While many people choose to smoke traditional joints, blunts, and pre-rolls, these five alternative methods offer creative and healthy ways to receive the benefits of cannabis.
Smoking a joint is still the most common way of consuming cannabis. But while taking deep breaths relaxes us, provides us with focus, and fills us with life, inhaling smoke isn’t for everyone, even though blunts don’t contain any carcinogens and, unlike their tobacco-smoking counterparts, marijuana smokers generally do not “chain-smoke,” or smoke numerous joints in a single session. There’s little substitution for our precious lungs, so it’s important to care for them when seeking the therapeutic benefits of cannabis.
These five alternative methods offer creative and healthy ways to receive the benefits of cannabis. What’s more, these items can be made using the MagicalButter machine, the world’s first countertop botanical extractor. Keep in mind, ingredients can contain things such as residual pesticides, fungicides, or synthetic chemical fertilizers, so, be sure to buy from reputable suppliers, know your grower, and be certain to use clean cannabis cultivated with care!
Sublingual Tinctures
Sublingual, or “under the tongue,” is the way medicinals and therapeutic botanicals diffuse into the bloodstream by being absorbed through tissues located under the tongue. Compounds enter the bloodstream through a profusion of capillaries in the connective tissue beneath the epithelium. While many pharmaceuticals exist in sublingual form, increasing numbers of vitamins and minerals are being made available in sublingual form these days. This is because sublingual application bypasses degradation by enzymes, bile, and stomach acid in the gastrointestinal tract, as well as metabolism by the liver.
One of the primary reasons to use a sublingual tincture is that the onset activation time is often faster than digestion since it’s a more direct route to the bloodstream. Both alcohol and glycerine make excellent carriers for sublingual tinctures. Drops of tincture aren’t the only method for making the most of sublingual application, tablets can be made to be taken sublingually, as can oral sprays and lozenges.
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Ingestible Oils
Infusing cannabis into oils is one of the best techniques to extract and receive the medicinal benefits of the plant. This is because cannabinoids are generally fat-soluble, making oils a convenient vehicle for getting cannabinoids out of the plant and into your belly. Oils are fun to experiment with in the kitchen. Most are vegan, and when you’re not eating them, cooking or baking with them, you can use infused ingestible oils as topicals, too. From olive oil, to coconut oil, even avocado oil, there are many options. Coconut oil is a popular choice. It’s high in healthy medium-chain fatty acids with up to four times more saturated fats than olive oil, making coconut oil an ideal carrier for fat soluble cannabinoids.
RELATED: 5 Non-Smoking (And Healthy) Ways To Consume Marijuana
Topical Lotions, Salves & Balms
Our Endocannabinoid Systems’ CB1 and CB2 receptors are found throughout our skin and deeper levels of our nervous system. This is one reason why so many people are finding the same muscle relaxant, pain relieving, and anti-inflammatory properties associated with consuming cannabis are also achieved when applying it topically to the skin. Think insect repellent, tattoo aftercare lotion, hair conditioner and lip balm, to name a few. When applied topically, cannabinoids are absorbed by the skin, yet do not travel the bloodstream in a capacity that creates intoxication. This means when applying cannabis lotions, salves and balms (oils and butters, too!) to your skin, you can experience the localized benefits without getting high.
Suppositories
Suppositories allow you to medicate while avoiding a head high. Using rectal suppositories, properly (by not inserting them too far), one can provide cannabinologic therapy to the physical area while bypassing metabolism by the liver. This keeps the therapy localized, avoiding intoxication. The same holds true for vaginal suppositories. People are turning to cannabis suppositories for lower back pain, menstrual cramps, MS, and more. Organic, raw cacao butter is the fat of choice for infusing cannabis into effective suppository therapies.
Vaporization & ABV
Studies have shown that vaporizing helps minimize the negative effects of smoking and combustion. Tars and toxins, like carbon monoxide, are present when cannabis is heated past its smoke point. Vaporizing keeps fire and intense temperatures away from the flower while gently heating cannabinoids and other beneficial compounds, like terpenes and flavonoids, enough to release them into the air. This produces a similar effect to smoking while greatly reducing the release of harmful toxins. Switching from smoking to using a vaporizer has also been shown improve overall respiratory function. And, that’s just one of the best benefits of vaporization. Since vaporization doesn’t burn or char the cannabis, the leftover already been vaped bud or “ABV,” still maintains some potency and can be repurposed in the MagicalButter machine to infuse ingestible oils, topicals, and tinctures.
Presented by MagicalButter.
Zoe Wilder is a cannabis industry consultant, writer, PR and communications professional working with people and businesses alike to cultivate success. In addition to bylines in Rolling Stone, High Times, Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Merry Jane, MassRoots, and more, Wilder has been applauded as a “pioneer” and “force” by Stoner Magazine and a “connoisseur of the sticky icky” by Cheddar TV’s Freddy B. She runs her own media and consulting company, a Brooklyn-based independent record label, and holds a MA in Social Work from Fordham University and a BA in English from William & Mary.
