ssues & ideas

EDITOR SARA RABEY

THE VOICE, THURSDAY, OCT. 15, 2015 7

A new take on an age old habit

Marijuana has been around for a long time, what has changed 1s how it 1s consumed

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JULIA WICKHAM photo

The New Amsterdam Cafe on Hastings Street has a vapour lounge where you can rent vapourizers and areas to smoke your own weed

Puff, puff, a pass on the doobies

People are turning to vaping over puffing as weed culture changes

BY JULIA WICKHAM

n the ’60s, hippies might be caught

smoking a doobie in the back of

their Volkswagen Beetle. Today,
kids sit outside of cafes, puffing on
vapes.

Marijuana has been used for centu-
ries. The first written record on the use
of marijuana is in 2727 B.C., by the Chi-
nese Emperor Shen Nung. The inven-
tion of the vapourizer in 2003 has
changed the traditional way people
smoke.

While some marijuana users prefer
the classic joint to smoke, many smok-
ers are turning to vapourizers to avoid
the feeling of the heavy smoke entering
their lungs.

Yota Ohtagawa, an employee at the

New Amsterdam Cafe, said that even
though he prefers the “old-style” joint,
he recommends using a vapourizer if
youre looking for a less-harmful way
to get high.

“The vapourizer is a new technology
and it doesn’t damage your lungs or
your body, so it is better for your
health,” Ohtagawa said. “Young people,
they like to smoke using vapourizers.”

Vapourizers extract the tetrahydro-
cannabinol, the active ingredient in
cannabis commonly known as THC,
while also eliminating most of the car-
cinogenic properties from the plant by
heating the herb to just below the tem-
perature of combustion.

Mark Johnston, who is also an em-
ployee at The New Amsterdam Cafe,
said that different administrations

cause different types of highs.

“Tf you vapourize, it means that your
body is going to be stoned. When you
combust [smoke a joint], your head is
going to be predominantly stoned,”
Johnston said. “So, if you smoke a
bong, a joint, a dab, or anything like
that, it’s going to go straight to [your
head].”

Mary Jean Dunsdon, who goes by
the name Watermelon and owns Com-
mercial Drive Licorice Parlour, has an
online cooking show where she demon-
strates for viewers how to safely cook
and bake their own edibles.

“T would describe the high from edi-
bles, if done responsibly in small doses,
as a warm and relaxing vacation from
stress and poor health,” Dunsdon said.

WEED
the history

THE FIRST RECORD
OF CANNABIS USE
First recorded use was by
Chinese Emperor Shen
Nung in 2727 B.C. Also
used by Ancient Greeks
and Romans.

COMING TO

AMERICA

In 1545 the Spanish

brought cannabis to

North America to use for

rope, clothing and paper.
Source:Drug Enforcement

Administration Museum
information site

Experts take
on Harper
comments

Cannabis claims, continued from page 1

According to Reist, research done by
the centre found there were 531 tobac-
co-related hospitalizations per 100,000
people in 2012, compared to 100 hospi-
talizations per 100,000 people for all il-
licit drugs combined, adding most were
likely caused by opiates.

“Whether you’re looking at hospital-
izations, whether you’re looking at
deaths, whether you’re looking at with-
drawal symptoms as a marker of addic-
tion, in every case tobacco is way, way
more harmful,” said Reist.

“Tt’s not to say marijuana is a benign
substance,” continued Reist. “It’s a
complex situation. It’s not something
that we should encourage people just
thoughtlessly use, especially at high
doses.”

A study by the Canadian Centre on
Substance Abuse suggests a correla-
tion between chronic marijuana use
and negative impacts on driving perfor-
mance and some brain functions.

Rielle Capler, a PhD candidate at
UBC who specializes in cannabis and
medicinal marijuana, said Harper’s
statement is not born out of facts.

“The types of cigarettes being sold in
our stores to Canadians are the cause
of 30- to 40,000 deaths a year,” Capler
said, noting testing for problematic use
also examines social and legal conse-
quences. “The only legal consequence
associated with cannabis use is the fact
that there are criminal sanctions asso-
ciated with it.”

According to a Canadian Cancer So-
ciety fact sheet, approximately 37,000
people die per year in Canada as a re-
sult of smoking tobacco.

Although the society’s data doesn’t
mention any cannabis-related deaths,
another fact sheet does say smoking
marijuana may increase cancer risk,
partly because the smoke “contains
many of the same cancer-causing sub-
stances (carcinogens) as _ tobacco
smoke.

BY KATHRYN WU

endless.

A Seductive new way to
use marijuana is infiltrat-
ing the market and
attracting attention

ter? From cookies to cannabis-in-
fused lotions, the products and con-
sumption methods of marijuana seem

Je: budda, hash oil, wax or shat-

ALDEN LOFQUIST
A Langara
business student

Shatter dabbing is another method

source Centre Inc.
Different —extrac-
tion types are cre-
ated with different
levels of the psy-
choactive chemi-
cal, tetrahydrocan-
nabinol, commonly
known as THC.
The percentage
of THC in shatter
could be as high as
95 per cent. Shat-
ter is the most

THC-concentrated product available.

KATE RICHARDSON photo
A dab rig, used to to consume cannabis oil.

of marijuana consumption that has
grown popular in Vancouver. Shatter is
concentrated marijuana residue that
resembles thin, amber sheets.

“It’s more efficient than weed, you
can just take one dab...it gets you a lot
higher,” Alden Lofquist, a Langara
business student, said.

Shatter is a cannabis extraction
made predominately with butane, ex-
plained Terry Roycroft, the president
of Vancouver’s Medicinal Cannabis Re-

A tiny dab of the product is then va-
pourized using a blowtorch on a spe-
cial bong. A conventional joint is 20 to
30 per cent THC.

Roycroft said shatter could be bene-
ficial for people who are in extreme
pain and need high doses of THC in
their systems quickly.

The butane used in the extraction
process is problematic to Roycroft be-
cause butane is not safe for people with
certain medical conditions.

“There are many people that believe
there’s no way you can get all the bu-
tane out of it no matter what you do.
Meaning that if you’re smoking it, you
are smoking some butane, and if you’ve
got a compromised lung system...do-
ing something like that is not very
smart because it could really compro-
mise your health,” said Roycroft.

Chris Nelson, a co-owner of Weeds
Glass and Gifts, has seen a noticeable
increase of dabs customers.

“T would definitely say dabbing has
become a lot more prevalent [since]
we’ve been allowed
to sell extracts,”
Nelson said.

Nelson sees the
popularity of dabs
as a_ personal
choice. “Some peo-
ple like beer, some
people like vodka.”

"|
KATHRYN WU
photo

Bud from the
cannabis plant