Are cannabis vape pens a safe alternative?
As the USA is swept with decriminalisation and marijuana being sued for medical purposes, the big question about the safety of vaping has come into question.
Vape pens are being used more and more frequently across the United States with a range of Hash oils becoming available for consumption, leading to questions over vaping being a safer alternative to smoking marijuana. Now, we all know the benefits of vaping vape juice over smoking tobacco, what with all the research out there showing how it is 95% safer than tobacco. With hash oils though, extra ingredients are added since what you’re vaping is basically an herb, melted down into an oil. So, should we be vaping marijuana?
What do we have to look out for in vape pens when vaping marijuana then? There are several elements to keep in mind when vaping marijuana which should concern your health and safety.
Thinning agents
To make cannabis oil usable, a thinning agent must be used to make sure that the vape e juice can be inhaled. This usually means that propylene glycol is used as one of the main ingredients in vape juice, which has been proven to include formaldehyde, a known carcinogen. Carcinogens are cancer causing chemicals, over 300 of which are found in tobacco smoke. So, how can vaping be safer than smoking if it contains formaldehyde, a chemical which is known for preserving dead bodies? The fact of the matter is that formaldehyde is only found in vape liquids in very small amounts and so is not as damaging as the carcinogens in tobacco smoke. Also keep in mind that formaldehyde is used as a food additive, meaning that it has a very low toxicity rate when ingested orally.
FDA Approval ratings
On top of this, you can rest easy in the knowledge that the FDA or the Food and Drug Administration deems Propylene glycol to be “generally recognised as safe” for use as an additive. The amount of the chemical you ingest as a vaper is nowhere near as much as you would need to be a safe amount. If it is safe enough for the FDA who are known for their strictness when it comes to food and consumables safety, then you should be okay. Even if you’re vaping at varying temperatures or varying amounts, you should feel rest assured that it is not the vape juice itself that could be harmful.
What’s in your weed?
The real question we must ask ourselves is what is in the weed oil? The fact is, that to put cannabis into oil form, several complicated techniques must be done in the factory to thin it down and mix it. These techniques, depending on to how high quality they are, can end up degrading the product itself and lead to unwanted chemicals within the cannabis oil itself. The other thing to keep in mind is the very nature of the marijuana plant. The very fact that it has been grown on a farm or a laboratory somewhere often means that it may have been sprayed with pesticides or other chemicals to help it grow. These could have a detrimental effect on what you’re ingesting then, and could, in high concentrations lead to detrimental effects on your respiratory system. In studies, pesticides have been found to be in almost everything we grow and are not as harmful for humans on plant products than it is in concentrated amounts. Concentrated amounts like in concentrated cannabis oil, in which you can find a larger amount of it.
Vaping is far better for you than smoking in terms of the amount of chemicals your ingesting as well as the fact that you’re not inhaling smoke. The debate is still up in the air, but when it comes to vaping without vaping, it’s a definite winner when it comes to safety and the human body.