How To Inhale Weed Properly
Inhaling weed might seem intuitive and easy, and it is, but still, so many people don’t do it properly. And this isn’t just true of newbies (although newbies do tend to inhale worse than experienced smokers), even the pros sometimes don’t inhale their weed properly. Inhaling weed properly is important for a good smoke session, it will not only make your time more enjoyable but will also be beneficial to your health.
This guide will go over exactly how to inhale correctly and why it’s important, so keep reading to find out if you’ve been inhaling marijuana wrong this whole time.
Best Practices
Believe it or not, the best practices for inhaling marijuana are taking small and shallow tokes. This is contrary to what most people picture as being the correct way to inhale, taking as large a pull as possible and trying to hold it in your lungs for a long time. While the thinking behind this method makes sense– the larger and longer the pull the stronger the high— it’s wrong. In fact, 95% of the THC in your flower is absorbed within 2 seconds. Isn't that crazy? Doesn't matter if its a massive bong, pipe, or even dab rig.
So there’s no need to hold in your smoke for as long as possible, all that does is damage your lungs by allowing more tar and resin to enter. And if you are thinking to yourself that you feel like you get higher when you hold in your smoke longer that’s only because your brain has less oxygen getting to it when you do that.
The best practice for inhaling weed is to take a small toke from your device and hold the smoke in your lungs for a meager 2 seconds.
Why it Matters
Smoking properly matters mainly for your health, no matter how long you hold in your smoke you’re going to get high, so it’s really just a matter of what’s better for your lungs. When you smoke weed, you inhale not only the herb but also small amounts of tar and other resin. Your body naturally fights these off and in small amounts, they are no big deal.
When it does become a problem, however, is when you start taking super huge rips and holding them in for as long as possible. That is when you will have large amounts of tar and resin enter your lungs, which is too much for your body to fight off, and this will cause damage to your lungs.
How to Hold It?
Holding in your smoke is not difficult: simply bring your mouth to the mouthpiece of whatever you are smoking with, take a shallow inhale, count to 2, and then exhale. Remember, you will get just as high with this method as taking super large tokes and holding in your smoke for longer. You can also take as many tokes as you want, so feel free to rapidly fire off your small tokes if that’s what your heart desires.
One thing to note here, however, is that you must actually inhale the weed directly into your lungs. While you should only hold the smoke in your lungs briefly, it still needs to enter your lungs at some point. Just putting a blunt or pipe to your mouth will not cut it, smoking weed is not akin to smoking a cigar.
There have even been studies done where smokers held the smoke in their mouths but did not inhale into their lungs, the results showed that this did not get anybody high. So inhale into your lungs, but only for a brief amount of time (2 seconds) and then exhale and repeat.
Cough to Get Off? How to Avoid Coughing
Coughing is often renowned as a right of passage into marijuana smoking and becoming a stoner. It’s a common notion that when a newbie joins a smoke session for the first time they should cough when they inhale.
Often coughing is thought to be your lungs just adjusting to the new sensation and that you need to cough in order to know that you inhaled enough weed. This is all nonsense though, all coughing should really tell you is that you are hurting your lungs.
Our bodies are programmed to tell us when something is wrong, this is why we feel pain in the first place, to make us know that we need to stop whatever is causing the pain. Coughing is much the same as it’s our body’s way of telling us that something isn’t right, and in the case of inhaling too hard, that means too much tar and resin is getting to your lungs.
To avoid coughing take smaller and shallower tokes. If you do start coughing then take a sip of water and note that your next toke needs to be smaller and quicker. That said, you may cough your first time smoking regardless. Even the small amount of tar that your body is able to fight off may cause some aggravation to your lungs since it’s completely new to you. If you are a seasoned veteran smoker and still coughing that raises some more concerns, in this case, be sure to cut back on the amount of smoke you inhale and the time you hold it in.
If inhaling weed properly isn’t enough you can also look into buying a mouthpiece filter. Mouthpiece filters are designed to filter out tar and resin which will make the smoke you inhale into your lungs healthier and less likely to cause you to cough. Coughing a lot even when you employ the correct marijuana inhalation methods is a sign that you may need to add a mouthpiece filter.
Summary
Both newbies and stoners often don’t know how to inhale weed properly. Many wrongly believe that they need to take large inhales and hold in their smoke as long as possible to get adequately high when in reality 95% of the THC from your bud is absorbed within 2 seconds of inhaling. Because of this, the correct way to inhale is to actually take a small and quick toke, make sure the smoke enters your lungs but only for about 2 seconds.
This will reduce the amount of tar and resin that enter your lungs and will help you to not cough. Coughing is a sign that you are holding in your smoke too long so if you are coughing often then try to exhale your smoke quicker. If that fails you can also turn to a mouthpiece filter to help reduce the amount of tar and resin that get to your lungs. Ultimately how you smoke and inhale your weed is up to you but the safest and most effective method is to take small pulls, hold for 2 seconds, exhale, and repeat.
