Vaporizer Good for Medical Pot intake-REPOSTED FROM I SMOKE BUT DIDNT INHALE BY STEVEN DUBOVSKY

"I Didn’t Smoke, But I Inhaled"
A smokeless vaporizer might decrease dangerous combustion products, thus encouraging medical marijuana use.


Despite the potential of marijuana to cause dependence and to function as a gateway drug, it has medical applications in treating nausea, pain, and weight loss associated with certain serious medical illnesses. However, smoked marijuana can cause lung damage and may be carcinogenic. These researchers examined features of a new delivery system, the "Volcano," an electric vaporizer that converts cannabis to a gas that can be inhaled with a lower concentration of such dangerous substances as polycyclic hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide (CO), and tar.

The vaporizer, which resembles a humidifier with a mouthpiece, heats cannabis to 180°–200°C, which vaporizes cannabinoids on the surface of the leaves without combustion. In an NIH-supported study involving a 6-day hospitalization, 18 adult marijuana users inhaled three strengths of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in uniform puffs from cigarettes and from the vaporizer. At each strength, the vaporizer produced higher 30- and 60-minute plasma levels of THC but the same 2-minute peak level, area under the time-concentration curve, and self-reported high. Exhaled CO increased much less with the vaporizer than with smoking (P<0.001). Most participants preferred the vaporizer to smoking.

Comment: The virtual absence of exhaled CO may indicate the lack of other combustion products, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and oxidant gases that can cause lung damage and cancer. As most participants favored the vaporizer, it is more likely to increase addiction risks than to reduce them. Nonetheless, the system may facilitate medical use of marijuana. Clinicians may see illicit use of the vaporizer if its popularity increases.

— Steven Dubovsky, MD