Dr Liam's Lowdown: Reducing the harms around cannabis concentrates and vaping
UN interviews Dr Liam Engel, Adjunct Research Fellow, School of Medical and Health Sciences, Edith Cowan University about the finer points of new wave cannabis use. The more you know, the better you can manage the risks.
UN: Welcome to User’s News, Liam. Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
LE: I’m an illicit drug researcher seeking to empower drug environments and the people that inhabit them. My areas of expertise are around harm reduction, plants and fungi. I first got involved with NUAA through DanceWize NSW.
UN: Awesome! Thanks for sharing your experience! So let’s get to it… What are cannabis concentrates, Liam?
LE: Cannabis concentrates are made from the resin of cannabis plants. Cannabis resin is a sticky substance that oozes out of small hairs (trichomes) on cannabis. Different concentrates use different techniques and solvents to collect cannabis resin. Check out the glossary (below) for an overview of some of the main kinds of concentrates. The glossary also explains some of the complicated terms we use to describe the processes involved in making and vaping cannabis concentrates.
UN: Why do people make cannabis concentrates?
LE: It’s a way of separating out the sticky cannabis resin from the rest of the plant. With cannabis concentrates, you are only inhaling the stuff that gets you high. Cannabis concentrates are a much stronger drug by weight than cannabis buds or flowers.
UN: Can you overdose on concentrates and, if so, what are the symptoms?
LE: It is easy to overdose on cannabis concentrates — especially when eating them! Cannabis overdose can affect your mind and emotions — creating effects like panic attacks and anxiety. There is not the same risk of death as with opioids, for example, but cannabis overdose can affect you physically. You may have heard people talking about their body feeling heavy or not being able to move.
UN: So, if eating has a risk of overdose, why do it?
LE: Eating cannabis concentrate causes less harm to your airways than inhaling a concentrate via vaping or smoking. You can manage the risk of overdose by knowing your tolerance and being careful with measurements. It is safer to start with a low dose when eating, let the cannabis settle in over two hours or so, then top up later.
UN: What other risks are there and how do we avoid them?
LE: There is a risk around unwanted plant material, solvents and other impurities in your concentrate — ideally, the only thing you want in your concentrate is what’s getting you high — the cannabis resin. You don’t want to vape or eat chemicals used in the process of making the concentrates. Sometimes solvents and other harmful impurities don’t get removed in this process. Some impurities like plant dust aren’t so bad, but impurities like hydrocarbons are a particularly unhealthy extra. Hydrocarbons are more likely to be in concentrates made with butane (BHO).
UN: Okay, if BHO is one to watch out for, are there less harmful concentrates?
LE: Bubble hash and rosin are likely the less harmful black market concentrates, because these concentrates only add water and heat.
UN: Is there a way to tell by sight if something has harmful additives?
LE: Light-coloured concentrates may indicate purity and are likely to be less harmful than dark-coloured concentrates. Pure cannabis resin is typically a light amber colour. There are a couple of exceptions — chocolate hash is darker because it contains plant material, dirt and dead skin. RSO is darker because ethanol can extract chlorophyll, giving some RSO a green tinge.
UN: That’s really helpful! Any other tips about additives?
LE: In some manufacturing processes, cannabis resin can be extracted or combined with solvents that don’t evaporate, like vegetable oil. And sometimes concentrates are dissolved and diluted in fatty foods, like butter. Smoking or vaping ‘cannabis oils’ that have been diluted in fat can cause respiratory (breathing) problems. These diluted oils are meant to be eaten or applied to skin. Vaped concentrates using diluents like vitamin E have caused lipoid pneumonia, a form of lung inflammation resulting from fat particles in the lungs.
UN: This stuff requires quite a bit of knowledge — and I did not take biology or chemistry at school. How do we know how something is made?
LE: Ask your dealer how the concentrate was made and what solvent it was made with, particularly for concentrates you plan to vape. If your dealer doesn’t know, try and shop around ’til you find a dealer that can give you this information. If you can’t find another dealer, it is probably safer to avoid their concentrates.
UN: A lot of people I’ve talked to have started vaping their cannabis. What is that all about?
LE: You’re right, vaping is getting more and more popular for cannabis. Vaping works by heating a substance to its boiling temperature so it evaporates but doesn’t burn. In comparison, smoking works by heating a substance beyond boiling temperature, so that the substance catches fire (combustion). Both smoking and vaping produce a similar high. However, smoking involves the inhalation of extra smoke that produces little effect, on top of the vapour which produces the effect you want.
UN: Can you give us any good tips for safer vaping?
LE: Many vaporisers have temperature controls and it is important to use these controls to reduce your vape temperature as much as possible. Cancer-causing benzene is released in large quantities at temperatures equal to or higher than 200°C. The lower your vaping temperature, the less extra, unwanted fumes you inhale on top of the vapour from your substance.
UN: We’ve also been hearing about different types of vaporisers. What are they about?
LE: There are many different types of vaporisers that can be used to vape cannabis plant material, cannabis concentrates and other substances, too. Vaporisers work by using electricity or a flame to heat a substance. Vaporisers are a lot gentler on the throat than smoking, meaning those harsh coughing sessions some people have when smoking cannabis are less likely. Some of the common types of vaporisers are:
• e-cigarettes use a wick to absorb e-juice, which is heated by a metal coil that runs around the wick.
• tank e-cigarettes store e-juice in a tank.
• drip e-cigarettes need e-juice to be dripped onto a wick by hand.
• dabbing involves heating a surface and placing cannabis concentrates on the hot surface.
• dry herb vaporisers vaporise plant material, like cannabis or tobacco.
UN: What is the best way to reduce risks involved with vaporisers?
LE: You can make your vaporiser safer by cleaning away residual gunk from previous use — the less stuff you heat and inhale, the better. If you want to get high, just inhale the stuff that gets you high, nothing else! It’s also important to accurately control your vaping temperature. This helps prevent the chemical benzene from being released, which occurs at temperatures higher than 200°C. Flame-powered vaporisers do not control or measure temperature as accurately as electric vaporisers, so you will tend to overheat and inhale more benzene with flame vaporisers. If you use a flame vaporiser, aim to underheat rather than overheat.
UN: What is e-juice?
LE: e-liquid, e-juice or vape juice is used inside e-cigarettes and vapes. e-juice normally contains propylene glycol (PG), vegetable glycerin (VG) and a psychoactive substance, normally nicotine, but it can contain cannabis concentrates, amphetamines, opioids, and other substances too. e-juice may also contain flavours and mixing agents. PG and VG are both colourless liquids that produce vapour when heated. They are considered safe for human consumption and are commonly used as food additives. PG is harsher on the throat but has less taste and leaves less residue than VG. VG is smoother, sweeter and produces larger clouds of vapour than PG, but is more likely to leave gunk in your vaporiser.
UN: We’ve heard that vaping e-juice with nicotine is considered a harm reduction approach to tobacco or nicotine smoking. That sounds intuitive, but is there evidence?
LE: It is considered very likely that vaping e-juice is less harmful than smoking, but the long-term health risks are unknown, because vaping is so new and there isn’t much research yet. Lots of people say that vaping nicotine e-juice has helped them stop smoking cigarettes and reduced their throat and lung irritation.
UN: Can you use e-juice with cannabis concentrates?
LE: Cannabis concentrates do not dissolve easily in e-juice without mixing agents, although they do dissolve better in PG than VG.
UN: How about the relative safety?
LE: Eating a psychoactive substance is normally less harmful than vaping e-juice. Vaping a psychoactive substance straight is likely less harmful than vaping the substance mixed in e-juice. The fewer added flavours and mixing agents an e-juice has, the less harmful it will probably be. e-juice made in a country with manufacturing standards, like New Zealand, England and Canada and made according to their standards, should be less harmful. The e-juice that causes less harm to your respiratory system is a strong e-juice, because you inhale less e-juice vapour to get high. However, a strong e-juice carries the risk of overdose, increased tolerance and respiratory irritation.
UN: Thanks a lot, Liam – I hope you will talk to us again for UN!
LE: My pleasure, I’m sure you and I could happily talk about drugs forever. NUAA does important work and I am proud to support it Peer-lead drug services are the gold standard.
Glossary of Cannabis Concentrates
Not familiar with the types of cannabis concentrates? These are some of the more common types:
• Chocolate hash is resin that sticks to people’s hands or equipment
• Kief is sifted resin, trichomes and other plant dust
• Bubble hash is ice or water separated resin
• Rosin is heat and pressure separated resin
• Butane hash oil (BHO) is butane extracted resin
• Rick Simpson’s oil (RSO) is ethanol extracted resin
• Cannabis e-juice is concentrate dissolved in e-juice
A chemistry lesson
Benzene: A liquid or vapour consisting mainly of the lighter and more volatile hydrocarbons of petroleum or kerosene oil, used as a solvent and for cleaning.
Butane: A common fuel used in cigarette lighters.
Combustion: Also known as burning, is a chemical reaction creating smoke and fire.
Diluents: Something used to dilute something — like water when added to cordial.
Evaporate: When heat turns something into a gas or vapour.
Hydrocarbon: The principal constituents of petroleum and natural gas. Made up of the elements carbon and hydrogen. Hydrocarbons are harmful to inhale.
Lipoid pneumonia: A rare disease that occurs when oil or fat enters the lungs. Lipoid means relating to fat. Symptoms are a cough, high fever and shortness of breath.
Propylene glycol (PG): A synthetic, colourless, odourless, tasteless liquid that is used as a food additive for maintaining moisture and flavour quality. Used in e-liquid to provide a ‘throat hit’ to make vaping feel more like smoking.
Psychoactive substances: Chemicals (natural or synthetic) that cause changes in mood, awareness, thoughts, feelings, or behaviour. Put simply, it’s the pure part of a drug that gets you high.
Respiratory system: The network of organs and tissues that help you breathe in oxygen and move it round your body plus clean out waste gases like carbon dioxide. Includes your airways, lungs and blood vessels, as well as the muscles that power your lungs.
Solvent: A substance that dissolves or extracts. Common solvents are water and alcohol.
Trichomes: Small hairs on plants.
Vegetable glycerin (VG): A natural chemical, derived from vegetable oils, used as a thickening agent in foods. Used in e-liquid to make bigger vapour clouds.