An Autistic Guide To The Mechanics of Smoking Weed
This post is intended as an informational resource for folk who want to smoke, but don't know how to start or don't have an elder stoner to give advice. I've only been smoking for two years, but here's what I've learned.
NOTE: This guide will not cover the prepping of your joint or pipe, but rather the mechanics of getting the smoke into your lungs with the least amount of fuss.
Small amount of weed wrapped in smoking paper. May or may not have a cardboard filter. Note, the filter does not filter anything - rather it creates a pocket of air between your mouth and the burning leaves, giving it a little space to cool down before you inhale.
A large amount of weed rolled in a blunt wrap, tobacco leaf, or hemp leaf. This is generally meant for sharing with your friends, and may be mixed with other substances.
How to Smoke a Joint/Blunt
Set the joint between your lips and strike your lighter. Draw air into your mouth using your tongue. You can release this air without inhaling, repeating until your joint is lit.
Once lit, repeat the process of drawing the smoke into your mouth with your tongue. Hold it for just a second, letting it cool, then inhale, so that you bring the smoke in along with a lungful of fresh air. This should cool the smoke enough to reduce the likelihood of coughing, which is caused by irritating the skin around your tonsils at the back of your throat.
Pipes come in many shapes and materials. Varying in size from a tiny chillum pipe to a long-stemmed gandalf, by far the most common style you'll find in any smoke shop is a spoon pipe. A hand pipe may be made from metal, glass, stone, or even silicone.
Like when smoking a joint, you'll want to use your tongue to draw the smoke into your mouth and allow it to cool for a moment before inhaling a lungful of fresh air along with it.
A water pipe, or bong, is larger than a hand pipe, designed to sit on a tabletop during use. The bowl that holds your ground flower sits in a downstem, the end of which is submerged in water. Sometimes the neck has a pinched area for holding ice above the water chamber, and the pipe may be equipped with a percolator in the chamber. All of these - the water, the ice, and the perc - are designed to cool the smoke before you inhale it.
How to Smoke a Water Pipe
Where with dry pipes you must hold the smoke in your mouth and mix it with fresh air to cool it, water pipes have built-in methods to cool the smoke for you. So instead of pulling the smoke with your mouth, you want to inhale directly into your lungs. The cooler the smoke is, the smoother your hit will be.
Because you're taking in a full lungful of smoke, all that THC will hit your system at once, giving you a hefty dose and a very fast high. While you can pretty easily manage your high from smoking a joint or dry pipe, taking small hits and smoking a little at a time, it's recommended to only take one rip off a bong. That'll likely be more than enough.
Note: a "hit" is when you inhale any amount of weed smoke. Every inhale is a separate hit. When you inhale from a bong, you'll hear the water bubbling, which is why this is called "taking a rip" or "ripping a bong."
If anyone else wants to add to this or correct me, please feel free. I'm still just a baby stoner and will obviously defer to the more experienced among us. Mostly I just wanted to save my fellow newbies from some of the mistakes I think we've all made.
And yeah... I just got my first bong, and my dudes I have ERRED. I can feel my EYEBALLS and this was NOT the plan for today.
