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Bong lip

drug_mentor

drug_mentor

Bluelight Crew
Joined
Jul 12, 2006
Messages
7,533
Location
Melbourne, Australia
Hey, first I would like to say to the mods, I put this in Australian Drug Discussion as opposed to Cannabis Discussion because Aussies have a unique way of smoking bongs and it may relate to the answer of my question.

I have honestly been meaning to ask this for probably two years. For all you bong smokers out there I am sure you are familiar with 'bong lip', for those not in the know, bong lips is basically an oily brown stain that you get on your lips and mouthpiece of your bong sometimes after pulling a cone. It smells and tastes very disgusting.

As a youngin' (some may say I still am one haha) I always used to smoke my billys straight and eventually moved on to mixing or spinning as many on here refer to it as. Anyway, even after mixing I never experienced bong lip for quite some time.

I started getting it when I was smoking 2.5-3 grams+ of good quality marijuana through bongs every single day. The longer I smoke the worse it seems to get, I tend to get it pretty bad these days and I don't know many who get it as bad as me but most heavy smokers I know get it. It seems to be less common in infrequent smokers, possibly because they smoke smaller cones?

Anyway the shit is DISGUSTING, and I have to wipe my mouth after every single fucking bong almost now. I forgot to mention, some bongs seem to cause it worse than others.

Anyway, I would love to know if anyone has a fucking clue what causes this, and hopefully any ways to prevent or reduce it. I think there is atleast slight HR value in this thread, because if you have ever had bong lip you would know it smells and tastes very chemically, given a lot of the chemicals in marijuana and tobacco smoke are quite unhealthy it seems likely this sludge is quite concentrated carcinogens. I definately feel there is times after heavy bong sessions where I didn't have something to wipe my mouth I have experienced nausea that I think was likely caused due to inadvertent oral consumption of this mystery substance(s).

I have a few theories, one is that since carcinogens in smoke are water soluble some of the carcinogens get stuck in your saliva. I also wondered if maybe the addition of tobacco is the cause, because it is a browny colour and not the light brown colour of the oil you get in a hashpipe when smoking straight buds but the kind of brown bong water goes when someone cuts a foul mix that is predominantly tobacco. My third and final theory is that because we actually pull the hot ash into the bongwater that maybe this causes some water to splash onto your lips, this seems unlikely to me because I can usually tell if the water touches my lips and most of the time (99% or more) I am not feeling that.

This is off topic, but I am wired as and thought I would shed light on another cannabis mystery. It seems like a shitload of people haven't worked out exactly what causes a 'hot rock', that is the burning marijuana/tobacco mix shooting out of the conepiece and by sods law usually landing on carpet or someones pants. I am 99% certain this is caused when you pull your mouth away from the bong when you are still sucking in air hard before letting go of the shotty. It seems to create a vaccuum that pushes the lit shit out the cone. It is pretty OT, but since I am on the topic of cannabis mysteries it seems like that had atleast a little HR value, since 'hot rocks' are a fire hazard. :p Plus I just felt like typing, haha. But yeah, if you always let go of the shotty before you pull your mouth away from the bong and/or stop exhaling before taking your mouth away then you should never have to deal with flaming marijuana on your lap again. ;)
 
lol @ drug_mentors cracked out thread. Can totally tell u are really wired as u've typed like 30 essays and a bit more in this thread lol.

I'm not a bong'er but i think maybe if u wash your bong daily, this would prevent such things happen?
 
Unfortunatly mate, many are in the same boat. Alot of people will tell you its the tar in the spin. Thats just foolish, they dont put tar in cigarette's, correct me if im wrong? It's a burn residue, u burn tobacoo u get left with tar, same goes for the weed, thats why your left with an oil of a different colour when you leave out spin.

In theory there is nothing you can do to completely remove this process, if you choose to smoke. The simplest way to resolve the problem would be to use a vapourizer or similar product. to lessen the effect of bong lip i use a bong with a longer mouth piece, more so than the larger ones usually sold.
also remember kids In theory... communism works!
 
Hahaha fuckin shit lips is what we call it and it fucking sucks and leaves brown stains on my
Clothes when I wipe my lips. Were not to sure wat causes our thoughts are it's because you hold your lips to close together when pulling a bong or pulling to hard. My other assumption was when you clean your bong and pour the water out the mouth piece all the ressin leaves brown shit on the mouth piece or possibly just a build up from smoking could cause tobacco like ressin to build up around the mouth piece.

But i doubt any of those could be the reason it's still a mystery to me also and I'm on the same page as you drug_mentor... What the fuck causes this? Lol ;)
 
Yeah I get this abit aswell. I smoke straight.

I did a little experiment the other week, put one bit of tissue over my mouth peice and took one hit, the first hit my lips remained dryed and that left this light brown tarry lips shape, I took a second on a different peice and I must have slightly dribbled(I notice this happens every now and then) some saliva escaped and absorbed into the tissue, leaving a much darker pair of lips.

So maybe this has something to do with saliva capturing the tar, then drying up leaving ya with those shitty mouths? :\ I dunno...
 
haha fuck I hate the 'old dreaded bong lips.

I don't smoke tobacco at all so after a couple of bongs it gets a bit nasty. I don't seem to get it as bad as you are making out though d_m. I personally fucking hate it, but even when smoking several grams in a sitting I only get a moderate amount of the gunk. Nothing a tissue, water and maybe some chewy can't fix.

I've found there to be significantly less of the gunk when using a decent double chamber bong. Can't comment on vapes because I've never used them.

The gunk is probably a mixture of a few things. Tar/other chemicals from tobacco if it is spun as well as tar and other turpentines and flavanoids from the cannabis.

From a HR perspective it's probably better to get yourself a vape ;)
 
LOL Havok I have also stained many clothes wiping bong lip, my bed sheet has stains on it from me wiping my mouth when I get it smoking cones in bed haha.

I really wish someone knew what this was. I am not surprised some people don't get it, as it took me many years of smoking before I ever got it. It has gotten progressively worse the longer I smoke and it really is quite disgusting and also inconvenient when your sleeves end up covered in brown gunk.
 
Yeah, you are in the UK though and I am pretty sure how you smoke bongs is quite different. The way Australian's smoke bongs is unlike anywhere else I am aware of. Kiwi's tend to use the same sort of bong/conepiece but in my experience they almost never spin and they don't seem to like to pull the ash through with their hit.
 
drug_mentor said:
Yeah, you are in the UK though and I am pretty sure how you smoke bongs is quite different. The way Australian's smoke bongs is unlike anywhere else I am aware of. Kiwi's tend to use the same sort of bong/conepiece but in my experience they almost never spin and they don't seem to like to pull the ash through with their hit.
Click to expand...

How do aussies smoke bongs?

We used to use a bit of tobacco rolled up in a ball and stuffed into the end of the downpipe (just below the collar).

Then the collar was filled with weed or hashish.

The trick was to burn the weed/hash in the collar - then as the tobacco just started to burn you'd give it a good lung - pulling the whole thing through.
 
We have a normal bong, it has a hole or 'shotty' at the front of the chamber that you put your thumb over. We chop up the buds finely and then open up a cigarette and mix in some tobacco, mix it all and chop it up quite fine.

We have a one hitter cone that instead of a screen atthe bottom has a small hole maybe 1mm in diameter. Basically you pack it full of smoking mixture, apply a lighter and pull slowly until its burning real well, then you start to pull harder with your diaphragm until the weed burns out and the ash pulls through the whole into the water, after the ash snaps through you take your thumb off the 'shotty' to let some air into the chamber and help clear any smoke that is left in there.

Given the countless debate between Americans and Aussies in DC I have been tempted for some time to film myself pulling one to give you an idea what its about, but I have concluded it probably wouldn't be a wise move on my part. ;)
 
Yeah I know you do the shotties. The key differences between a 'shottie' and an Aussie 'cone' as I see them are the following; in Australia we actually chop and mix the tobacco together as a smoking mix, I was under the impression that a shottie involved placing a rolled up ball of tobacco in the stem and then placing straight bud/hash on top of that. You pull harder when the flame hits the tobacco and the lot goes into the water.

In Australia we have a metal bowl which we call a conepiece that has a small hole on the bottom, because the hole is so small you can suck slowly to burn through the marijuana and then pull hard to rip the ash into the water. It is my understanding a 'shottie' has no bowl or cone and the balled up tobacco is what stops your weed/hash falling into the water.

Also, because the small hole on our conepiece doesn't have heaps of airflow, we have a hole on the front of the chamber we call a 'shotty' funnily enough, you let go of this after you pull the cone because it clears the chamber quicker. I don't think a UK 'shottie' has a 'shotty' on the front of the chamber because once the weed/hash is pulled into the water the airflow from the stem is enough to clear the chamber quickly.

I may be wrong but I am pretty knowledgable about ways of smoking cannabis, the two methods are quite similar yet there are also a number of subtle differences. If you need a visual aid to help I can go grab a vid and PM/email it to you. :)
 
drug_mentor said:
Yeah I know you do the shotties. The key differences between a 'shottie' and an Aussie 'cone' as I see them are the following; in Australia we actually chop and mix the tobacco together as a smoking mix, I was under the impression that a shottie involved placing a rolled up ball of tobacco in the stem and then placing straight bud/hash on top of that. You pull harder when the flame hits the tobacco and the lot goes into the water.
Click to expand...

Yes, we also do the same thing over here - except when we mix the tobacco and weed together we call it a mull. (although we rarely make weed mulls).

More often than not we cook up some hashish in a saucepan with the tobacco.

When the mull is complete, we pass it around taking turns to pull cones.


drug_mentor said:
In Australia we have a metal bowl which we call a conepiece that has a small hole on the bottom, because the hole is so small you can suck slowly to burn through the marijuana and then pull hard to rip the ash into the water. It is my understanding a 'shottie' has no bowl or cone and the balled up tobacco is what stops your weed/hash falling into the water.
Click to expand...

You're right a 'shottie' doesn't utilize a cone peice.
A mull however does. :)

Actually, I'm surprised you know about shotties - I've met plenty of tokers from my own country who have never heard of such things, lol.


drug_mentor said:
Also, because the small hole on our conepiece doesn't have heaps of airflow, we have a hole on the front of the chamber we call a 'shotty' funnily enough, you let go of this after you pull the cone because it clears the chamber quicker. I don't think a UK 'shottie' has a 'shotty' on the front of the chamber because once the weed/hash is pulled into the water the airflow from the stem is enough to clear the chamber quickly.
Click to expand...

Yeah, we also have a hole on the front of the chamber.
We just call it a shotgun over here.

drug_mentor said:
I may be wrong but I am pretty knowledgable about ways of smoking cannabis, the two methods are quite similar yet there are also a number of subtle differences. If you need a visual aid to help I can go grab a vid and PM/email it to you. :)
Click to expand...

Haha, thanks bud, but it sounds like we're talking about the exact same methods - except you guys have different names for them. :D
 
Interesting, cheers for the info mate. I have always found the way different countries and cultures used drugs quite interesting and have researched a bit. It is funny you call it a 'mull' as in certain circles that is a common slang for bud here.
 
when i tell my mate to chop up a mix... i can also tell him to mull up, which is the same thing.

one time i went to queensland with a few mates and we were having a mix with some locals and they offered me to have the first bong... anyway i started to rip it as normal and then as i pulled it through and double clutched the shottie to get the ghosties, i looked up to exhale and all these queenslanders were looking at me weird and in amazement that i pulled the whole cone.

when they smoked, one loaded had a toke and then, to my shock, passed a half smoked bong to his mate next to him... crazy!

about the bong lips. yeah there were some bongs that no matter how clean they were it would give you bong lips... some other bongs were sweet when a little used, but once they were cleaned.... BONG LIPS. IMO it all depends on the bong.

Well DM may i suggest you switch to joints? I did... at first it was awkward...mainly due to my ignorance in thinking that it was a waste... but i've seen the light and i would never go back to the bong. had one recently and just made me realise how much i don't miss it : )
 
In an attempt to explain this simply;


The smoke contains small particles - pyrolysis produces such as tars, reaction products, a host of nasty substances, and the desired vapourised oils. Most of what passes through a bong is not water soluble, or has limited solubility. Highly soluble things would be mainly trapped in the water. A few of the more toxic things that are filtered out (remain in bong water) include ammonia, acetaldehyde and acrolein. They are produced during pyrolysis of either tobacco or cannabis. Acetaldehyde, the oxidation product of ethanol, is regarded as a probable carcinogen, ammonia is toxic, particularly to the liver, and acrolein is a nasty irritant that's very toxic.

The residue that collects on the lips is for all intents and purposes a solidified version of the smoke itself - a sooty mixture with oily condensates. Look at a bong and the first thing you notice is that the neck is smaller than the bottom. Smoke is drawn up into a narrow passage, and a small amount condenses there. Future smoking will mean this resin on the glass will cause more to stick there (the actual physical chemistry involved is a fair bit more complicated). Same thing happens with smoking crack cocaine - clean pipe, less loss to the glass. Similar things also happens with some fireplace chimneys, although the high temps often re-vapourise or burn away any resinous deposits before they can accumulate.

Your lips are usually moist, but contain oils, and most importantly, the skin is quiet porous. The smaller entry point into the mouth formed by pouting-covering the lips around the bong mouthpiece, results in the lower volatile compounds (including THC) sticking around where the narrowing occurs. Same thing happens to the lips of high tar content smokers, from cigarettes or joints, particularly if filters aren't used.

Carcinogens in smoke - cannabis or tobacco - are mostly non-polar i.e. Things like benzopyrenes and other poly aromatics are carcinogenic, and bong water does not remove significant amounts of these chems.

The reason a cleaned bong sometimes produces bong lips is due to the clean glass being a less optimal surface. Once it get's coated though, like attracts like in this case, and future resin will accumulate easier.
 
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