Cannabis smokers, interested in harm reduction?

What is your preferred (read : most frequent) method of smoking ?
Over the years I have mostly smoked joints in rolling paper, occassionally gravity bongs (buckets) and of course chillums... bom shanka!
Its a well known and maybe ignored fact that whats really harmful in smoking isnt really the psychoactive substance present... but plant matter that turns into carbon monoxide (carbon) and is what is carcinogenic.
frankly Im more of a smoker.... and only the last year has seen me cutting down my smoking (since i didnt have any grows )
anyway getting BACK to the topic... have any of your tried out vapourizers?? Whats your take on them?
Vaporizer brand shoot out
plur +stay safe and happy tokin

Please define: Chillums
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MDMA-4-ALL (And a stoner lingo lesson for me)

I've smoked a vapourizer a few times before but it was when I was a heavy bong smoker so I didn't like it much.. it just didn't pack the punch I was used to.
I'm sure they'd be fine to smoke and would do the job well enough if that's what you smoked on a regular basis, and they'd be a pretty nice way to get stoned if you ask me, very smooth and subtle.
I don't know about their harm reduction and what-not, you'll just have to wait for someone with a bit more know-how...
and yeah- what are Chillums?

A chillum (chillom) is a traditional Indian hash pipe. Most often used to smoke charas (hashish) and even cannabis sometimes.
Here is a picture of my most cherished piece :

It is usually made from one of the following materials : stone (marble, soapstone etc), clay, wood & I'v even seen some made of more exquisite/$$ wood materials & glass(made in italy?)
It's basically a conical/cylindrical pipe, the upper part is wider (thats where you fill the weed) and it tapers towards the bottom. In order to keep your mixture in place you have a stone <called a 'gitti'>. This stone is place in the chillum before filling the weed (for the simple reason that without this, everything will fall thru to the other side)
The design of the stone is also very important..... traditionally it is supposed to have 7 faces (7 sides). These 7 faces or sides are passages for smoke to make its way thru!
Im not sure if my explanation has been of much help.
Some more pics :
Chillum & stone(gitti)

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Front of the chillum

The chillum has been a part of indian culture for many 100's of years and is also smoked by certain sects of the travelling holy men 'Sadhus' (they are not priests.)
I have more information if anyone is interested
plur +stay safe.

Like most drugs, apart from abstaining, the best form of harm minimisation practice involves appropriately preparing and consuming as little as possible of a pure substance in order to gain a desired result.
This is particularly true with pot. Smoking plant material produces more carcinogens and CO than spotting or vaporizing a suitably refined extract.
Burning of plant material causes tars to form poly cyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH's), the same chemicals found when burning tobacco. Of these, one considered very toxic is benzo[a]pyrene.
The actual toxic compound is not the pyrene itself but the metabolic product formed by the liver in an attempt to make the PAH water soluble and thus able to be eliminated by the kidneys or bowel. The water soluble metabolite of benzopyrene - a diol - reacts with cellular DNA, specifically guanine, which causes mutations which can lead to cancer.
While long term exposure to PAH's is dangerous to health, carbon monoxide is a more serious short term health hazard as well as causing chronic conditions.
Looking at just how toxic carbon monoxide is; if the CO concentration is just 0.1% of breathed air, the person/s affected will soon die without medical treatment.
When burning mull, tobacco etc. CO is produced in the presence of air, so bongs or loosely rolled joints produce more. Tailor made cigarettes, while perhaps containing more chemicals [?] produce less CO than rollies, because of the tight machine rolling which reduces air cavities. Because of this I have reservations about the health benefits from using recently advertised porous cigarette papers, which let in more air in an attempt to cool the smoke.
CO binds with hemoglobin, the body's oxygen carrying molecules, rendering them unable to transport oxygen. It is said a heavy smoker may have half of his total available hemoglobin "tied up and useless" from stable CO-hemoglobin bonding.
In attempting to reduce the toxic components from dope, eating would seem to be the best bet. But there are many indications that THC and related compounds may be bad for your stomach and duodenum. Cooking may or may not improve this.
Vaporizing a refined product e.g. using oil from bubble or butane extraction methods, produces little tar, and requires very little overall smoke inhalation to cause an effect. Vaporizing occurs at lower temps than burning, so many of the toxic compounds produced by burning are avoided.
At the other end of the scale i.e. creating and inhaling more toxins, are the loosely rolled joints of leaf. Leaf, because it's light and "fluffy" causes more air pockets in joints and so produces more CO.
Mixing with tobacco naturally increases the number of toxins inhaled including those compounds formed from the burning of two substances. The smoke mixture also burns mucous glands in two distinctive areas of the air way; the trachea/ primary bronchi and the larynx/ epiglottis.
Hope this is some help. There are some good threads on this forum discussing vaporizers, hash oil and other likely relevant issues. UTSE

Phase_dancer, thanks for the informative post I will also get around to reading the other posts on the forum...
looking for people who are actually using this (vapes) and if they are actually noticing any difference in thier physical health (i.e:chronic users)
but the point to be noted like you mentioned

Like most drugs, apart from abstaining, the best form of harm minimisation practice involves appropriately preparing and consuming as little as possible of a pure substance in order to gain a desired result.
I took to growing my stash only because there is widespread adulteration or 'spiking' of commercial cannabis and you actualy loose out on the real weed 'euphoria'.
plur +stay safe.

Click to expand...

BabaO'Riley l l
yip thats another different question alltogether ; the Psychoactive substances :D :D :D
Im more of a toker, that really is why i started the thread, for forum users who have tried/use Vapourizers to post thier comments and experience.
smoking cannabis has its risks and for regular users, longterm risks. I for one dont smoke ciggeretts! im not comparing the 2 (tobacco vs weed)... just that smoking anything is harmful.
plur +stay safe.
ps. doing a search like Phase_d suggested, will post any interesting links.
[ 27 January 2003: Message edited by: inf3cted ]

yeah thats cool. I just gained the impression from your first post that youd discounted the pscyoactive effects alltogether.
by the way how do you actually use the chillums?
[ 28 January 2003: Message edited by: Baba_ORiley ]

in terms of harm minimisation the best method would be to eat the pot. you'll still get screwed up minus all the tars and CO as you would smoking it. but ya are gunna use more.
if ya gunna smoke it try and cut back. alot of my mates smoke the shit and they're all pretty silly people....

Preferred method of smoking? Bong. Vapours aren't really counted as smoking, so I'd put them down second.
inf3cted: Having recently bought a vapouriser, I can testify that they are worth the extra cash (In my case $110). I find that the high from a vapouriser is cleaner than that of a bong/joint. The best thing I could compare it to has been my limited experance with cookies, as I get the same type of "Body High" when vapourising rather than the traditional headfuck that accompanies smoking a bong. Also, because the vapours don't harbour the tradional "Weed Smell" you can effectively vapouriser inside without the telltale smell, which is good for those of you who have to pull stealth missions just to smoke a cone Also, for those *BONGCOUGH*PANSIES*BONGCOUGH* who for some reason or another who can't smoke, the vapouriser comes through, delivering that stone. Sans smoke.
With my vapouriser at least, I'm not too sure if it's got the temperature control right as when I leave it on for long enough the plant matter starts to turn into smoke. So this adds the a little skill to the operation of the vapouriser,
That said, I'm in no way ratting out bongs, I just think they should be enjoyed TOGETHER
ps. One of the greatest "Vapour Ideas" I ever came up with was a combonation between the vapouriser and the bong, whereby you have a valve instead of a shotty (or carb as you americans call it) which is connected to the vapouriser (mines has tubes for inahling out of). You load up the vapouriser, turn it on then start smoking cones till the vapours all run out and repeat process till necessary.
I've attached some dodgy paint work just so you know what I'm talking about... Long Live Stonner Technology!

[ 28 January 2003: Message edited by: nickthecheese ]

mmmmmmm weed...
I smoke it whichever way it's presented
My preferred method would probably be the good ol' bong, I purchased a double-chamber glass billy a while ago and love using that, the second chamber really makes it THAT much smoother a smoke, IMO anyway.
Although if I could choose again i'd get a vaporiser, having recently tried one, they're just beautiful. Definitely the preferred method for anybody that doesn't like the harsh hit of regular toke methods.
I LOVE that idea nick! looks and sounds pretty damn classy
Blaze on!

After trying a Vaporizer (Namely the one Nickthecheese had recently acquired) I've found it to be a lot more of a body feeling and less of the general stoned feeling. I like it in the way that it doesn't send me to sleep (I've been known to pass out really easily after a copuple of cones) and I have a much clearer mind with which to experience it
All in all, Vaporizers are my number one way of ingesting Mary Jane, plus the fact that its a lot less harmful also leads me to this choice.
Fragment

I was stuck in a motel room with no bong or papers recently so we just skinned up some spliffs using the bible that those Gideons so conveniently provide. Smoking revelations was a whole new take on hellfire and brimstone...

babaI'riley & lorett... i must admit my posts & subject to this thread are a little vague... sorry! really was meant to obtain experiences/comments from vape uzers (thanks nikcthecheese, babu & fragment ). not much to do with harm reduction/minimization... yeah smoking alltogether is risk... but praise the herb jah!hehe.... and eating mj kicks ass too... ingested some hash chocolate last night thanks to BT's choof thread. :D :D :D i was laughing like a maniac!
killeravatoday : it gets really frustrating when u find u no accessories to roll.... but hey be really careful while smoking in paper dude.... its another killer! after nicotine and tar, the paper used in ciggys are supposed to do really scary shit to ya
nickthecheese... always nice to see stoner innovations... especially ones like this! idea is to get as much THC in the most optimum and healthy way. thanks fer the post!
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BabOriley...... how to smoke :
make your hash, tobaccy mixture put the gitti(stone) into the chillum, now you have like a chamber or a bowl, fill yer mixture in there.
The opposite end has an opening which is where you toke from... the opening is covered with a moist strip of porous cloth(helps to cool the smoke). You have to toke light and slow in the beginning to get the mixture burning and then take a long hit..... if its good hash u get a nice taste and goes straight to yer head.
There are different methods to holding the chillum too... you dont directly bring it in contact with your mouth... the pic above is one way to grip the chillum. you grip it between your forefinger and thumb to make a small 'chamber' and u pull. Hard to explain..... Look here to get an idea.
way off topic......
plur +stay safe.
[ 28 January 2003: Message edited by: inf3cted ]