Vaporizing Cannabis FAQs

If you’ve ever had questions about a vape pen that you are thinking of picking up or have already obtained, please allow us to reference you to the Atmos brand’s page of FAQs right here. While the page primarily pertains to the Atmos brand of vaporizer pens, many of the inquiries apply to multiple brands of vape pens. 

Why choose vaporizing over smoking?
Most people choose vaporizing for personal health reasons. It is considered to be dramatically less harmful to one’s body than smoking. Vaporizing is a process that heats the product and releases only the essential moisture and oils contained. You will get the satisfaction of smoking without the harmful carcinogens, chemicals, tar and smell that smoking would release. Choosing to vaporize your taste buds and body will feel revived with the fresh tastes being released! The aromas that are given off are very pleasant, dissipate very quickly and will not offend the people around you like second hand smoke does. As an added bonus most indoor facilities allow the use of personal vaporizers. No more worrying about your hair, clothes or house smelling of smoke. Vaporizing can also have a positive effect on your finances. Depending on how much you smoke, vaporizing can be a very cost effective method of ingesting your medicine. 

 

Vitalis Extraction

Supercritical CO2 Extraction

What is Supercritical CO2 Oil?

This particularly clean and safe method of cannabis ingestion is simply CO2 in a gas or liquid state which has been pressurized into a “Super Critical” state. During the extraction process, as the gas is passed through it pulls the oils, waxes and other materials out of the cannabis plant to create an infused product which is often vaporized or ingested sublingually.

Why use Supercritical CO2

Subcritical/supercritical CO2 oil extraction has several advantages over other extraction methods:

  • CO2 is non-toxic and is Generally Regarded As Safe (GRAS) by the FDA for use in food products.  Other extraction solvents, such as hydrocarbon based propellants like propane and butane, hexane and pentane, or ethanol/alcohol mixtures require additional processing beyond the extraction process in order to ensure the product is safe for consumption.   With CO2 oil extraction, no toxins, heavy metals or hydrocarbon materials come in contact with the extracted oils.  The spent material is also free of residual contaminates so it can be re-used as well.
  • CO2 is non-flammable.  Flammable solvents must be processed in a NEMA Class 1, Division 1, 2 or 3 (explosion proof) environment.  CO2 is not flammable and does not require costly explosion proof facilities.
  • CO2 is “cold” – Botanical oil extractions can be done at temperatures that are native to the botanical material, minimizing thermal degradation of the plant material and the extracted oil.
  • CO2 is “tunable” – the solvency power of CO2 can be adjusted simply by increasing or decreasing pressures and/or temperatures.  The ability of the CO2 to selectively extract affords the ability to create unique extractions that have varying levels of desirable oils and waxes.  Less desirable plant constituents, like chlorophyl, can also be “de-selected”.  Once the extraction is complete, secondary processing is not required to have a useable product.
  • CO2 is environmentally friendly.  Industrial CO2 comes from byproducts – primarily hydrogen and ammonia manufacturing and fermentation for ethanol.  CO2 used for extractions does not contribute to the overall atmospheric CO2 levels.
Ricotta Stuffed

Cooking with Cannabis – Ricotta Stuffed Mushrooms

Ingredients

  • 8 large white mushrooms, stems removed
  • 5 cloves of garlic, crushed
  • 3-4 tablespoons partially skimmed ricotta cheese
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon infused extra virgin olive Cannaoil
  • 4 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  2. Clean mushrooms, remove stems. Chop stems and any extra mushroom.
  3. Heat olive Cannaoil in a saute pan, add chopped stem and mushrooms.
  4. Halfway through cooking, add crushed garlic, salt and pepper.
  5. Remove from heat and allow to cool a bit in a small mixing bowl. Add ricotta and 2 tablespoons grated parmesan.
  6. Fill mushroom caps with cheese mixture and place on a cookie sheet that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Sprinkle remaining Parmesan on top.
  7. Bake for about 15 minutes
  8. Enjoy – and bring us your leftovers, because this recipe is delicious and wonderful.

 

For more tasty recipes just like this one, check out the Stoner’s Cookbook right here.

The Benefits of Juicing Cannabis

As we all know, there are a wide variety of ways to ingest cannabis. You can find many of these on our page highlighting some of the more common methods of marijuana consumption right here. Recently. there has been a lot of talk about a relatively new method of cannabis ingestion; juicing. Why has it become popularized, and what makes juicing cannabis better than other methods of consumption?

Well, the parts of the cannabis plant used in juicing are the fan leaves or the cannabis bud itself. These parts of the plant contain not only over a hundred healing cannabinoids, but also contain photo-nutrients such as chlorophyll and chloroplast, which provide some of the best plant-based energy nutrients. Cannabis is rich in omega-3 and -6 fatty acids, which are essential nutrients that our bodies do not produce independently, so we must find them through the foods we consume. Cannabis has all of the essential amino acids we need, making juicing it a super nutritious option.

Juicing cannabis provides an excellent method of medicinal consumption of the healing cannabinoids present in cannabis. You can get these healing benefits from smoking cannabis, but this will also decarboxalyze the THC, inducing a psychoactive effect. While this may be beneficial for some, the non-psychoactive relief provided by the digestive absorption of cannabis juice may be more desirable for other folks. To put this in different terms, taking a hit of cannabis is comparable to taking a shot of medicine. Juicing cannabis is like drinking the bottle.

While drinking raw cannabis straight may not be so tasty, adding fruits and vegetables such as carrots, ginger and pomegranate can help out a lot with the flavor. Any fruit or vegetable juicer works for the process, but we recommend using a wheat-grass juicer for best results. Cannabis juice is best ingested fresh, in order to provide all of the medicinal benefits to patients. This means that juicing are best when they are homemade and 110% fresh.

Not only does juicing provide patients with non-psychoactive relief, but it also encourages us to use the entire plant and avoid being wasteful. Besides, the parts of the cannabis plant generally considered to be without use, such as the leaves and stems, can have their own medicinal benefit that we may not be completely aware of yet. Not only does cannabis juice provide medicinal patients with significant relief, but it also acts as a wonderful nutritional and healthy food option for many folks.

Cold and Heated Cannabis Extractions

Medical cannabis is processed for administration in various ways; fresh, dried, and cold/heated extractions (or concentrates). In this session of the Substance Cannabis Class, we will be covering the different forms of cold and heated extractions.

Cold extractions/concentrates result in various products: 

  1. Kief: Powder of the trichomes that have fallen off the plant. May be ingested raw but is usually smoked on top of flower buds or ingested in cooked edibles.
  2. Slurry: Extraction using olive oil or alcohol. Usually ingested raw.
  3. Hash: Extraction using cold water and ice. May be ingested raw, smoked or used in cooking. Variety names reflect differences in the proportion of plant material to trichomes and how the variety reacts to heat.
    • Bubble = initially bubbles when exposed to heat.
    • Full bubble = continues to bubble throughout the heating process.
    • Melt = melts or turns into gooey oil when exposed to heat.
    • Full melt = almost pure trichomes; fully melts when exposed to heat, leaving little or no residue.
  4. Wax: Extraction using a solvent, most commonly butane, propane, CO2 or O2. Removal (“purging”) of the solvent may be through cold or heat evaporation (which changes the compounds available). Waxes are usually burned or vaporized, but may be used in cooking and in topical salves. Variety names usually refer to consistency. Examples:
    • Honeycomb/Crumble = dry, crumbly texture; often has small holes like a honeycomb.
    • Budder = more viscous, consistency like butter.
    • Shatter/Glass = consistency similar to hard candy.
    • Sap = sticky texture similar to honey.
    • Taffy = firmer than sap but not brittle like shatter.

Heated extractions/concentrates convert the cannabinoid acids into their neutral forms and usually removes most of the terpenoids. Various products include: 

  1. Tea: Extraction into hot water and then drunk.
  2. Tincture: Heated cannabis that is extracted in alcohol. Usually administered directly under the tongue (sublingually).
  3. Edible: Extraction into a fat (butteroil) and then used in cooking food.
  4. Oil: Slow heating of cannabis in olive or coconut oil. Usually used in food or topically on skin.
  5. Salve/Cream/Lotion: Low heating of cannabis oil with beeswax. Used topically on skin.
cannabinoids

What Are Cannabinoids?

The Cannabis Sativa plant is known to produce over 480 chemical compounds. This includes over 100 known phytocannabinoids, commonly referred to as cannabinoids, that have not been found in any other plant. Cannabinoids can be used to treat a variety of ailments, long-term illnesses and diseases. They are known to mitigate the side-effects of heavy prescription drug use.

THC, CBD and CBN are the most tested and researched cannabinoids found in the Cannabis Sativa plant.

THC: Delta-9 Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the primary psychoactive component of cannabis.

– How can it help me?  THC moderates pain, stimulates appetite, and reduces vomiting and nausea. It alleviates contractions in the lower intestine and suppresses muscle spasms.

CBD: Cannabidiol (CBD) is a primarily non-psychoactive cannabinoid.

– How can it help me? CBD, in addition to alleviating the symptoms listed above, treats psoriasis, reduces risk of artery blockage, slows bacterial growth, and relieves neuropathic pain in patients. Research now shows it can inhibit cancer growth.

CBN: Cannabinol (CBN) is a product of THC oxidation and forms after the harvested plant is exposed to oxygen.

– How can it help me? CBN is known to help alleviate insomnia and muscle spasms, as well as relieve pain.

While the aforementioned cannabinoids are currently the most researched, they are not necessarily the most important. Other cannabinoids, such as Cannabigerol (CBG) and Cannabichromene (CBC) work with the other cannabinoids to provide overall synergy and to optimize the health benefits of cannabis itself.