Dabbing is a highly enjoyable, more efficient way to get your cannabis. Technically, dabbing is using a dabbing rig to vaporize highly potent cannabis concentrates. But many people wonder whether dabbing is cannabis consumption run amuck.
Actually, dabbing has been around for a long time. Since it’s getting so much more popular now, it pays to dispel a few myths and highlight a few of the benefits of dabbing cannabis the right way.
What is Dabbing?
Dabbing is just another way to use cannabis. However, in this case the cannabis is in concentrate form, and instead of smoking, you vaporize the dabs.
Dabs include cannabis concentrates such as badder or budder, a sticky concentrate; cannabis oil; shatter, a translucent, hard substance that can either pull like taffy or shatter like glass; and wax, a concentrate that’s similar in consistency to honey. The user heats the dabbing device, adds the concentrate to the banger or nail, and inhales the vapor that instantly forms thanks to the heat. So although it looks different in many ways, dabbing is very similar to vaping, just with concentrates.
Benefits of Dabbing
There are lots of benefits of dabbing, but here are the main advantages:
Medical Grade Dosing
The main advantage of dabbing for most consumers is that the effect is much stronger and cleaner than what you’d expect from a vaporizer or a joint. Because it is effective and fast acting, dabbing can also be an effective way to treat acute symptoms for medical marijuana patients. Comparing single inhalation for single inhalation, dabbing beats other techniques in terms of delivering higher doses of cannabinoids and terpenes.
This means that higher dosages that can be tough or impossible to achieve by smoking flower alone are achievable via dabbing. Of course, for patients who rely on cannabis to manage chronic pain, nausea, seizures, and other medical conditions, this is incredibly valuable.
So for people who need the medical benefits of cannabis at stronger doses but don’t really seek out that high feeling, we recommend dabbing. These users can find a new way to apply a single dab to knock out symptoms but not lose their mental sharpness.
Less Smoke is Healthier
Another serious benefit of dabbing is that it’s healthier than smoking. This is because the concentrates you are vaporizing contain cannabinoids and terpenes, but no other organic plant matter. It’s the other organics that create that smoke, and the smoke is the part to lose. Vaporization is milder and less irritating for both your lungs and your neighbors—meaning it’s also less smelly, despite delivering more flavor.
Looking at dabbing vs smoking in focus, think of it this way. Purity is the big difference. The best flower you’ll find is never going to be more than 30% THC, right? There will be plenty of inactive metabolites, chlorophyll, and other stuff burning up and sitting in your lungs as smoke. These compounds are stressful for the lungs, for your body’s overall health, and lack medicinal benefits.
Well-made, pure cannabis concentrates offer consumers a pure, clean pure product free from plant matter that’s easier on the lungs. Dabs eliminate the bad stuff while still delivering everything you want, the cannabinoids and terpenes.
More Potency
Even if you’re not a medical marijuana patient, it’s tough to argue with the incredible potency and purity that cannabis concentrates and dabbing have to offer thanks to modern science. Particularly for those who may have developed a tolerance over the years, or who just want the same effects from smoking less often, dabbing is the way to create a better cannabis experience—even with a tiny dab using a small dab rig.
Less Mess/More Efficiency
Dabbing concentrates is actually so much simpler than you think, whether you choose the super easy dab pen or e-nail, or you’re more old school with a dab rig and blowtorch. There’s no need to sweep up a mess or clean out your grinder. And the “less mess” theme is even olfactory, because dabbing smells less, making it more discreet.
Furthermore, even your cheapest father figure would grudgingly admit that dabbing is efficient. The design of dab rigs and the process itself ensures that every bit of the concentrate evaporates rapidly, and that all of the cannabinoids and terpenes vaporize to completion, each time. That means you get them all!
More Flavor
The biggest benefit to us, from a personal standpoint, is just the flavor. The flavor is truly stunning. Dabbing means keeping your dab rig at a low, steady, even temperature, and this process coupled with a nice, clean concentrate delivers an extraordinarily flavorful hit. Ask even serious joint fans and they’ll tell you; temperature control plus the high concentration of terpenes that concentrates are known for makes for a high-flavor version of the unique cannabis aroma and taste you’re looking for.
A Clearer High
Another advantage to losing excess plant matter is a clearer high. So even though you’re definitely getting more in the way of cannabinoids and terpenes from concentrates, many users report that the high they get from dabbing is clearer, less foggy, and more insightful than it is when they smoke flower.
Disadvantages of Dabbing
Clearly, we are fans of dabbing, but even a good thing has its downsides. Here are a few disadvantages of dabbing cannabis:
- If you’re using a dab rig, you’re using an open heat source like a blowtorch. If you’re also getting high, that can be risky.
- The concentrate itself can be dangerous if it isn’t made well. Extracting cannabinoids and terpenes from the cannabis plant is a painstaking process which requires complex mechanical processes, lots of labor and time, and/or chemical solvents such as alcohol, butane, CO2, ethanol, or propane. These chemicals should all be purged from a well-made, pure concentrate—but something less trustworthy may contain residual solvents.
- Overdosing on cannabis, although never fatal, is also never fun. With more potent cannabis products, overdosing is a greater risk.
Final Thoughts on the Benefits of Dabbing
How you get your cannabis on is a personal choice, and choosing the way that’s best for you demands patience, time, and open-mindedness. What works best for you may be a non-starter for someone else.
Dabbing cannabis concentrates is an excellent method for many, because it is effective, strong, and enjoyable. It has also fostered a new generation of cannabis fans who are pushing for new, flavorful strains with great genetics. These same users are also helping change the laws surrounding cannabis, and the larger culture, too.
So sure, dabbing as an experience is still evolving, and it’s not yet perfect. But we think cannabis concentrates have way too much to offer both recreational users and medical marijuana patients to ignore.