Our current cannabis renaissance is rich in consumption choices. Cannabis consumers can smoke the herb, vape it, inhale bud filtered by bong water and air chambers, rub on topical salves and potions, ingest a full spectrum of edibles, and shatter their minds by dabbing some crumble. We actually wrote down 9 different ways you can consume cannabis without smoking it.

Or, in the opinion of at least one medical scientist, you could simply shove the herb up your ass, and perhaps enjoy the best of all possible cannabis highs.

One thing is for certain: Representatives of the medical community in both the United States and Canada believe that smoking is the most counterproductive means of consuming medical cannabis, especially for patients who smoke to address a health issue.

Paul Farnan is an addiction specialist at the University of British Columbia. Farnan likens smoking cannabis as medicine to smoking opium for pain relief. The process might relieve the pain, but presents challenges to a sick person’s overall health, particularly in the lungs since a lot of people in Europe mix their cannabis with tobacco.

Mikhail Kogan is the medical director of the Center for Integrative Medicine at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. In Kogan’s opinion, sick people should stop smoking cannabis and avail themselves of other dosing methods—one in particular.

Huffington Post Canada sums up Kogan’s views: “It’s difficult to absorb enough of the drug through the lungs, and gastric acids interfere when someone eats it,” he said. “Rectally is actually a lot more preferred because of the volume of absorption. You can put a lot more and it gets absorbed a lot better, but not everybody is open to this way of administration,” Kogan said.

Then again, making rectal consumption popular might be all in the way you sell it (we’re looking at you, Foria ;).