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How Rich People Smoke Pot
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The Volcano Vaporizer has become a coveted status symbol for posh pot smokers, who say it draws out the drug's aroma like "the bouquet of a wine," and their personal trainers insist on it.
As the executive director of NORML, the leading lobbying organization for pot smokers’ rights, Allen St. Pierre gets asked a lot of strange questions. But the one he’s been getting lately is, “What is that metal thing they use on Weeds?”
The answer is the Volcano Vaporizer, a smokeless inhalation device that has recently shown up on both the Showtime series and HBO’s Bored to Death, in which a sexy stoner played by Jenny Slate lures Jason Schwartzman into her bedroom to test one out. (“Just squeeze down on that nipple and suck in the vapors,” she coaches him.) It’s even used at the renowned Chicago restaurant Alinea, albeit unconventionally, to pipe aromas of nutmeg and coffee to diners as they eat dessert.
The Volcano is affectionately known as the “Mercedes Benz” of toking up.
“If you live in Ohio, or if you’re a baby boomer who has no problem with cannabis, and you see them using that, you’re asking, ‘What’s going on?’” says Pierre. “There’s a veneer of sophistication to it. This is not your daddy’s bong.”
Indeed, the Vaporizer wouldn’t look out of place in the pages of the Hammacher Schlemmer catalog. With its sleek, brushed-aluminum chassis and digital temperature gauge, it could be mistaken for a device that steams milk. And, perhaps not incidentally, the $700 Volcano is growing in popularity with the cappuccino crowd—highly educated strivers who demand nothing but the best. “If you’re buying this, you are either an aficionado, or you are well-read in the best ways to deliver cannabis to your body as science currently tells us,” says Pierre. “Otherwise you’d have to have a lot of vanity to drop this much money.”
“After I understood what it was, I immediately ordered one,” says a criminal lawyer in his 60s who heard about the Volcano from a colleague. “I have friends who are musicians. They get together at each other’s houses. These are businesspeople and professionals. They don’t smoke cigarettes. We filled up the bag with their pot and passed it around. None of them had seen it before. They were amazed.” He believes the Volcano—affectionately known as the “Mercedes Benz” of toking up—should be a standard offering for high-end travelers. “Someone should start a hotel chain with a Volcano in every room. I think there are a lot of people who would pick a hotel just for this.”
What might be most remarkable about the Volcano is its engineering. It works by pushing hot air through the cannabis, delivering all the chemicals that get you high without combustion or carcinogens. Using it is about as easy as operating a rice cooker. After waiting for the vaporizer to heat up, you place about half a gram of ground pot in a small chamber and press a button that releases the “vapor” (a misnomer since there’s no actual water) into a large bag with a mouthpiece on it. The vapor dissipates quickly, making the pot smell disappear. The user then smokes from the bag. “For me, it was the satisfaction that there was no smoke,” the lawyer says. “I wasn’t getting any carbon monoxide into my blood. I wasn’t doing anything that might hurt me. It made the experience better.”
Vaporizers are nothing new. The devices have been sold in magazines like High Times and Cannabis Culture since the early ‘90s, but the original versions were clunky and not very user-friendly. They didn’t take off until 2000, when NORML co-sponsored a study looking for pot alternatives after the FDA asserted there is no such thing as a “smoke medicine.” An MIT student approached the organization saying he had invented “the safest way to inhale marijuana.” Storz & Bickel, a German design company that manufactures the Volcano, refined the findings into what they considered the best vaporizer on the market. Early units sold for thousands of dollars at drug-conference auctions. “They were just so notable,” says Pierre. “It was clear they were going to become the standard.”
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orpheusckauszlawski
Super, though expensive. A great divice. Every home should have one"
Sum kin tay ka
Trip on the ass id,
Slide if you can,
But re mem burr
Mind eggs pan ding
Drugs ar not food
Fir thought
Speed kin kill bed
Er fass tiff yoo wanna
Get high c.1971
One of my favorite passages from The Book ov Lev It A Kiss, the hand lettered Television Scripture written down by Michael Stephen Levinson to perform live from dusk until dawn on "whirled" wide television for all the worlds' peoples tomparticipate in all at once.
michaelslevinson.com
DakLak
At least this gabage is short and doesn't force us to change pages.
What's with the name change?
jeffhendricks
nice stuff e cig
CitizenPain
1st toke was in the Summer of Love - wow - then stationed in Hawaii during U.S. Marine Corps duty -wow-
Monk66
Vapes are by far the best way to smoke.
What the author didn't mention is a joint or blunt gives you about 15% of the THC. A bong or pipe gives you about 30%. A vaporizor gives you about 95% of the THC.
That is why people get to stoned to function.
And probably why michael above me says the crap he says.. Some people just can't handle it.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
GerdGas
seakiev, why are you worried about it?
Monk66
Vapes. It's a lot easier to say when you're high.
And I each mathematics at a private college. I'm part of that elite group of pot smokers than can afford a vape.
Two Masters Degrees. Mathematics and Computer Science. What have you done in your lifetime with regards to your education?
felipe
seakiev
anybody who is still a judgmental asshole about what people do in their private lives, really needs to get a life and quit worrying about other people are doing. BTW - when is the last time you drank alcohol ? Last weekend? Yeah, that's what I thought. S.T.F.U.
SeaSection
Monk66 = One good reason for some people to leave pot alone.
In his first reply, he spells to, when too would be the proper use in the sentence.
In his second reply, he inserts each, and does not check his spelling to see that he meant teach.
seakiev
Monk66,
I have a MBA and I know how to spell.
UncleKudzu
Monk66, you're stoned now! you've actually made more spelling mistakes than the ones mentioned, but maybe that's a good endorsement for this vaporizer thing! i'm intrigued...
seakiev, you have *an* MBA, maybe? everybody is all smoked up, er, vaped up and arguing about spelling - makes me want to pick up old habits :-)
gak001
Oh my god, you got an MBA too? You act like it's hard to get an MBA. The hardest part of business is not falling asleep in the middle of class.
liberatorquest
The eternal student Monk66, only a stoner could stay in college that long!!!!LOL
rcdubs
I am an asthmatic and I can't speak highly enough about this contraption. I am very healthy, run 8-12 miles a week and my habit/medicine doesn't interfere at all. What they don't tell you is how it conserves the herbs (wasting less than smoking) and how you can bake with the discarded product. It pays for itself in less than a year.
TheWildestofThings
ah the volcano, every stoner's dream. i want one so bad ;[
berkeleystudent
I enjoy vaporising, but it will not replace smoking, and it is not the same high.
When you vaporise cannabis the temperature is too low for the THC acids A and B to activate. Tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabidiolic acid DO vaporise along with a good number of the minor constituents (other compounds in cannabis ) but even some of them don't activate at the low temperatures needed for vaporising.
Smoking and vaporising are different highs because your inhaling different active chemical combinations (even if you use the same cannabis).
@ Monk66, the only way you can imbibe 95% of the active ingredients in cannabis is by eating it, I have owned a volcano for years and like rcdubs I use my "vaped" yellow cannabis to make very, very potent butter.
You can get volcano temperatures high enough to smoke if your not careful, If your cannabis is blackish brown, your getting more particulates, negating some the health benefits of vaporising in the first place.
Vaporising is great, don't get me wrong...
But if you want to activate all the possible compounds in cannabis, smoking is the only way.
GerdGas
Go look at the manual for the Volcano and look at the scale that shows temperatures. If using the digital version, what temperate setting are you claiming is "high enough to smoke if you're not careful"?
Monk66
You're absolutely right. My mistake.
GerdGas
I have had a Volcano for over five years now. It's a different effect than smoking. A deeper effect and lasts many hours. It will NOT make bad pot into good pot. Bad pot you're better off smoking than trying in the Volcano. The bags are easily replaced with grocery store oven bags and the rest is easily cleaned (regularly clean!) with rubbing alcohol. You should get 3-6 bags usually and it's an excellent way to find out if your pot is bad, because if it's bad pot the vapor will be virtually invisible\non-existent. The smell goes away fairly quickly, especially if you do not leave the piece sitting on Volcano (only set the bag piece in when it's getting filled up and smell will be minimal). When you exhale you'll notice it doesn't feel like smoke. It feels more smooth than smoke and if you hold it in for a while, you may not even see anything when you exhale. Enjoy!
liberatorquest
Wow this has turned into a stoner's convention, great inside into this world, thanks!!!!
Trilby16
I don't know about rich people smoke but I do know how growers smoke it: too much. If you think it won't affect your brain and especially your memory at large quantities, you are kidding yourself.
MTinMO
Most people I've known combine other things with what they smoke. They drink, they eat unhealthy foods, they do nothing to stimulate their mind. When they say a mind is a terrible thing to waste, they are right. If you do not exercise your mind, your memory and some skills may suffer. You cannot blanket pot with such statements unless you include all other factors. I know people who have regularly smoked, i.e. daily, and their minds are as sharp as a tack. I think alcohol does a whole lot more damage then pot ever did. And I think there is plenty of evidence of that.
In Alaska, where pot is legal because the Alaska Constitution is very strong on privacy and personal rights, many people indulged in regular smoking in the privacy of their home while doing jobs during the day that people would have never guessed they were smokers. They managed just fine. But because pot is still criminalized federally and in most states (unless they have medical laws) people can't admit to the usage therefore keeping real information out of the public realm. Wouldn't be at all surprised, indeed have heard it was true, that even Sarah Palin indulged.
Trilby16
Yes, I can "blanket" pot. While it is possible that other brains will not be affected the way mine was, I can state that I had/have no other unhealthy habits, NONE, but I had unlimited quantities of pot available to me and the bad influence of my ex-husband, a grower, and smoked waaaay too much of the really primo stuff. Now I suffer with mild cognitive impairment that I try to hide as I cling to my spot in the workforce. I struggle to put sentences together, to type, to remember things, and to keep working as I am too young to retire.
When I read articles about ways to wring ever more THC out of an already not-benign substance, I worry for people. I want to warn them out of concern. If you don't want to heed my warning, fine. But I can't not say it.
When you are young you think nothing can ever hurt you. Well it can.
I came up in the 60's (really, early 70's) and back then we smoked the LEAVES of not very strong pot! I don't think I ever saw a bud until many years later when my ex-husband started to indulge and then over-indulge, and then grow it himself. The pot today is a different thing entirely. You can get really wasted on a small amount. You think that does nothing to your brain over time? REALLY???
Please, people. Your brain is too valuable to "waste."
estcruzer
All thing in moderation - if you drink to much water you will kill yourself. To much of most things will kill you - I wouldn't recommend not drinking water (or anything else for that matter) as a cure to drinking to much. I would recommend - drinking in moderation, in a healthy fashion.
As far as smoking pot is concerned - the same applies - smoke to much and you will do serious damage, to you lungs. But, smoking to much is the problem - cigarettes kill, fire smoke kills, if taken to excess. The problem isn't the pot, it's the will power and intelligence/ignorance of the smoker. Case in point Trilby16.
SocialSecretion
Trilby,
Not that I'm calling you a liar, but you should seriously get yourself studied because you'd be the first person ever to have long term negative effects from pot smoking. Or your herb was laced. While definitely capable of gunking up the brain in the short term (it affects all people differently), all negative effects have been proven time and again to pass with time. (It doesn't kill any brain cells that can't be regenerated - a proven fact.)
Maybe you are suffering from something else entirely?
SocialSecretion
I clarify:
No long term damage to your brain. Lungs are another thing, depending on how much and how long you are a smoker.
RockyMissouri
@MTinMO- Thank you for being an informed and rational person.! Funny, considering how much damage alcohol does-and THAT damage is well-known! You don't have to be a drinker to know of the problems with alcohol-
in the same way, you don't have smoke cannabis to discover information that it has been a casualty of the so-called 'war on drugs'. I would strongly
advise anyone to do their own objective research.
gak001
Carbon monoxide poisoning? We don't have to smoke as much these days since it's allegedly stronger. I'd definitely like to see some studies to determine if there is a causal relationship and not just a correlation.
SeaSection
Trilby16 and their ilk are the same self righteous crusaders found at AA or stop smoking meetings.
Trilby16 would have found some other drug, alcohol most likely, but the point is your problem is not indicative that other's will have problems.
Nothing worse than a so called reforemed anything. They come off with their holier than thou attitude, because they could not handle pot, no one else can have any.
Get your neurosis in check, then you will have a better time enjoying your weed.
MTinMO
So you didn't have the capability of stopping or saying enough for now? You were like the alcoholic that drinks as long as it's there to drink? Did you do other things like get your daily exercise? Did you drink sufficient quantities of water? (Not doing so can contribute to your system not flushing itself properly and other medical problems.) Did you eat healthy non-processed foods? As I stated before, I have known lots of people who partook regularly and are still healthy, thinking and productive adults. I am in no way advocating use for minors or for those who have addictive problems, but for adults who know when to say when I don''t believe pot should be an illegal substance. In your other post you mention a link that is to a government link. I have to tell you, I cannot put much stock in any "government studies" because I know the government has not been above board on this issue. I know they have buried studies for decades that have said pot was not as harmful as alcohol and should not be considered unsafe. They didn't want to hear that so the study was not allowed to be published. The government has consistently tried to keep anything that could be considered favorable towards pot out of circulation and has even classified it in the same class as heroin and cocaine. It is not the same and should never be in that classification. Being there, it enables law enforcement to charge people that have pot as they would those that have hard drugs. They prosecute and jail people who, other than having/using pot, are productive, working, taxpaying Americans. It shouldn't happen.
I'm sorry you had a problem. You evidently didn't have the knowledge or capability to say "I've had enough for now", and may well be suffering from the consequences. I have to wonder though, if you have medical diagnosis that it is the result of your pot smoking, or if it could be some other underlying medical problem. You seem to be capable of reading this article, posting your responses and responding to others posts. Just wondering.
liberatorquest
Trilby is absolutely right, pot is no good, and to all you weed glorifiers out there I say: Grow up and get a life!!!!
SeaSection
Being told to get off pot and get a life by liperquater, is like being told to stay off pain pills by Lush Windbag, and stop phone sex harassment by Bill O'Reilly.
Tim Meehan
Ina post below you talk about "bad influence of my ex-husband..."
I think that has more to do with your negative attitude toward pot than anything else. Do you have health insurance? I'd get that 'cognitive impairment' looked at stat. Stop blaming cannabis for for your personal problems.
GerdGas
Trilby16: please post some studies that show what you're saying. Also, to be fair, have you read all studies about pot? Just curious if you're looking at serious research before you speak to others.
Trilby16
Here ya go:
http://www.drugabuse.gov/NIDA_Notes/NNVol11N3/MarijMemory.html
There are many more. You can Google it.
overdue
Thank you for that link, Triby16.
I can rest assured that your word is good, as I trust ANYTHING "dot gov," especially with such, ahem, objective words as "drug abuse" in them.
And it's reassuring to see the link, "nicotine_abuse.gov" on their home page, as well.
What? Oh, I thought I saw it there.... :-/
estcruzer
I didn't look, was there also alcohol_abuse, sugar_abuse, fat_abuse or was it just another Republican site attacking drug usage (while they give significant tax breaks to the pharmaceutical companies).
Resolute
Notice that the broadest claim the government is willing to make on that site is that you have short-term memory impairment, meaning the ability to learn new information, up to 24-hours after you smoke, if you smoke everyday. That's it. Nothing there about long-term effects because they can't find any. Read your own sources.
SharnCedar
I stopped smoking my junior year in college. I roomed with a grower and his wife and family that year. He was a nice guy, but he was wasted. Just wasted. His brain was mush - and all he did was smoke pot, no other drugs.
Like you say, it might be different for different people. Even from the brief smoking I did, I still feel a mental sluggishness almost 20 years later, and some amotivational syndrome. It's a powerful drug - to imagine it will have no long-term effects on the mind is wishful thinking.
JimmyJ
The Volcano WAS the mercedes benz back in 2003. Today there are new models which are much more practical. You have the iolite portable - http://www.1percent.com/vaporizers/portable-vaporizers which is the size of a mobile phone and is great at bars, restaurants and even taxis.
There is also the Extreme-Q which is very similar to the Volcano but 1/2 the price, 1/4 the weight and even has a remote control. Does bags for groups or whip for single use - http://1percent.com/extreme-vaporizer.html
My Volcano rarely makes an appearance anymore. Only for dinner parties of 12
DakLak
I hear from friends who indulge British Columbia's best home grown can't be bettered when used in this device.
GerdGas
DakLak: Well, now you've heard from someone else that it can be bettered, in terms of less waste compared to smoking, the effects lasts many hours longer, but it's important to note if you have bad pot it won't turn bad pot into good pot. It's ones own fault if they acquire bad pot.
Monk66
aka BC pot.
CA pot is the best.
SeaSection
All this propaganda about the THC content, being so much stronger than the THC content of old, is hooey.
Nothing can compete with the Colombian Red and Gold, Acapulco Gold, Thai sticks, and Black African, of the free spirited 70s.
It was pure economics, better to carry an ant than an elephant, as in better to grow coca leaves than Mary Jane.
Much smaller loads, much more profit.
Mauiboy
Wowie!
SavvyMike
I just got a vape in the past week and it has been great! It's been a week since I smoked anything and I feel awesome! Yes, using a vape will result in ingesting more of the herbal matter than if you smoke it, so just take it slowly!
Also, don't pay an arm and a leg for a Volcano, the vape I got is awesome and costs less than half! Search for the 'Extreme Q' vaporizer by Arizer! Way more features than the Volcano and super cheap, I love mine!
GerdGas
pffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffft
felipe
The Volcano, while a fun toy, is not worth anything near $700. You can get a perfectly good new Vapor Bros. vaporizer for less than $100 on eBay (I got mine for $60). Take the money you save and buy weed.
Anybody willing to spend $700 on this, or any other device has more money than brains.
GerdGas
felipe, I have used that cheap stuff before. Volcanos save your stash big time, if you use it like I do. I just thought I'd throw in my two cents that over time I have gained the price back, in terms of stash amounts more efficiently used over smoking. The cheap stuff if it makes you happy, go for it; but, they didn't work for me. I prefer old fashioned pipe over cheap vaporizers.
felipe
Inexpensive does not necessarily mean poorly made with substandard parts, just as expensive does not automatically translate into high quality (no pun intended). I try to be a smart shopper, that's all.
My model has mineral ceramic heating element and is made in the USA. Its not a cheap chinese knock off as Jimmy J assumes below. I know this because they, Vapor Bros., honored the warranty when I broke the glass covering the heating element.
As for lead in the heating element monk, all I have to work with is V.B.s statements:
"Vapor Brothers is the only vaporizer to use a 100% ceramic NATURAL MINERAL HEATER." (emphasis is theirs). &
"Vapor Brothers commitment to no toxins in our products translates into the ultimate in clean smooth vaporizing experience."
Good enough for me, and the truth is that Volcano can't say or prove anymore than that either.
JimmyJ
friends don't let friends buy vaporizers on Ebay. All cheap knockoffs from China with dangerous heating elements.
Monk66
like lead.
felipe
Maybe I just got lucky, but its the real thing with a ceramic heating element.
Nothing is is ever 'all', 'never' or 'always'
Schlitz
Don't spend $700:
Volcano Valve set: $120
Craftsman heat gun: $110
To use:
Set the temperature dial on the gun to 5.5, put the motor on "2", and enjoy a substantially reduced-cost vaporizer. Make friends and impress dates with your ingenuity and practical thrift.
GerdGas
This really does work! Not as convenient and attractive as an actual Volcano, but if you follow proper temperature and not create smoke, this method does work!
JanetMcDonaugh
Volcanoes don't cost $700. Only the digital ones do. The traditional model, which is better, runs $540.
prettyscary1
Wow a Stoner's Fest on TDB!
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