With the health hazards associated with smoking becoming increasingly clear in public consciousness, alternative methods for consuming various dry herbs, primarily tobacco and mint leaves, have had a lot of work put into them. Obviously, the most popular new technology for this would be vaping, but it isn’t the only option out there. Predating this technology is the dry herb vaporizer, a tool used for the consumption of tobacco and some other medicinal herbs such as mint.
This also provides a similar sensation to smoking, by inhaling the extracted oils from dry herbs, providing a similar sensation in the chest, saving the oral fixation that is one of the hardest parts of smoking to be rid of.
How do these work, though? Are they safe? Today, we’ll learn a little bit about them and why they are at least safer than smoking a pipe or a cigarette.
The science of Australian vaporizers!
While the form factor and technology can vary a little bit from model to model, most vaporizers work on the same basic scientific principle. Crushed dry herbs are packed into a chamber, and a mouthpiece is placed over this opening. The chamber is heated which then release the active ingredients of the dry herbs, allowing them to be freely inhaled by the user. In the case of mint, this is simply essential meant oils being inhalable, which are pleasant and often very medicinal to lung irritation, sore throat and even some appetite loss issues.
For tobacco, this extracts tannins and nicotine, the primary substances sought after in cigarettes. It produces no secondhand smoke, and does not leave a lingering scent of cigarette smoke on the body, reducing the annoyance to others and keeping one smelling clean and fresh. It is also far less dangerous on a practical level, because nothing actually burns when a vaporizer is used.
What can I use in a dry herb vaporizer?
Technically, any dry herb can be used in a vaporizer, provided you want to actually inhale the active ingredient from said herb. Primarily, this would be tobacco. Any dry tobacco, including pipe and cigarette tobaccos will work just fine, even mentholated tobaccos. Enthusiasts of essential oils also use dry mint leaves, various other spices and so forth as well, though the benefits of these are questionable obviously.
Is this safe?
This depends entirely on what you are putting in the vaporizer. Since nicotine is technically a toxin, any use of it is going to be at least slightly unhealthy. More benign plants such as mint are generally considered pretty much harmless, though studies on essential oils still need to be done when it comes to a broader range of spices and other organic compounds.
The use of any illicit botanical substance is by its very nature unsafe, ill-advised and is not in fact the intention behind this technology, so simply don’t do that.
A word of advice regarding tobacco…
When it comes to tobacco, if you are used to a vape pen, cigarettes or a pipe, expect Australian vaporizers to be a somewhat different sensation, and be sure to stay hydrated when using it, so to avoid swallowing residual nicotine oil in your mouth. Some mild stomach discomfort may occur initially, until your body adjusts to this different approach to extracting your nicotine. However, this will last a day at most, so stick with it if this happens. This is a safer alternative than smoking, so it’s worth it!
