The Art Of Smoking

Smoking has been around for a long time. Records of people smoking tobacco go back to 5000 BC. The inhalation of other substances (cannabis, opium, incense, and other hallucinogens) is just as old. Ancient peoples would vaporize mixtures of different substances on hot rocks and inhale the vapors, mostly in ritualistic settings.

After Europeans arrived in the New World smoking tobacco became more recreational but even in the face of being removed from the more spiritual context, it still held onto a ritualistic element. Feasts would commence with smoking and smoking here, and in many other parts of the world, (and with many other substances) was still a practice relegated to special events, the upper classes and shamans.

I say all of this to give context to our modern smoking habits, specifically the ones that pertain to cannabis. It was not long ago, within many of our lifetimes, that much of that ritualistic element still existed. Maybe not spiritual, unless you are a Rastafarian, but a definitive series of steps that always went along with cannabis use. Forget about the steps leading up to the actual smoking (even though there is ritual there too) but the act itself was most often communal whether at a concert, in the park or woods, or under the bleachers. You and your friends would puff and pass, all the while telling stories and jokes and occasionally relighting a terribly rolled joint.

The potency of cannabis allowed for this activity. Much like drinking a Corona or a glass of wine, cannabis with potency in the 12-15% THC range enabled you to be social. You were a little buzzed after the joint made it around three times and if that didn’t work for you, you just hit it again.

Well, times have changed.

If you try that technique these days, you’re in for a surprise. I recently went out and bought a sampling of pre rolls. The potency in the five samples was 20%, 24%, 26%, 29% and, thank goodness, a good ole 16% THC product. Yes, my tolerance is down these days, but you don’t even have the ability to titrate when one hit is so powerful.

What I want in my weed is the ability to decide when I feel enough is enough. The same discretion that I enjoy with having a drink. I don’t want everything to be a shot of tequila. I don’t want to be catatonic after one pull. I enjoy the ritual of smoking, just like I enjoy the ritual of having a glass of wine or a beer with a friend. The break between puffing and passing is where camaraderie is developed. Just as it is between sips of wine. This is the model that most of society is used to. And it is one that would serve the cannabis world well if we intend on broadening our audience.

“Action speaks louder than words, but not nearly as often”

Thanks for reading,

d