Would you try vaping cannabis?

    According to an early small-scale study, a new method called “cannavaping” may be used in medical cannabis treatment, meaning the use of cannabis in e-cigarettes for vaping.   Researchers said that conventional cannabis cigarettes may cause a person to inhale large amounts of toxic pollutants released by burning cannabis. By comparison, cannavaping may offer a way to avoid inhaling high levels of these pollutants. These pollutants include carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, the researchers added.   Vaping means heating a liquid to its boiling point so that it turns into vapor for the user to inhale, simulating the act of smoking. Traditional cigarettes, by contrast, involve burning substances such as cannabis and then inhaling smoke that contains particles.   “Vaporization produces fewer toxic substances than combustion,” researcher Vincent, an analytical chemist at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, told reporters on site. “Vaporization represents a safer way to consume cannabis.”   Of course, e-cigarettes are not the only devices that can vaporize cannabis, but compared with other devices, e-cigarettes are more user-friendly, the researchers said. Two e-cigarettes had less impact in this respect than desktop vaporizer devices.   In this study, scientists extracted active compounds called cannabinoids from cannabis and concentrated them in e-liquid, allowing them to properly observe the effectiveness of cannabis vaping as a medical alternative to smoking.   “Cannavaping appears to be a gentle, efficient, user-friendly, and safe alternative for medical cannabis delivery,” they reported in the journal Scientific Reports.   Cannavaping may also provide an alternative to consuming cannabis products orally, such as cookies or candy. When cannabis is consumed this way, it enters a person’s bloodstream after processing, and the activity of its therapeutic compounds begins to decrease. This dilution effect is different from cannavaping, which allows the inhaled therapeutic compounds to enter the bloodstream directly and take effect, the researchers said.   The researchers pointed out that their new study tested only one type of e-cigarette, and other brands may produce varying levels of certain impurities.