Enlarge this image toggle caption It's a sunny afternoon at Kelly's Collective, a medical marijuana dispensary in Los Angeles, and Nikki Esquibel is getting stoned.But you wouldn't know it.toggle caption The 19-year-old, who has a medical prescription for marijuana, is "smoking" pot with a handheld vaporizer, or a vape pen.It's sleek, black, and virtually indistinguishable from a high-end e-cigarette.That's the point, says Esquibel."I use it mostly around my neighborhood.It's easy to hide."The vapor coming from the device doesn't even have much of an odor.Discretion, it turns out, makes for good money.While e-cigarettes have been grabbing the headlines, the vape pen industry has been quietly ballooning.And it's reshaping the business and culture of marijuana.The latest versions of e-cigarettes contain a battery-powered heating element that vaporizes a liquid containing nicotine.Vape pens for pot use the same mechanism, but the devices are optimized to vaporize the active molecules in concentrated marijuana oils, not nicotine.

And just as with e-cigs, there's no fire or smoke.Pot users are flocking to the pens: One out of three reviews on Leafly, the Yelp of the pot world, is about vaping marijuana.Enlarge this image toggle caption Andres Rodriguez/Flickr Andres Rodriguez/Flickr The pen doesn't carry the stigma or notoriety of a bong or joint, says Todd Mitchem, an executive at O.pen Vape, which sells its products on the West Coast and in Colorado."We are getting people buying vape pens who wouldn't normally come into a [marijuana] dispensary," he tells Shots."Now, all of a sudden, they have an alternative [to smoking pot]," he adds.Two years ago, Chris Folkerts was selling vape pens out of the trunk of his car.Today his company, Grenco Science, has 6,000 square feet of prime real estate in central Los Angeles."You could never get your mom to hit a bong," he says."But your mom would potentially hit a G Pen.My grandmother did too!And I have god-fearing Christian grandparents from the Midwest.

When they tried it, I knew I was on to something."Most vape pens don't actually vaporize the marijuana plant.They're loaded with marijuana concentrates, or "hash oil": a viscous, yellow resin chemically extracted from the plant.In many places, that extraction often occurs in somebody's kitchen — which can be explosive and dangerous.And the concentrates can be strong.Marijuana flowers can contain up to about 20 percent THC, the psychoactive chemical that makes you feel high.But the concentrates can contain up to 90 percent THC.Esquibel says she almost fainted when she took her first hit.Those high THC levels worry Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws, a nonprofit lobbying group working to broadly legalize marijuana use.Shots - Health News Evidence On Marijuana's Health Effects Is Hazy At Best Shots - Health News Marijuana May Hurt The Developing Teen Brain "Between the fact that you can potentially pass out with a single inhalation, or you can have such property damage and potential bodily harm just producing it ... these [issues of the vape pen] definitely need to be addressed," he says.

"This is a screaming call for regulation if there ever was one."Most states, such as California, that allow the sale and use of medical marijuana don't have rules on the books about marijuana concentrates or about vaping the substance.California is considering a ban on concentrates, while Colorado and Washington allow them.The sale and use of vape pens is legal in every state.And what about the health effects of vaping pot compared with smoking it?"The problem is that, right now, it's hard to tell how much [THC] you are actually getting when you take a puff of one of these things," says Mark Kleiman, who studies marijuana laws and policies at the University of California, Los Angeles.pokemon vaporizer"The risk of getting wrecked is a lot higher."optima vaporizer steam inhaler

And given that the output of vape pens doesn't have the telltale marijuana smell, Kleiman is also concerned about what the rising popularity of the devices means for parents and teachers."For them this will be a nightmare," he tells Shots."If I am running a school or a house and I have a nose, I can tell if my kids are smoking pot.But if they're using a vape pen, forget about it."Vaporbrothers Skillet Heater - Single Coil Ceramic Shop Add to Compare Made By Vaporbrothers This VB Skillet Heater by Vaporbrothers features titanium alloy coils with a hollow ceramic core wick.vaporizer pole mountUse code "VB11" to save 25% off the Vaporbrothers VB Eleven vape pen.iphone e cigaretteWhy Using a Vaporizer is Healthier and Better Than Smoking Cannabis Vaporizers are fascinatingly useful, and the average person simply does not understand how they work or why they're such a great tool to own.e cigarette greenville sc

The most immediate negative impact of cannabis comes from the inhalation methods that the common smoker exposes themselves to on a regular basis.Igniting the buds is an easy and consistent way of reaching the temperatures required to release the various compounds that give cannabis its potency, but the fact of the matter is that the effects of combustion cause significant damage to the respiratory system.Smoke inhalation delivers damaging carcinogens and an onslaught of other damaging materials directly through the bronchial tree and into the lungs.e cigarette tucson mallThe most immediate effect is the irritation of the windpipe, but long-term exposure to any source of hot smoke is unnatural and very hard on the lungs.vaporizer rollitupEnter the Vaporizer A vaporizer functions by heating the cannabinoids to their boiling temperature.vaporizer ritning

Instead of the buds burning and producing copious amounts of smoke, a vaporizer dehydrates the buds and causes them to release their yield without ever catching fire and subsequently mixing with chemicals in the air as the oxygen burns.What this means in more simple terms is that the vaporizer completely eliminates every last chemical that is directly associated with burning the buds.It's important to realize that these chemicals do not necessarily arise from the plant itself; carcinogens can be found emanating from something as harmless as a campfire.soos vaporizer penThe primary difference here is that patients and enthusiasts expose themselves to smoke so regularly that they put themselves at risk, and this is compounded by rolling the buds up in papers, as the burning of paper also releases additional carcinogens.Foods infused with cannabis also bypass the effects of smoke, but vapors take effect at roughly the same rate as smoking.

In terms of health and speed of delivery, the vaporizer wins every time.The Benefits Keep On Coming While the health improvements associated with vaporizing are awesome, there are plenty of additional benefits to keep in mind.First and foremost, the nasty byproducts of smoking are eliminated.There's no need for an ashtray as the buds can simply be disposed of once they've been exhausted of their beneficial compounds.Clogged pipes of all kinds become a thing of the past, resin buildup is eliminated and the teeth no longer become stained by all that hot smoke.In addition, the scent associated with burning is greatly reduced.While it isn't entirely eliminated, it does not linger as long or as noticeably as smoke; the smell also does not carry as far as a result.This is a fantastic benefit for both remaining incognito and preventing the smell from accumulating in furniture, clothing, curtains and hair.It is also much more neighbor-friendly, as the chances of them being exposed to secondhand smoke or an unwanted smell is reduced by the factors listed above.

What's more is that an indirect benefit of vaporizing is that the chance of accidentally starting a fire or singeing hair is reduced when the lighter is eliminated from the equation.The Financially-Savvy Choice The final benefit that makes vaporizers such a no-brainer is the fact that they are wildly more efficient smoking methods.When smoking, many of the compounds inside of the buds continue to dissipate into the air regardless of whether or not they are being inhaled.This is due to the fact the fire continues to burn for as long as it has a fuel supply available that it can spread to.If the cannabis continues to burn the 30 percent of the time that the patient or enthusiast is smoking, then there is a significant amount of loss happening.The vaporizer also preserves much of the THC content of cannabis, meaning that on a fundamental level, there is more being delivered because of the nature of vaporization.To put this into perspective, let's compare a €200 vaporizer with a pipe.