Herbal Vaporizers
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A vaporizer (or vapouriser) is a device used to release the active ingredients of plant material, commonly cannabis, or tobacco, or to release therapeutic compounds from herbs (phyto-inhalation; see also: aromatherapy). Vaporizing is an alternative to smoking. Rather than burning the herb, which produces numerous harmful by-products; a vaporizer heats the material, to ideally 180°C (356°F), so that the active compounds contained in the plant melt and phase into an aromatic vapor, not smoke. This vapor ideally contains reduced amounts of particulate matter (tar) and carcinogens such as carbon monoxide. Vapors may be filtered and cooled further using a water pipe or an inline water/ice attachment. Then vapors are inhaled or stored for subsequent inhalations in a "dome" or "balloon". With little to no smoke produced, cooler temperatures, and less material required to achieve the same effect, the irritating/harmful effects of smoking are greatly reduced or eliminated along with second hand smoke by using a vaporizer. This makes vaporizers useful in places where there are public bans on smoking.
The shortcomings of smoked cannabis have been widely viewed as a major obstacle for approval of medical marijuana; in response to the concerns several scientific studies have tried to establish whether vaporizers could offer a clinically reliable and safe method of cannabis use. Though vaporizers show great variations in performance, such studies have always found vaporization superior to smoking, and high-end vaporizers used with High Grade Hybrid Cannabis strains containing elevated levels of THC (the medicinal and psychoactive ingredient in cannabis) have been found to entirely eliminate inhalation of undesired compounds in a manner consistent enough for clinical trials. In comparison to cannabis use methods such as eating, vaporization offers the advantages of inhaling THC: rapid onset, direct delivery into the bloodstream, and the possibility to gradually increase delivery until the desired level is reached, in this manner enabling more effective self-dosage.
Browns or Duff are the used up herb after vaporization. Instead of being black like ashes they are brown. Though they are in low concentrations, cannaboids may be recovered from an accumulation of Browns using an extraction (such as ethanol) or may be re-vaped.
Scrapings are the buildup of resin in a vaporizer. This buildup may be scraped and vaped for a potent effect, similar to kief.
