According to studies, CBD has major therapeutic benefits, including stress management, anxiety reduction, and supercharging mental performance.
Many people the world over are waking up to the amazing benefits of CBD, and with the soaring demand for CBD, diverse CBD products have emerged.
And so, when it comes to methods of ingesting CBD, you’re spoilt for choice. Whether you’re a novice or veteran CBD user, you can choose a product that adheres to your tastes and preferences. The following are the main methods of ingesting CBD:
- Smoking
- Vaporizing
- Dabbing
- Edibles
- Topicals
- Sublingual Application
When selecting a CBD product, and when deciding on how to ingest it, you need to understand how it might influence the effects and duration of CBD.
1. Smoking
People typically smoke things like tobacco and cigarettes, but it’s also possible to smoke CBD flower through a variety of smokable products.
Upon inhaling the CBD smoke, the CBD molecules enter the lungs and dissolve into the blood to be transported throughout the body.
Of course, smoking CBD flower isn’t the same as smoking marijuana bud, particularly since you don’t experience any mental high.
Yet, CBD flower is packed with diverse benefits. Some of the amazing products for smoking CBD flower include joints, blunts, pipes, bongs, fruit bongs, gravity bongs, and bubblers.
Joints: this is one of the most popular ways of smoking CBD flower. The CBD flower is ground into fine crystals and then rolled into a joint.
To create a quality CBD joint, you need to use rolling paper. But, many people with no rolling papers usually improvise toilet papers and other items.
We emphasize that you consider carefully what you roll your joint with; if you use harmful material, it will get combusted and flow into your lungs.
Blunts: a blunt appears like a cigar, except that the tobacco has been extracted, and CBD flower has been put in its place. Blunts allow you to inhale CBD smoke generously. When fixing a blunt for yourself, you’ll need a quality cigar wrapper.
Smoking pipes: in movies, a villain smoking a pipe is not a rare scene, as it gives them an air of mystery. Pipes are made of diverse materials like acrylic, wood, ceramic, glass, and silicone.
Pipes come in different shapes, sizes, designs, and colors. You only have to load the bowl with CBD flower, then spark the flower, and smoke it away.
When buying smoking pipes, ensure that you are careful to pick the best design and material. Wood pipes are usually popular because of their lifespan and experience.
Bongs: bongs come in varying shapes and sizes, and they offer a much better smoking experience than joints, blunts, and pipes; because of their cooling and filtration features.
For instance, if you drag on a joint, the hot smoke races down your throat, and if you’re inexperienced it would irritate your soft throat tissues.
But with a bong, the smoke passes through a filter to take off any unwanted substances, and then it passes through water to develop that coolness.
Smoke from a bong is cool and flavorful and it allows you to take massive hits.
Some other types of bongs include fruit bongs (which use fruit to aid smoking) and gravity bongs (which use bottles and water buckets to aid smoking).
Bubblers: the bubbler is the unification of the benefits of the bong and the benefits of the smoking pipe. It has excellent water filtration capabilities and delivers smooth CBD hits.
When it comes to smoking CBD through a joint, blunt, bong, or bubbler, people typically use CBD flower. But CBD may be ingested in other forms like CBD hash, kief, and resin.
NB:
If you notice that your CBD flower has a strong scent, you can minimize the smell by creating a sploof; this is created by attaching some paper towels to close off one side of a toilet paper tube. You can exhale into the toilet paper tube to minimize the smell.
2. Vaporizing
If you’re an inexperienced CBD consumer, and you attempt smoking CBD, your first experience might be somewhat rough.
You see, as the CBD flower combusts, and the hot CBD smoke flows down your throat, there’s a possibility of experiencing a burn and irritation sensation on your throat.
One of the popular alternatives to smoking is vaporizing. As the name suggests, this is a form of ingestion where CBD is ingested in vapor form.
Using a vaporizer, medium heat is applied to the CBD resources, converting them into a lightweight vapor that coasts down your throat and activates amazing CBD effects.
Vaporizers produce a warm mist that doesn’t burn your throat and that doesn’t damage the integrity of the cannabinoids.
There are three types of vaporizers:
- Standard vaporizers
- Portable vaporizers
- Forced air vaporizers
Standard vaporizers: these typically have a ceramic heating element and the user has to inhale through the tubing.
Portable vaporizers: these are compact and lightweight vaporizers designed for vapor enthusiasts. They are typically handheld and have great aesthetics.
Forced air vaporizers: these vaporizers are typically plugged into a wall outlet and have numerous customization features.
One of the reasons why people love vaporizers is that they allow people to be discreet. You see, with a joint or blunt, a lot of smoke is produced, and a strong scent will float around, causing people to turn their heads and stare.
But with vaporizers, there’s just a light vapor, and a sweet aroma, which allows you to enjoy your CBD resources discreetly.
3. Dabbing
With dabbing, you place some CBD concentrate on a hot nail, and then you consume the vapor that rises.
CBD dabs (or concentrates) generally have a greater potency as compared to other CBD forms, which is why their effects are more pronounced.
Considering that CBD concentrates are packing extremely high concentrations of CBD, if you’re a newbie, stick to a small dosage.
A CBD extract refers to a concentrate created by separating CBD constituents and adding a solvent. Some popular cannabis extracts include shatter, wax, and crumble.
Concentrates are commonly placed in solvents, and the solvents help with eliminating plant matter. But, there are concentrates like rosin and hash which are solvent-free.
Since CBD dabs are crowded with cannabinoids, the CBD effects are usually instantaneous. Even a small amount of CBD dab is packing more cannabinoids than CBD flower.
Thus, newbies should warm themselves up to CBD dabbing, instead of attempting to crash their way through.
4. Edibles
When you take CBD edibles, the CBD molecules take a longer route to reach the bloodstream and the brain.
Upon ingestion of CBD edibles, the CBD flows into the stomach, and the CBD is metabolized, thus causing a delay in the activation of CBD effects.
CBD metabolism gives rise to certain metabolites that cause the CBD effects to last for long. Other CBD products may have instant effects, but the effects fade away just as fast.
The following are some of the common types of CBD edibles:
- CBD butter
- CBD crystals
- CBD soluble strips
- CBD soft gels
- CBD gummies
- Raw hemp leaves
- CBD beverages
CBD butter: you can buy CBD butter from a store, or you can prepare yours at home. CBD butter may be eaten on its own or added to your favorite baked goods and meals.
CBD crystals: they are also known as isolate CBD, and are the purest form of CBD. You may add CBD crystals to your foods and drinks.
CBD soluble strips: they are one of the popular discreet ways of ingesting CBD. They come in diverse flavors and may also help with mouth freshening.
CBD softgels: also known as capsules, soft gels are excellent for measuring your dosage perfectly. Softgels also tend to last longer as compared to other CBD products.
CBD gummies: CBD gummies are flavourful and discreet. You may take it at home or your workplace to experience relaxation and mental calm.
Raw hemp leaves: CBD oil is extracted from the leaves and stalks of the hemp plant. And so, you can chew the somewhat sharp-tasting hemp leaves to ingest some CBD.
CBD beverages: many bars now offer various CBD-infused drinks. You may add some CBD into your coffee, tea, juice, smoothie, etc.
5. Topicals
CBD topicals is an ingestion method where CBD resources are applied on the skin, and the CBD molecules sink into the body but never reach the bloodstream.
This ingestion method is popular for managing skin disorders like acne and eczema, where CBD application is localized to the affected parts.
Some of the popular types of CBD topicals include lotions, creams, and balms. Many people have incorporated CBD into their daily routine by using CBD topicals.
Topical CBD is discreet and easy to use, but it doesn’t reach the bloodstream, and so, it hardly promotes CBD bioavailability.
6. Sublingual Application
Sublingual CBD application involves putting CBD resources beneath the tongue and waiting until the CBD dissolves into the sublingual blood vessels.
Sublingual CBD makes for high bioavailability and rapid effects. Many popular CBD products are usually ingested via the sublingual application.
Some of the popular CBD products ingested via sublingual application include CBD tinctures, CBD oral sprays, CBD crystals, and CBD sublingual tablets.
The Takeaway: Complete CBD Ingestion Methods
The soaring demand for CBD products has led to the emergence of diverse CBD businesses and products. As a CBD consumer, it’s critical to understand how the ingestion method affects the CBD effects and duration. There are six main methods of ingesting CBD: smoking, vaporizing, dabbing, edibles, topicals, and sublingual application.
Sources
- Batalla, A., Bos, J., Postma, A., & Bossong, M. G. (2021). The impact of cannabidiol on human brain function: a systematic review. Frontiers in pharmacology, 2393.
- Martínez, V., Iriondo De-Hond, A., Borrelli, F., Capasso, R., Del Castillo, M. D., & Abalo, R. (2020). Cannabidiol and Other Non-Psychoactive Cannabinoids for Prevention and Treatment of Gastrointestinal Disorders: Useful Nutraceuticals?. International journal of molecular sciences, 21(9), 3067.
- Baswan, S. M., Klosner, A. E., Glynn, K., Rajgopal, A., Malik, K., Yim, S., & Stern, N. (2020). Therapeutic potential of Cannabidiol (CBD) for skin health and disorders. Clinical, cosmetic and investigational dermatology, 13, 927.
