Vaporizing Competition
Peak Vape Culture
Of the many Cannabis-related products that have made it all the way to market (and beyond), few can boast the level of nigh-instant recognition that the Vaporizer holds today. I might age myself a little by admitting this, but I can still remember when a single Vaporizer would require an entire table’s worth of space. These days, they’re more like the size of a pen.
That’s not the only reason vaping has become so popular. Sure, it might be nice to have a covert little vape that you can carry in a purse, but joints can fit in purses, too. Convenience alone doesn’t justify the meteoric rise in vaping as a method of imbibing cannabis. There must be other factors underlying this significant shift in the industry, so what might a few of those factors be?
Smoke On The Vapor
That one’s for all the Deep Purple fans out there, I guess.
What I’m trying to get at is this: vaporizing weed is fundamentally different from smoking it. Part of the reason for the sudden growth in the amount of people vaping might come down to that entirely. People who already smoke aren’t necessarily converting to the vaporizer, but the people who elected not to smoke when that was their sole option are now buying vapes instead. People with respiratory conditions and other complications that prevent them from ingesting smoke can often vape more comfortably, which has created an entirely new user base for vaporizers and related products.
That’s not to say that there aren’t smokers who have switched to vaping, though, or that there aren’t a lot of people who do both! Lots of Canadians have really taken to vaping, and there might be a scientific reason for that.
Shiny and New
Psychological studies have shown that novelty, in this case meaning the experience of new sensations, can play a massive role in our enjoyment and even our memory of new and interesting activities. When we try something for the first time, chemicals are released in our brains that allow us to experience and thus encode the memories of that experience differently than we do when we encounter the same task a second time.
For a lot of people, vaping is a novel experience. The act of vaping causes the release of more endorphins when it’s novel, which in turn makes you feel happier. If vaping makes you happier than smoking, why would you not vape? The fact that it’s a new technology has an effect on our minds, and thus an effect on the high that we get when we vaporize cannabis. It’s all in your head!
Cross-Platform Cloud Technology
There’s also something to be said for vaping in the wider world, as opposed to just the realm of cannabis. It would hardly be fair of me to write a blog post about vaporizers without mentioning their liege lord: the Juul.
People have been vaporizing weed since long before the Juul was a half-hearted napkin drawing that became an overnight sensation. Still, it stands to reason that the popularity of vaping cannabis might not be unrelated to the recent increase in the popularity of vaping nicotine. If you enjoy doing one, you might just be more willing to try the other.
Studies certainly imply that those who vape nicotine are far more willing to vape cannabis, as well. While the jury is still out on why that is, I think the correlation is enough to show that the popularity of Juuls and other nicotine-based products have a role to play in the high popularity of their cannabis-consuming cousins.
The Right Place At The Right Time
All in all, there’s no ‘one secret’ that explains the rise of vaporizing cannabis. A confluence of multiple factors is responsible, that no one entity or corporation could’ve planned for. It also helps that they’re available in just about every convenience store and/or dispensary in Canada.
If not for cannabis legalization opening the doors for people to experiment with newer products, then the vaporizers that we use today might not have been created. If not for the associated rise in vaporizing nicotine, the cannabis-related variants might never have become as popular. If not for the perceived health benefits of vaping, novelty alone might not have drawn the massive user base that currently exists to vaping in the first place.
The rise of vaporizers is an interesting historical anomaly. It seems to me that their existence came about at just the proper time for them to enjoy a long stay at or near the top of the sales charts in the industries that have adopted them.
Only time will tell!
Comments (2)
I’m a huge fan of dry herb vaping. I picked up a DynaVap a few months ago and it was a game changer for me. I’m interested to try that FLO one now! Cheers!
Tried a few liquid vapes. While you get a nice clean taste and a great hit, I find the high to be short-lived. Bought an air vape to try it out. Same great taste and a great hit but the high lasts and so does your weed. But I really only use it for on the go. At home I just hot-knife my weed.