With cannabis being legalized for recreational and medical use in Colorado, the industry has seen rapid growth over the last few years. This growth has included not only more marijuana dispensaries, but also alternative methods of marijuana use such as dabbing.
In such a fast growing market it can be hard to keep up, so here is a detailed overview of what dabbing is, why you’d want to do it, and how to do it.
What is Dabbing?
Dabbing is a method of using marijuana that differs a good deal from traditional smoking. For starters, dabbing does not use the marijuana plant, but uses a concentrate instead that has no remaining plant matter. Due to the fact it uses a concentrate, it has a much stronger and longer lasting effect when you use it.
There are plenty of reasons why you’d want a stronger and longer effect. Many people use marijuana not just for recreation but for health reasons. A common medical use for marijuana is the relief of chronic pain. When you have chronic pain the amount of THC you need in your system to relieve it is very hard to get through traditional smoking methods.
With dabbing you can use a much smaller amount to get the desired effect far easier and more quickly.
What is Wax?
Dab wax is the marijuana concentrate you use when dabbing. Dab wax goes by several names, including wax, budder, shatter, or BHO (butane hash oil).
The names give you an idea of the consistency of the concentrate. Wax is so named because it resembles other forms of wax, budder is a play on butter, shatter is glass-like and you can break it with your hands, and BHO is exactly what it says on the label, an oil concentrate.
No matter how it is refined, the extraction methods are mostly the same. Butane is pushed though marijuana plants and collects the plants’ chemicals, oils, and other reactive substances. Once the butane evaporates, the remaining concentrate has THC levels of 70 to 90 percent and is further refined into a finished product.
Tools Required and How to Use Them
As dabbing is a little bit different than smoking, it requires its own tools. Here are the tools you’ll need to dab effectively.
- A Dab Rig: the first thing to understand is that while many dab rigs look like pipes, they are not bongs so how you use them is a bit different. A dab rig basically contains a pipe to collect vapor which you inhale and a heated section used to melt the dab wax.
- The Nail: this is the part of the dab rig that is heated to melt the wax. Nails are commonly made of titanium or quartz crystal. Normally you heat these with a small blow torch and, once properly heated, you place the dab on top and inhale as it melts and gives off vapors.
- Dabber: naturally you’re not going to want to touch a red hot nail when applying your dab to it. A dabber is a tool used to place dab wax onto a heated nail.
Okay, now that you have the tools of the trade and some high quality dab you’re likely thinking, Well, now what?”
Here is a brief outline of how to dab:
- Set your rig up. Make sure everything is neat, orderly, and nothing that can catch on fire is nearby.
“Season” the nail. If you’ve ever owned and seasoned a cast iron skillet this is a similar process. When you have a new nail, you need to break it in before using it with dab. So heat the bare nail it until it is red hot and then cool it in water. - Heat the nail until it is red hot.
- Use your dabber to get a bit of wax and apply the dab wax to the heated nail.
- Start inhaling as you slide the dab onto the heated nail and soon you’ll be inhaling the vapors produced.
- Once there is no more vapor being produced and all the dab has been melted, exhale.
Repeat the process five to six times.
Chronic Therapy
Dabbing is an effective and interesting way of using marijuana that has several benefits. Before dabbing, you’re going to want the highest quality dab wax you can find. Because it is very difficult to make, you’re going to need to buy dab from professionals. When looking for the highest quality products in Colorado, you need to browse the many different offerings from Chronic Therapy. We are ready to help longtime dab enthusiasts and newcomers alike, so visit us today!