THC Vape Cartridges: Are They Dangerous? What You Should Know

Vitamin E acetate, an ingredient that has been linked to acute vaping illness and lung damage, may be present in THC vape cartridges, also known as vape pens. However, vaping or vaporizing marijuana is thought to be a healthier option than smoking it. Inhaling any burning material is probably not the best option from a medical standpoint, even though cannabis smoke is different from tobacco smoke. However, it is always advisable to speak with a marijuana doctor before beginning to use marijuana for therapeutic purposes.

Find out why some THC vape cartridges are harmful and how to vape marijuana more safely.

Cannabis Smoking vs. Vaping: What’s the Difference?

The primary distinction between vaping and smoking marijuana is that the former involves heating a liquid, such as THC oil, while the latter involves burning the plant.

Cannabis is heated to an inhalable, largely odorless vapor in thousands of different vaping devices and vaporizable products, ranging from the disposable to the aesthetically pleasing. Furthermore, because less cannabis is burned off during the decarboxylation process and less cannabis is required overall for symptom relief, vaporizers are generally a more effective way to consume cannabis than smoking.

However, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued warnings due to the variable quality of vaping products, some of which are even harmful. A good vape pen can make dosing and ingesting cannabinoids much easier, but other vaping products might be superior.

What Are the Effects of Vaping THC?

Vaping basically comes down to asking, “What exactly is being vaped?” Diacetyl is an organic compound found in many flavored vape products. In small amounts, this substance, which is present in foods and drinks, is usually safe to ingest. However, it can lead to a number of issues when heated and inhaled. Among these issues is “popcorn lung,” also known as bronchiolitis obliterans, a condition in which the lungs’ small air sacs scar, thickening and narrowing the airways.

Vaporable products, particularly those with flavors, may contain hundreds of chemicals. Finding out which chemicals have what effects when vaporized is important but difficult because there aren’t many long-term studies on the risks of vaporization. Along with many other polycyclic hydrocarbons, some products contain traces of heavy metals from inexpensive heating coils, propylene glycol, and glycerin, which have been connected to the development of lung and cardiovascular diseases as well as cancer.

Cannabinoid-based oil cartridges share many of the same issues as nicotine-based cartridges and “e-cigarettes,” though not all of them are the same. One potential solution to the issues with vapable cannabis oils is to use a high-quality vaporizer to vaporize a well-made extract or cannabis flower. Another issue is that some vape oils made from cannabinoids contain synthetic cannabinoids, which are best avoided because they are not always as well-tolerated as their naturally occurring counterparts.

Tips for Safely Using THC Vaping Cartridges

If you use high-quality products, vaping marijuana is not always dangerous. If you select the appropriate vaping cartridges, you might be able to have a safer vaping experience.

Use Safer Vaporizers

The safest vaporizers have no loose parts inside (i.e., a well-made and sturdy one) and heat the extract or flower using ceramic heaters or titanium coils. Disposable vaporizers come in a variety of quality levels, and because many of them are poorly constructed, using one could expose you to hot, highly toxic heavy metal particles.

One issue is that disposable vaping products are not regulated. At high temperatures, even some of the “best” ones begin to emit smoke instead of vapor. Additionally, plastic or some of the vaporizer’s internal electronics may burn at high temperatures, posing a risk of explosion and injury.

Additionally, the lining of the lungs and throat is burned by high temperatures, increasing the risk of cancer. Make sure you locate a vaporizer that can hold the cannabis extract if you wish to vape it. Since many high-quality vaporizers are designed to vaporize both cannabis extracts and flowers, many of them need special chambers to accomplish this.

Use Quality Vape Cartridges

Make your own vape cartridge at home or use a high-quality one. The process of producing cannabis oil can be challenging. There are several methods for creating extracts with different potencies, such as “bubble hash” (using dry ice to separate trichomes from the plant), “live resin” (using live flowers frozen and then pressed to extract the resin), rosin extraction (using heat and pressure to separate the trichomes from the plant), and the full-on Rick Simpson Oil (using a solvent to “strip” the cannabinoids from the plant, resulting in a highly purified product).

At home, some extraction techniques are safer than others. Making your own cannabis extracts has many benefits, such as the potential for fewer additives and impurities if done correctly, but it can also be costly, complicated, and time-consuming. Finding a reliable supplier who tests their extracts is the only way to obtain high-quality, solvent-free cannabis oil besides doing it yourself.

Many people have shifted away from vaping in favor of other ingestion methods because of some of the aforementioned issues as well as the fact that some people do not find vaping to be their ideal or preferred method. Ingestion techniques such as tinctures, topicals, inhalers, transdermal patches, and suppositories may be best suited for medical applications. Some people continue to use tried-and-true pipes or bongs, but even when no papers or tobacco are used, smoking still has negative effects.

Therefore, if you choose to vape, it is probably worth investing in a high-quality vape pen, avoiding premade vaporizer cartridges that might contain a lot of dangerous chemicals, and only vaporizing cannabis flowers and extracts—no additives or mixtures.

Use a medical marijuana card to responsibly consume cannabis. Through our online clinic, 420 Medical Card Online physicians are available to assist you with applying for your medical marijuana card online in Louisiana.