Method of Consumption
The harm caused by smoking can be minimized or eliminated by the use of a vaporizer or ingesting the drug in an edible form. Vaporizers are devices that heat the active constituents to a temperature below the ignition point of the cannabis, so that their vapors can be inhaled. Combustion of plant material is avoided, thus preventing the formation of carcinogens such as polyaromatic hydrocarbons, benzene and carbon monoxide. A pilot study led by Donald Abrams of UC San Francisco showed that vaporizers eliminate the release of irritants and toxic compounds, while delivering equivalent amounts of THC into the bloodstream. According to Matthew Seamon and his co-authors “Vaporizers are the optimal route of administration because they allow for rapid and complete absorption with minimal combustible byproducts, often considered the major health risk associated with smoking tobacco.”
In order to kill microorganisms, especially the molds A. fumigatus, A. flavus and A. niger, Levitz and Diamond suggested baking marijuana at 150 °C (302 °F) for five minutes. They also found that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) was not degraded by this process.
Read more about this topic: Medical Cannabis
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“The method of authority will always govern the mass of mankind; and those who wield the various forms of organized force in the state will never be convinced that dangerous reasoning ought not to be suppressed in some way.”
—Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)
“The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold, persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something. The millions who are in want will not stand idly by silently forever while the things to satisfy their needs are within easy reach.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“The Cairo conference ... is about a complicated web of education and employment, consumption and poverty, development and health care. It is also about whether governments will follow where women have so clearly led them, toward safe, simple and reliable choices in family planning. While Cairo crackles with conflict, in the homes of the world the orthodoxies have been duly heard, and roundly ignored.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)