We all know a vaper.

You know, that dude in his mid-twenties with slicked-back hair, a chain wallet, and an encyclopaedic knowledge pertaining to all-things Battlestar Galactica.

While that may be what most of you think when I say ‘vape’… there are plenty who use cannabis vaporisers that wouldn’t necessarily fit the stereotype of vape bro.

Dry herb vaporisers have changed my quality of life. There was a time when I punched nothing but cones (sans the occasional joint). Then, a few years ago, I scooped up a portable vape. I have never looked back.

I was so thrilled by my portable vape experience, I entered the vaporiser industry – working for VapeFuse – and I’ve been there ever since, hard at work in developing a hub for herb lovers, helping them in learning about vaping their weed.

As an Aussie, I was already well aware of the ol’ Gatorade saxophone, growing up. Most people in my life saw cannabis as pretty innocuous – apart from maybe getting the end of your hose nicked.

Figures indicate that Australians are pulling cones at a higher rate than any other country on earth.

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But, before you give yourself a pat on the back… take a moment to think about the science behind punching a billy. When you smoke a regular-sized cone, you are inhaling roughly 0.1-0.2 grams of dried, ground cannabis in one hit.

Aside from paralysing the cilia – the tiny hairs in your lungs that help to filter out unwanted particles – taking in such a large amount of carbon is extremely overwhelming for the body. The result is a ‘cloudy’ feeling, due to mass carbon inhalation. Even when smoking a good Sativa, I often found myself feeling super hazy.

Many people mistake the lightheaded feeling that you get after you smoke as being ‘high’.

Vaping, even at a high temperature, will never combust your herb. That’s right – you’re inhaling atomised terpenes and cannabinoids, as opposed to a whole bunch of incinerated carbon-based plant matter.

When you vape your weed, it’s a lot like hitting a low-temperature dab – at least in comparison to punching a bowl. You get to experience and enjoy all of the vaporised terps and oils, without being left with that darned smoky aftertaste.

Let’s take a look at some other benefits of vaping, over smoking bongs.

Ten Reasons:

Ditch the Bong and Switch to Vaping

10. Vapes Don’t Smell

While I won’t die on the hill that says vaporisers are stench-free, it’s clear that the smells emanating from an idle vaporiser are muuuuch less intense than that of stale bong water. Vapour just doesn’t linger in a room in the same way that cannabis smoke does.

At a low temperatures, your machine will generate extremely flavoursome vapour, and lack any really offensive odours. If you pump up the temperature a bit, the clouds will gradually become more visible. A faint herbal aroma will be present for a while, before quickly dissipating. The smell is even more discreet when using a dab pen.

9) Most Vapes are Bong Compatible

Are you under the impression that a switch to a vaporiser means chucking away your prized glassy? Think again, mate.

Most vapes offer an optional water pipe attachment which slots right into your stem like a cone piece. When you consume your vapour through a bong, you can take much larger draws than you’d normally be able to.

Using a bong with your vape is the easiest way to make the switch, as it gives you that element of familiarity to hang onto. You won’t have to clean your piece. Also, the flavour is crazy!

Without a doubt, my favourite vape is The Lotus Vape from Mendocino County in the Emerald Triangle. This little manual vape reminds me of a pipe! It’s also pretty similar to smoking in terms of application. An awesome thing about the Lotus is its smoking ability – you can chuck the herb chamber and vapour cap directly into the end of your bong, and heat it like you would a bowl!

8) Vapes Are Portable As Fuck

Let’s face it, as much as we’d love to spark up a ‘doob’ on the street corner the way Canadians now can… cannabis is still pretty illegal in Australia.

If you’re looking to get high on-the-go, vaporisers are without a doubt the most viable option. As I said, vapes hardly smell. You can sit comfortably at the beach and get baked without anybody questioning what you’re up to.

Edibles are of course an option… but, if you’re a bong user, you may find the onset duration to be way too drawn out. Plus, if you’re not used to dosing with edibles, you could end up worse for wear.

Many of you are probably familiar with the Volcano line of balloon vapes featured in Super High Me, Disjointed, etc.

Big mechanical vapes like these are referred to as ‘desktop’ vapes, and are not what I am referring to when I say ‘portable.’

Portable vapes come in so many different shapes and sizes these days, and are about as discreet as it gets – especially when it comes to getting high on-the-go.

Some vape manufacturers have taken the ‘discreet’ thing to a whole new level. Devices like the CloudV Dab Pen literally disguise their vaporiser in a functioning ball-point pen, for those secret-agent vibes. The Puffit-X, which looks and operates like an inhaler, is an all-time best seller.

These devices are perfect for teachers or government workers, keen to keep their weed habit on the down low. It’s also great for that long weekend at Grandma’s place.

7) No More ‘Bong Lung’ – Save Yourself Short-Term Respiratory Side Effects

Punching a bong isn’t going to give you cancer.

Cannabis smoke isn’t radioactive or anything. As far as we can tell, long-term side effects are fairly mild. In the short term, however, inhaling combusted plant matter can wreak havoc on your lungs.

Not for vapes, which sit at a much lower temperature. Most vapes can push it up to around 220°C. The combustion temperature for dried cannabis sits at around 240°C/460°F.

You can enjoy extracting cannabinoids and terps without having to worry about any short-term effects on the respiratory system.

Smoking cannabis can paralyse the cilia in your lungs. When your cone-punching habit becomes a couple-a-day kind of deal, this can easily lead to bronchitis, emphysema, and even a collapsed lung… as a lovely nurse once warned me.

Smoking spin cones, on the other hand, is a quick way to become addicted to your weed. You’ll also face the long-term hazards associated with smoking tobacco.

6) Switching to Vaping Makes it Easier to Quit Spinning Your Weed

While initial double-blind placebo studies concluded that adding tobacco to your chop wasn’t indicative of increased addiction to cannabis or cigarettes, the studies have all been conducted on a short-term basis – meaning the results are rather inconclusive.

For those who have grown up spinning their weed, it can be difficult to continue smoking through a paper or bong without adding tobacco to the mix.

If you’re one of the few people in Australia that still bow down to big tobacco, paying up to $50 for a 25-er of Winnie Blues… I am in awe of your commitment to darts.

A global drug survey examined the cultural practices associated with cannabis and tobacco, and placed Australia behind a whole bunch of countries. Yet, the issue of spin is still pertinent in our modern world.

I started smoking weed in Australia at parties while I was still in high school. My pot use didn’t really kick it up a gear until I spent a year in Switzerland as an exchange student. As you can see from the graph above – the spliff culture in Switzerland is off the charts. I spent the next three years mixing my joints with tobacco, and couldn’t kick the habit until I made vaping my go-to method of getting high.

Arizer ArGo Portable Vape

5) Vapour Tastes Way Better

When you punch a bong of spin (or straight green) you’re igniting the herb in your bowl to temperatures in excess of 500°C (930°F).

Common cannabis terpenes like Myrcene and Linalool start to boil off at around 167°C (332 °F) – meaning that, by the time the bong smoke hits your lungs, those terps have been obliterated.

If you’re a flavour connoisseur with a hankering for the flavours that top-shelf weed exudes, you ain’t seen nothing until you’ve tried a connoisseur-grade vaporiser like The Lotus Vape or the DaVinci IQ.

I don’t care what rig you’re rocking; the science is already there. Vaping just tastes better. Low-temp dabs are highly regarded by many as the terpiest dabs, while higher-temps simply produce more smoke. Go figure.

4) Bong Breath Be Gone!

If you or one of your mates punches darts, you’re already well aware of the horror show that is Aussie cigarette pouches. The Auschwitz-esque images displayed on our cigarette packs show obscene pictures – all associated with the damage that smoking tobacco can do to your body.

While bong smoke won’t leave you with mouth cancer, bong breath and stained teeth are a very real possibility. If you have a missus or partner who doesn’t smoke, bong breath is likely a problem for both of you!

Cannabis is well known for its cotton-mouth inducing properties… but the actual scientific definition here is referred to as Xerostomia; the fancy name given to the dry mouth feeling you get when your saliva flow is reduced or absent.

The result is the perfect micro-climate for odour-causing bacteria, which is why the smoke smell seems to linger well after the chamber has been cleared.

Using a vaporiser will not leave any lasting aromas in your mouth – just a terpy residue on your tongue and tips.

3) Smoking Isn’t Medicinal

While cannabis has hundreds of proven medical benefits, no doctor in the world is going to prescribe you a pack of papers, or a bong to smoke out of.

Countries like Israel and Canada are ‘in-the-know’ about vaping. They have been prescribing vapes to administer dried cannabis for years.

Australia is likely to follow. In fact, Aussie cannabis expert and Brisbane-based surgical assistant Dr. John Teh referenced vaporisers on a number of occasions when we caught up to discuss the state of Queensland’s legal cannabis framework.

Dr. Teh had the following to say:

“Smoke is just medically bad for you. It’s an irritant on the lungs, and the government is not down with that. There’s no correlation between cannabis and lung caner, but there are certainly other ailments that can arise as a result of patients smoking.”

“Vaping is a fine mode of administration. There’s no harm to it, from a medical perspective, it’s quick. It’s not as long-lasting as an oil or tincture, but it depends on what it is being administered for. It certainly can provide short-term relief a lot quicker than a tincture or an edible would.”

2) Vapes Use Way Less Weed

Less is more is an approach that many folks neglect when it comes to cannabis use. Cannabis salves and tinctures contain extremely concentrated amounts of cannabinoids, and are extremely effective… even though the active ingredients would be roughly 1/50th of what you’d put in a pipe.

When it comes to smoking your cannabis, studies indicate that recovery of the theoretically present amount of tetrahydrocannabinol from plant material in the smoke stream varied from 27.5 – 46.3%. Every bong hit or joint toke that you inhale, you’re losing up to nearly 75% of your active high-inducing compounds. Not to mention the obliteration of most of your terpenes.

Vapes like the Arizer Solo II, pictured above, require about 0.15 grams of dried ground herb to deliver a 15-minute long session of thick vapour.

When you think about how long 0.15-grams would last in a pipe or a bowl… it puts things into a little more perspective.

Some vapes, like the VapMan pictured above, have been designed solely for the purpose of microdosing your herb. The VapMan’s gold and copper chamber holds a mere 0.05-grams of dried herb; enough to get two people baked!

While it sounds ridiculous… you can achieve a lot more with a lot less, when the cannabinoids and terpenes aren’t being incinerated.

When I think about the one-gram spliffs I used to roll, I can remember the ounces I went through in just a week. Now, with vaporisers, I could sit there vaping all day and barely bust through a quarter.

1) More Money = More Weed

With all the money you save by making the switch, you can get rich… or just buy more pot!

Contrary to the Notorious B.I.G’s belief that Mo’ Money brings Mo’ Problems… it’s pretty obvious to most that spending less money on consumables leaves you with less problems. Making the switch to vaping may lead you to consider the sheer amount of money you’ve spent on the devil’s lettuce over the past few years.

If you wouldn’t blow all of your money on gambling or XXXX Gold, you sure as hell shouldn’t be blowing all your hard earned cash on weed. Less is more, fam.

At VapeFuse Australia, we’ve made it our mission to get one million smokers to switch to vaping – so they can improve their quality of life, and that of those around them. Instead of just pushing out products, we’ve devoted our time to establishing a new ‘learning centre’ targeted at Aussies.

The Aussie Vaporiser Learning Centre contains short videos about all things vapes, targeted at an Aussie audience. Most of all, it’s all about the education – BS free!

For our FAB Family out there looking to scoop a great deal on a vape, check out this link and use the code ‘MATT10’ in the cart to save $10! Kickstart your vaping journey today!

Look to our Bong Shop Breakdown for advice on where to buy all your accoutrements; whether you’re an avid vape-head, or a loyal bong-purist.