What's In Your Bowl?: Tools of the Trade

Potheads are some of the most creative people around, especially when it comes to smoking their sweet herb. I don't know about you, but if I didn't have papers or a piece handy, I'd be lighting up my improvised bong faster than MacGyver could whip out his swiss army. Being as passionate as us stoners are, its only logical that we have numerous methods of getting to our smoke. Below I will describe some of our Tools of the Trade.

Ahhhh, there is definitely nothing better than getting off a hard days work, putting on the headphones to drown everything out, and lighting up a blunt full of the good. Blunts are...great, end of story. There are tons of different brands, with all kinds of juicy flavors to choose from.

Some popular brands are Swisher Sweet, White Owl, Optimo, Backwoods, Phillies, Garcias, and Dutchies. Swisher Sweets, overall, have the best blunts. They are consistently fresh, stick easily, burn slow and offer many different flavors. Backwoods are the hardest to roll, but give you the purest taste of your herb. I would stick with Swisher unless your in a pinch.

Joints are classic. They use less weed than blunts, but still give you something to puff on for a while. They are also more manageable than blunts, which allows you to create your own kind of joint, such as the windmill. Zig Zag, Job, Top, and Pure Hemp are all popular brands. Zig Zags tend to stick the best, but Pure Hemp papers are exactly that, pure Hemp. My only quarrel with joints is that, unless rolled perfectly, they tend to run and are hard to light. California weed is a little too fresh and sticky to burn in a joint, so blunts or bowls for us.

Pipes are small, super efficient, and your only inhaling your weed, no tobacco papers. You get a good taste for the weed, especially on the green hit. Pipes in general hit pretty hard, so usually one bowl will get the job done. They can come in both metal and glass, the ladder of the two being preferred. Some pipes, called bubblers, filter the smoke through a chamber filled with water. The smoke through a bubbler is super smooth because it gets both filtered and cooled in the water. Pipes are always an excellent choice.

Everybody loves Hits From the Bong, just ask Cypress Hill. Bongs are great because they hit the hardest. They consist of a bowl (where you place the weed), a stem (which carries the smoke into the water), a water chamber (which you should clean often :) a smoke chamber, and the point of annihilation from which you take the hit. You must pull the smoke through the water and into a chamber. Once the chamber is full, you take a super deep breath to clear it. It kicks ass. They can come in glass, acrylic, and ceramic.

Hookahs are always a party favor. They often have two or more hoses, so several people can smoke simultaneously. Kind of the same principle as the bong except the bowl is often much larger. Some people place burning blocks of charcoal on top of the marijuana to keep it burning, while others simply keep lighting it. Hookahs, at least it my opinion, tend to wast quite a bit of weed.

Every stoner needs a good grinder. By grinding the weed, you break the buds up without getting your fingers all sticky. The consistency of weed after being grinded is preferred in blunts and joints because it burns more evenly than if ground by hand. There are also keif grinders which have a small compartment on one side of the grinder. A very fine screen separates this compartment from the grinding compartment. When the weed is grinded against the screen, thc crystals fall through. After time, you will get a decent amount of keif which is some good shit man.

Visene is always a good thing to have in the toolbox, especially if you often have to deal with people after you smoke. If your like me, you smoke a bowl on your way into work, without Visene, that wouldn't be possible. Come in eyes all droopy off that Indica.

A good, air tight, glass chamber is another good tool to have. Gotta keep the stash fresh, and a good jar is the best option for that. Try to find one with a rubber seal, as they let even less air in.

You also need a good Bic lighter, and a paperclip to clear your bong when it gets clogged. My medication bag consists of:

1 glass pipe, triple blown, large bowl

1 small cloth, to wrap pipe for safety

1 1/8 of that Dankness

2 Bic lighter, always need a backup

1 paperclip for clearing pipe

1 Medical Marijuana Recommendation

1 Listing of San Francisco Dispensaries