GETTING READY TO VAPORIZE

So this afternoon I finally picked up my loan Volcano vaporizer, after several cancelled appointments. The experiment can get underway! I’ve decided to start first thing tomorrow – a Friday.

It’s been a slightly frustrating wait; I’ve been champing at the bit and pawing the ground with anticipation. For the last couple of weeks I’ve been saying goodbye to cigarettes, thinking ‘OK, this is my last packet’, only for the delivery of the vaporizer to be delayed by another few days and another pack of smokes purchased.

So why didn’t I just quit anyway? Why wait for the vaporizer? Because this is not an exercise in will power. There are plenty of books and audio-seminars and websites and patches – whole industries devoted to quitting smoking.

There are also drugs such as Champix, Zyban and Wellbutrin that are used to lessen the cravings brought on by nicotine withdrawal, and I have a couple of friends who have used pharmaceuticals to successfully quit using tobacco. Call it strange if you like, coming from a confessed regular if not daily smoker of cannabis, but I find the idea of filling my head with some man-made drug 24/7 for months (if not years, given their addictiveness and severity of withdrawal symptoms) just too creepy and alarming.

Tobacco companies may be immoral peddlers of poison but Big Pharma’s are little better. I’ll take cannabis’ 10,000-year track record of safety over the – at best, mixed – performance of modern Psychotropics.

I specifically want to talk about removing tobacco from one’s life while leaving the enjoyment of marihuana, and using a good herbal vaporizer to do so. In essence, it is using the device to split the mixture of two weeds that comprise a joint and observe in which direction my inclination takes me.

The plan is to vaporize a small amount of tobacco when I feel a strong desire to smoke…something, and to vaporize a small amount of weed when I feel like feeling a little different. I don’t know how easy this will prove to be – I’m sure some level of self-discipline will come into play.

I believe the key is splitting the two intoxicating plants used in a joint in order to regain control over the consumption of both. I think once this separation is achieved the desire to smoke tobacco will naturally decline as the pointlessness (if indeed it is) of the nicotine buzz becomes apparent.

Talking to joint smoking friends it is clear that all of them at some stage find themselves smoking more joints than they want to as a result of craving for nicotine, not the THC from the cannabis.

It’s also clear that there is very little information above the anecdotal about this particular sub-specie of smoker. There’s research into smoking and research into cannabis consumption, but I don’t recall ever seeing research specifically into the mixture of the two, even though (in Europe at least), this is still the predominant form of consumption.

I’m wary of stripping down what is a complex physical, psychological and social practice to its bare materialist bones. I’m convinced there is more to smoking cigarettes and joints than the purely chemical-physical aspect.

Between the act of purchase to consumption there are a range of triggers and associations that also come into play. The crumbling of the weed or hash into the disemboweled cigarette; rolling the filter from a strip of cardboard; licking the gum; the feel of the joint in one’s mouth; the social conviviality of passing it around and the resulting shared intoxication.

OK, that’s enough of that for the time being. Tomorrow’s the day. Maybe just a little vapor nightcap before bed, just to test the functioning of the Volcano you understand…

Source: Vaporizerblog

What Are The Best Portable Vaporizers If Money Isn’t A Concern?

There’s a good amount of articles out there on the best portable vaporizers under a certain amount of money, but what if you want to say “screw the money” and just want the best of the best? If that’s you, then get your material, grind it up, and put it in your current sub-par vape; because after reading this article, you will be enjoying that vaporizer for the last time.

The portable vaporizers in this list are, in our opinion, currently the best ones on the market. This is not only based on our own personal experiences with them, but also on reviews and feedback from the vaporizer community as a whole. Yes it’s subjective, and we realize you may have a favorite that isn’t on this list, but we feel strongly that the majority of the vape community would agree with these. I also want to mention that this article deals with more traditional portables meant for dry herb; not pen vapes. Yes pens are technically portable as well, but we feel they have their own category and deserve a separate article of their own.

1. The Crafty Vaporizer by Storz & Bickel

Everyone knows who Storz & Bickel is. They are the company behind the Volcano, arguably one of the most popular desktop vaporizers still to this day. Well, they recently decided to get into the portable vaporizer market, and the same quality and workmanship that they put into the Volcano went into their new portable called ‘The Crafty’.

The Crafty produces some of the best vapor out of any portable currently on the market; it even rivals some desktop units, which are known for their punch. The build quality is excellent, and it feels really sturdy in your hands, so you don’t have to worry about it breaking unless you’re super clumsy with it. Even if something does break, the Crafty comes with a 2-year warranty, so you’re covered.

Now one of the coolest things about the Crafty is that you can control the temperature and other features of the device right from your phone with their mobile app. You don’t need the app to control the temperature; it does come with 2 preset temps, but the app gives you more fine-tuning, allows you to change your preset temps, and access other cool features. The temperature on the Crafty ranges from 104 – 410 degrees Fahrenheit. As far as battery life goes, you will get about 45 minutes of total battery life with the Crafty, and it fully recharges in about 2 hours. Overall, we feel the Crafty is the best portable you can buy right now if you are looking for a portable that can be taken out of the house. Awesome vapor quality, a solid warranty, and just a well-built unit all around.

2. The Mighty by Storz & Bickel

Notice how at the end of the Crafty section above I said that the Crafty is the best if you want a portable that you can take with you when you leave the house? Well the Mighty is the best portable you can buy if you want something that packs the same punch as most desktop units, but that you can carry around your house without being tied to a cord like you are with desktops.

You could travel with it, no doubt, but it’s slightly bigger than the Crafty is, making it a little less portable and harder to just stick in your pocket. 

The Mighty is made with the same quality as the Crafty, being that they are both made by Storz & Bickel. The main difference is the Mighty is bigger and has a little more power than the Crafty does. You will also get longer battery life, since the Mighty comes with 2 lithium-ion batteries, and the Crafty comes with just 1. There’s also no phone app to control the Mighty – everything is done right on the front of the unit. Some people prefer this over having to mess around with a phone app just to change the temperature, and I can totally see that point.

3. The Arizer Air

Arizer, like Storz & Bickel, is another very reputable name in the vaporizer industry. They are the same company behind the Solo, arguably the most popular portable since it came out, and the Extreme Q, the equally popular desktop unit. While the Solo was and still is a phenomenal portable vaporizer, Arizer stepped their game up and released the Air not too long ago. As great as the Solo is, the one knock on it was the fact that it could have been more portable. It’s slightly big for a portable unit, and when you add the stem, it increases the overall size even more.

The Arizer Air takes everything that was great about the Solo, but made it much more portable, solving the one issue people had. Here’s a really good image (I believe from the Vape Critic), where you can see the two units side by side. 

For reference, the Air is about as thick as a pill bottle, just to give you an idea of how easy it is to hold. The vapor quality on the Air is amazing, it has 5 different temperature settings, and the battery life is very good as well. Not only that, but it has replaceable batteries, so you can always have backups on you just in case the ones you’re using die.

4. The Pax 2

If having a high tech, stealthy unit is what you’re looking for, there’s nothing better than the Pax 2. Most vapers are familiar with the original Pax, which was a very popular unit. However, it did have some drawbacks that irritated a lot of people. For one, it was a pain to clean due to the mouthpiece design. The original Pax also didn’t have that great of a capacity, and the battery life could have been a little
better.

Pax took all of this into consideration and fixed these issues with their new Pax 2. The Pax 2 has a 20% deeper oven, giving you more capacity. It’s also even smaller and lighter than the original, making it more portable. They completely changed the mouthpiece design, so cleaning it is no longer a problem. Lastly, they made the battery life better, and now you can get around 7-8 sessions on one charge instead of ~5 like in the original.

Just to sum up:

If you want the absolute best portable vaporizer for carrying around with you out of the house, go with the Crafty. If you want something that packs the punch of a desktop unit, but without being tied to a cord, and you don’t mind it being slightly less portable, the Mighty is the vape you want.