Dabbing is a particularly self-destructive way to smoke cannabis products. Worse, it’s shockingly easy to do.
It all starts with products variously called wax, shatter, crumble, black glass, etc. When it’s soft it looks like ear wax (yum!) and when it’s rigid, it looks like shiny plastic or glass. It costs about $60 (US) per gram (one twenty-eight of an ounce). Producers extract it from marijuana plants using benzene, a known carcinogen—one good reason not to imbibe. These products contain extremely concentrated THC, the psychoactive component of pot that makes you high—up to 90% concentrations, sometimes more.
Why is this bad? Because benzine hash oil (BHO) products can have more than twice the potency of even the most potent herb. Of course, that’s exactly why people use it. But with that potent high comes highly destructive effects on a user’s health, up to and including paranoia, schizophrenia, suicidal thoughts—even death. The old film Reefer Madness was laughable just a few years ago, when “hash” was rare and expensive, an impossible dream for most users. With BHO now cheap and easy to get, it’s making some parts of the movie come true.
Remember: this isn’therb marijuana, especially not the soft herb of 20 years ago that advocates lobbied to make legal in some states. It’s much more potent, and way too easy to use. While some users have a special “rig” for dabbing, many just take a nail (or any metal spike), dab on some wax, and burn it with a match, sucking in the smoke as it melts. If the “nail” is made of glass or ceramic, it’s called a “banger.”
The high from dabbing is equal to smoking up to five joints at once, maybe more. So are all the negative effects. Why risk it?