What's the Healthiest Way to Use Weed? Smoking, Vaping, Milk or Under the Tongue

The four classic ways to consume weed are smoking it, vaping it, drinking it infused in milk and taking it under the tongue — and of those, vaping is generally considered the least harmful way to inhale, because it skips combustion. Humans have had a lot of time to figure this out: archaeological evidence suggests hemp was already being cultivated around 8000 BCE.

There's a long record of how this amazing plant has been used, and depending on how you take it, you'll get different effects and different benefits. So here's a rundown of the main ways to consume cannabis, and what each one does to your body.

Smoking weed: joints, pipes and bongs

Smoking is the most common way to consume cannabis, period. When we talk about smoking, we mean the good old joint, the one everybody knows. Besides joints, though, there are other formats that earned their own fame as people's intro to smoking: pipes and water pipes like bongs and hookahs. Each one changes how much smoke ends up in your lungs and how many toxins get produced along the way.

Getting to know the different ways to smoke weed has its perks: it's easy, and the effects kick in fast. It's also fair to say that smoking delivers the full experience in terms of taste, smell and sensation. That said, multiple studies have found that with every hit, a huge share of the THC in the weed is simply lost to combustion. And keep in mind that every strain you pick will bring its own effects.

When you're learning to smoke, it helps to know that the cannabis plant produces chemical compounds called cannabinoids. There are more than 100 different cannabinoids in the plant, and the main ones are:

• THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol: the headliner, mainly responsible for both the high and the therapeutic effects of weed. THC is practically negligible in industrial hemp, but in cannabis buds it can hit concentrations of 25%.
• CBD, or cannabidiol: if you're after therapeutic benefits without getting high, skip the THC and try CBD, which patients report has a calming, anti-inflammatory effect. It's also thought to temper THC's effects and possibly make them last longer.
• CBN, or cannabinol: Mildly psychoactive, CBN shows up when THC oxidizes. High CBN levels can make you drowsy, which is why growers try to avoid it by not letting their harvest go too late.

Vaping weed: the cleaner way to inhale

Vaping is considered one of the healthiest ways to consume cannabis. Because a vaporizer heats the weed without burning it, you avoid the toxins produced by combustion, which can significantly cut down the damage to your body.

The key is temperature: vaporizers stay below roughly 230 °C (446 °F), the point where plant material starts to burn and release a whole mix of compounds with different levels of toxicity. One study found that at around 180 °C (356 °F), THC vaporizes while far fewer hydrocarbons are produced.

As for how harmful each method is, research has found that smoking from a water pipe can be harder on you than a classic joint, and that a joint in turn does more damage than a vaporizer.

Drinking weed: the cannabis milk infusion

You can literally “eat” cannabis. One way to do it is with a milk infusion. How does that work?

THC is fat-soluble but not water-soluble — it dissolves in fat, not in water. So if you try steeping it in water, all you'll get is wet weed you'll have to toss; with milk, the THC binds to the fat in it. The more fat the milk has, the easier it dissolves, so go with good-quality whole milk.

Pinning down an amount is tricky because it depends on each person's body, but as a rough average, 0.33 g per 330 ml (about 11 fl oz) should be enough. Still, we recommend finding your own sweet spot: start low, go slow, and work your way up until you land on a dose you're comfortable with.

Prep is super simple: pour the milk into a saucepan over medium heat with the dried weed in it and leave it for 10 minutes, stirring every so often. If the milk starts to boil over, turn the heat down until the 10 minutes are up. Finally, strain it and it's ready to drink. Pro tip: a 10-minute simmer won't activate much of the THC in raw flower, so for a stronger, more predictable result, decarb the weed in the oven first.

Sublingual cannabis: under the tongue

Sublingual use means taking a pill or medication by mouth but placing it right under your tongue. The idea is for the effects to hit your system faster. With cannabis, several well-known companies have developed this kind of sublingual cannabis product, often used to ease pain in patients with conditions like multiple sclerosis and other illnesses it may help manage.

Heads-up: pharmaceutical sublingual products like these usually require a doctor's prescription before you can buy them at a pharmacy.