Vaporizing, or vaping involves heating cannabis flower or concentrates to a temperature that turns the active compounds (cannabinoids and terpenes) into vapor without combusting it, therefore no smoke is created. Vaporizing as a process is typically invisible, and doesn’t create a cloud. Vape pens are popular for their ease of use, portability, and because they offer an opportunity for more consistent dosing than other methods of inhaling marijuana. Most vaporizers also have heat settings that allow you to choose the temperature, which can affect the amount of terpenes versus cannabinoids that are consumed as they have different temperatures when they become a vapor.
Liquid and solid concentrates vaporizers actually aerosolize the concentrates, rather than vaporize them. This is more similar to water hitting a hot pan and flashing into tiny water droplets that float up as visible ‘steam.’ Vaporizing cannabis or hemp flower is the only ‘true vaporizing’ that happens in the cannabis/hemp world. Dry flower contains the entirety of the plant , meaning you’re getting all of the naturally occurring terpenes and cannabinoids found in the plant itself. Many cannabis consumers proclaim that vaping the flower is a fuller, richer experience that can’t be mimicked by vaping cannabis oil. The psychoactive effects may be different as well with the effect or “high” more similar to that of smoking a joint or bowl.