored Blunts are known to improve the sweet tang on the inhale.

Pros: comparing to a plain old style joint, blunts last longer, burn slower, hold more weed, taste better, easier to roll, with bigger hits. Furthermore, it's perfect for a large group.

Cons: Other than they contain nicotine which is harmful to your lungs, they're a bit wasteful; they require more weed than you would need for a bong or bowl.

5. Joint

Sometimes you need to go back to the old traditional ways which our parents used to smoke weed. Joints provide you the joy of the simple way to consume Marijuana.

Joints have been a long time favorite among marijuana smokers because of it's simplicity and easy access. You can find it pretty much in any convenient store. Roll it and you're good to go.

Knowing how to roll a nice tight join is not only impressive, but it's also a great skill to have, especially if you consider yourself a stoner. Something I've been working on for quite some time.

Pros: Of all the ways to smoke weed, rolling a joint is the cheapest. It's highly effective and it doesn't contain nicotine which makes it not as harsh as a blunt, unless if you decided to roll a spliff. It's also not as wasteful to your weed as bongs.

Cons: Burns faster; using joint leads to wastage of the flavor by fast burning. Joints can also result in fingers and lips burning.

6. Dab rigs

For those who have high tolerance and they're looking for a buzz like they've never smoked before, your only option is either take a tolerant break or dabbing. Although, more tools are needed, but for that kind of high you will get, this is your only choice.

First, the smoker will have to heat up the dab rig using a torch, aiming it at the nail. After a 10-15 second cool down, they take a dabber, apply the desired amount of concentrate, and then touch it to the nail while inhaling at the same time. Unlike the other smoking methods, it may take you as few as one hit, to get you wicked stoned. If it didn't, dude, take a tolerance break. It's getting too expensive for you.

Pros: It's the best way to get you the highest in the least amount of time than you ever could smoke an entire joint.

Cons: It's expensive, not only in terms of buying all the equipment (a torch, dab rig, and dab nail), which can be a hassle, but also buying the concentrate itself. Furthermore, after dabbing becomes less efficient for you because of your extremely high tolerance, not sure where you wanna go from there.

7. Hookah

You know that thing the caterpillar was smoking in Alice In Wonderland.

We all know, having friends over and lots of marijuana bond so well together, no question. However, with Hookah, it makes it a social event. A hookah can contain four or more nozzles attached to it, and in this case you and your pals will all be able to share the smoke at the same time without the need to Puff-Puff-and-Pass it.

Make sure to grind your weed and mix it up with shisha tobacco real good, it would be nice to sprinkle some keif in there too. Coating your weed in shisha helps to to slow cook the weed for some time. For lack of better words, "vaporize" the weed rather smoke it.

It will definitely give you a different high since it's mixed with shisha, which is basically flavored tobacco. it's not like smoking a spliff though.

Here is a tip for you, pay attention to the coal. Don't let the coal touches your blend when you smoke it, the heat coming from the coal will be enough (maybe leave 0.5 inche gap between your blend and the coal). Also make sure to clean the hookah very well right after your smoking session thoroughly so it won't catch any unwanted taste.

Pros: It's perfect for a group of people who doesn't want to get high instantly and relax and enjoy the evening. You can lean back and comfortably get high.

Cons: It can be wasteful way to smoke weed.

And here is an extra method for you: Gas mask

Personally, I'm not a huge fan, but it's one of the craziest ways that you can smoke weed. A pipe from the smoking bong is channeled to the gas mask. With the gas mask, you can regulate the incoming weed flavor from the bong. Unlike smoking a blunt, joint and a bong, the gas mask provides you the ability to relish the entire smoking process.

Pros: it will get you high very fast.

Cons: the gas mask can easily burn your face or even mess up with your nostril. It can also cause breathing difficulties

In conclusion, as I mentioned at the beginning of the post, there are so many ways to smoke weed. Marijuana has been trending for some time and it has attracted more innovative and creative ways of consuming it. The best way is to figure it out yourself. Sometimes, you want to get high slowly while many of us want to get totally blasted in a span, other times you're trying to save money, or want to enjoy smoking weed with group of people. And sometimes the availability of the methods of smoking weed will determine our choices. So weigh your options and figure it out for yourself.

Hey! Let us know what's your favorite way to smoke weed in the comment below for a chance to win a prize.

Editor's Note: This post was originally published in June 2016 and has been revamped and updated as needed for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

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