The 5 Healthiest Ways to Use Marijuana

There’s no question marijuana can be beneficial to you.

Luckily, legislation is changing in many states and even countries, giving people the opportunity to actually experience these benefits, in a supportive atmosphere.

But another proven fact is that:

Smoking isn’t healthy and that’s not limited to cigarettes.

While it might help you to deal with some of your health issues, your medical weed joint might actually be hurting your respiratory tract.



It’s unfortunate that in this day and age, where many options other than smoking are available to use your marijuana, smoking is still the main way to use it for many people.

If you’re still smoking your marijuana, do yourself and your health a favor by finding a new to use your beloved herb.

In this article, we’ll discuss 5 alternatives to smoking weed.

Why Smoking Weed is Not the Best Way to Use It From a Health-Perspective

What do you want to get out of your marijuana? What if I told you that, depending on why you’re using marijuana, there are alternative ways that can meet your requirements better than smoking?

Each method will affect your body in a unique way and some methods other than smoking might more effectively produce the effect you’re looking for. Let me explain.

Ever felt sluggish and tired after smoking a joint (I did for YEARS)?

 

[caption id="attachment_27912" align="aligncenter" width="618"]Smoking isn’t healthy and that’s not limited to cigarettes.[/caption]

 

Try vaping pure marijuana, for example, it will have a much clearer and cleaner effect because there’s a 95% reduction of toxins.

Chances of you feeling lethargic are virtually reduced to zero (if you don’t use an extremely heavy strain).
But not only will your overall energy improve…

I’m sure we all one day woke up with loads of phlegm in our throats as an after-effect of the many joints we cleared the night before.

Smoking creates loads of toxins which leads to all this phlegm. If you want to reduce all this phlegm, it’s highly recommendable to use safer methods.

All of the methods mentioned below trump smoking from a health-perspective, because there are fewer harmful effects after using it…

While still giving you the same or even better medical results. That should be enough reason for you to try one of these.

How to Use Weed in a Healthy Way

Luckily, there are many options to pick from. If you need your marijuana usage to fit your lifestyle, it could be that a more discreet method than smoking will fit you better.

Lighting up a joint in every situation is just not very practical (imagine how your co-workers would react to you if you start blazing a big fat joint next to them).

If you’re using it for recreational purposes, there are even methods that could be more fun to share with friends than smoking (think of passing around a huge balloon filled with vapor).

Depending on your preferences, let’s find you a new way to use your marijuana.

#1. Eating Marijuana

Purely from a health-perspective, not much can go wrong if you consume your marijuana via the digestive tract.

You have many options consuming marijuana by eating it.



You can pick your favorite kind of food and find a way to incorporate it in there.

A popular food item is baked goods. You’ve probably heard about brownies before. Weed brownies are not only tasty but are very effective in medicating (just make sure everyone knows these brownies are weed brownies, you don’t want grandmother to accidentally eat some weed brownies).

If you live in a legal state or country, consumption is made even easier, because you can swallow cannabis oil capsules with your food.

Not in the mood for that? Why not try:

• Cannabutter


• Marijuana Crackers


• Marijuana Lollipops


• Marijuana sweets

Simply be prepared for the bitter aftertaste that can come with eating marijuana.

Eating food with marijuana is probably the healthiest way to use it, but there are a few important things to take note of:

• You’ll only feel the effect after 30-90 minutes, so this isn’t ideal if you need pain relief immediately.


• Dosage is difficult to track if placed in baked goods. Be careful not to accidentally take large doses.


• Each person’s liver metabolizes the THC differently, so you can’t predict how you’ll react. It’s important that you always test small amounts before eating a big cake for example.

But there’s 1 thing, which makes edible-lovers so in love with their edibles:

The effects of marijuana edibles are extremely long lasting. Because the THC gets released into your blood much slower and it gets metabolized much slower than if you would’ve smoked it.

Just realize you won’t get any effects if you eat your marijuana raw. It needs to be heated to release cannabinoids like THC and CBD in a process called ‘ decarboxylation ’.

#2. Drinking Marijuana Leaves

If you can stomach the taste, it’s easy to add marijuana to your diet by adding it to what you drink.

Types of Drinks

You can add it to tea, but it’s not as easy as brewing a cup, especially if you’re picky about the type of high you want:

• THC will only release if marijuana is heated up until the decarboxylation process begins. Just steeping cannabis leaves in hot water will not release the THC—which creates the high—from the plant. But you could experience the relaxing effect from the small amounts of cannabinoids that leak into the water anyway.


• Add cannabutter—bought or self-made—to your hot drinks.


• For tea that produces a true high, you need the right extraction methods to draw out all the THC. This means boiling the weed for a good amount of time and adding fat or alcohol to your tea because THC is not water-soluble.

Not in the mood for a hot beverage? What about juice? Juicing cannabis has the same effect as steeping it (slightly relaxing and many health benefits), some scientists even advocate it’s the best way to use cannabis. You can drink the juice—add it to fruit juice for a tasty effect—without getting high.

#3. Tinctures

If you need an effortless solution—without you doing the steeping and extracting—simply use tinctures.

With tinctures, by using alcohol the potent compounds of the cannabis plant, like THC and CBD, are extracted. These mixtures can then be added to drinks or be taken directly.

Tinctures with THC can only be bought in legal states and countries though.

Note that drinking isn’t the fastest acting method either. The particles first have to go through your digestive tract, which slows down the absorption process considerably and a more effective option could be to use it sublingually (holding it under your tongue).

#4. Vaping Marijuana

Vaping is not the same as smoking.

With vaping, you can get benefits of marijuana, without the bad side effects that come with smoking.
If you’re looking for something similar to smoking: vaping is a fun way to use marijuana, especially with friends, because the act of vaping is so similar to smoking.

Imagine passing around a vaporizer: it will give you the same feeling as passing around a joint.
In a vaporizer you can manage the temperature you heat the marijuana at. This is important because you don’t want to burn your herb. That’s when unhealthy toxins are released. But you can also control the effects of your vapor with the temperature (different cannabinoids have different boiling points).

Vaporizers also eliminate over 90% of toxins that are created with combustion, so your lungs will get an easy time.

This method makes sense if you need a fast-acting technique. Vaped cannabinoids enter your bloodstream extremely quickly.

If you want to learn more about vaping and vaporizers, check out Herbonaut , where they review and compare dozens of marijuana vaporizers for dry herb and oil.

#5. Absorb it Through Your Skin

Your lungs aren’t the only organs that can absorb the beneficial compounds in marijuana fast. Your skin is another one.

Topical Cream

Marijuana-infused creams are designed to combat pain. Note that the effects of the marijuana will be localized to the area you rub the cream on. So this is not a way to get high.

The benefits here include targeting painful areas, without influencing the receptors in your brain. This makes it very safe to use, with almost no side effects. It can help with:

• Burns


• Skin elasticity


• Inflammation near the skin


• Muscle pain

Patches

The same science is used in creating patches. Transdermal patches can be placed on hairless areas on your skin such as your ankle or inner wrist.

Smoke it—Wisely

If you haven’t found your ideal method above and you’re still leaning towards smoking, let’s at least find you the healthiest smoking option.

One better option than lighting up a blunt is:

Using a water bong.

Firstly, you can sidestep the nicotine found in most blunts and the water does two things for you:

• Filter the smoke from toxins (it doesn’t become toxin-free though!)


• Cool down the smoke (makes it easy on your throat)

And guess what: the beneficial effects of your marijuana may even last longer compared to one brought on by traditional smoking.

Conclusion

Inspired to try a new way of using marijuana yet? Do it as an experiment or to benefit your body. Thanks to all these options, the health benefits marijuana brings to the table can be enjoyed without harming yourself. Let’s make our marijuana experiences also be healthy experiences.

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About the Author:

Winston Peki is a marijuana enthusiast and vaporizer expert. Born and raised in Amsterdam, he grew up in a cannabis-friendly climate and learned quickly what a great ally this plant can be. He believes vaping cannabis and cannabis-based products is the easiest, safest and most straightforward alternative to smoking it. He is the Founder of Herbonaut , an informative vaporizer and cannabis-based products site where you can find vaporizer reviews, CBD oil reviews and more.

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