VAPORIZERS, GRINDERS, AND MINIVACS

Gifts for that special stoner in your life.

Tis the season for "harm reduction." This school of psychology assumes
that rational adults sometimes engage in risky, unhealthy behavior.
Teaching them to reduce the associated harms picks up where outright
banning and criminalizing fail. With more than 300,000 qualified
medical cannabis patients in California alone, and Arizona becoming
the fifteenth medical marijuana state, there's a huge demand for
safer, more sustainable ways of cannabinoid administration, and the
market is meeting that demand head on this holiday season.
Legalization Nation consulted doctors, dispensary operators, growers,
and Haight Street retailers to round up six legit items in a nebulous,
largely unregulated field.

Vapor Brothers Hands-Free Vaporizer

Back in pre-history, the Scythians of the central Asian steppes
reportedly heated stalks of psychoactive weed on hot stones inside a
teepee and inhaled the medicinal vapor. Three thousand years later,
vaporization remains a leading harm-reduction technique in medical
cannabis. It provides much of cannabis' medical qualities without
creating the carcinogens of burning plant matter. Despite several
years on the market, the German-made, $669 Volcano Vaporizer is the
Mercedes-Benz of vaporizers "" known globally for its quality
materials and construction, and impeccable warranty. Out in Los
Angeles, Vapor Brothers has created a sensible domestic product backed
by a limited lifetime warranty. Their Hands-Free Vaporizer is a
traditional box-style device with a stone heating element, A la the
Scythians. MSRP: $165

Space Case Grinder

Grinding has emerged as a most effective way to create more surface
area out of buds, mandatory for vaporizing, and quite effective for
rolling or packing in a pipe. But not all grinders are created equal.
Shoddily made, imported metal grinders can chip away at themselves,
creating tiny metallic shavings in herb, and that's not very
medicinal. Space Case makes a top-shelf, two-piece grinder, precision
machined from high-quality aerospace aluminum, with super sharp
cutting edges that will not dull. The large, three-and-one-quarter-inch-wide
grinder goes for $49.61.

Tightvac Minivac

Keeping cannabis in plastic bags is actually a no-no. THC is an acid,
which means it breaks down soft plastic like sandwich bags, causing
leaching of petrochemicals into the plant matter. Best stick to glass
containers, Pyrex jars, or the popular Tightvac line of vacuum-sealed,
super-hard plastic containers. Tightvac jars have a button on the top
of them. Squeeze the release button to pull the top off. Fill up the
Tightvac. When the top is pushed back down, the jar sucks out air,
creating a vacuum seal that's smell-proof, air-tight, and highly
water-resistant. Containers come in a range of colors and sizes ""
from tiny, pocket containers, all the way up to bread-loaf-size. Based
out of Venice. Tightvac Minivac TV-1 (.12 liter; 2 7/8-inches tall),
$8.25

Ital Hempwicks

It's always surprising to see hard-core foodies, environmentalists,
and health nuts using a standard butane lighter to do anything, let
alone ignite plant matter going directly into the lungs. Lighters run
on butane, and contain sulfur and flint, which are highly poisonous if
inhaled. Long-term butane exposure causes internal organ and nervous
system problems. Made from hemp and bee wax, the Ital Hempwick is a
six-inch-long piece of thin twine. Light the Hempwick and then use the
strong, clean-burning wick flame to combust medicinals. Made from
Sacramento company Ital, they're waterproof and work well even in the
wind. $1.25 per pack

RAW King Size Natural Unrefined Rolling Papers

Organic, vegan, and sustainable has come to rolling papers. Normal
rolling papers can contain unneeded chemicals and flavors. Sodium,
potassium, and magnesium are used as accelerants, and papers are often
bleached white. The RAW brand of rolling papers came out of Spain to
awe the market this year with an additive- and bleach-free rolling
paper that's thin and translucent, holds fast with a natural
hemp-based gum, and burns clean with no taste. The RAW King Size comes
with forty, one-and-a-quarter-inch-wide, unbleached hemp fiber papers
packaged so artfully, they don't even have a crease "" the
culmination of twelve years of research, RAW says. $2.50

Fold-A-Bowl Pipe

There's nothing safe or sane about flying with medical marijuana and
supplies. The rarely seen Fold-A-Bowl makes the practice a little
safer with its line of disposable, foldable stainless-steel pipes.
Each Fold-A-Bowl is the size of a credit card, and comes with a tiny
instruction sheet, explaining how to fold the stamped, medical-grade
steel into a palm-sized smoking utensil. No need to buy cheap
paraphernalia in shady parts of a strange town. And no regrets about
tossing a low-cost Fold-A-Bowl before a return flight home. $4.95 for
four.

Thanks to Dr. Julie Holland, Harm Reduction Consultant Jennifer
Janichek, and the staffs of SPARC Dispensary, Green Cross Dispensary,
Sunshine Coast, and Pipe Dreams.