VAPORIZERS BRING NEW TWIST TO POT USE

You've heard of joints, bongs and brownies, but now there's a new way
for students to get high on marijuana-vaporizers. Although vaporizers
may be a less detectable and less dangerous alternative for smoking on
campus, students may be slow to trade in their bongs for the
time-consuming and more expensive equipment.

The typical vaporizer consists of a box with an electric cord on one
side and a tube on the other. The user stuffs a small quantity of
marijuana between the tube and the box and plugs the cord into an
outlet. When the drug is heated to a high enough temperature, it forms
vapors that the user inhales through the tube.

Though this new technology has been slow to catch on at Duke,
officials worry about its potential danger to students.

"I think that students will likely take in more than they expect
because this is a very efficient form of delivery and also one with
which they have no experience," said Cynthia Kuhn, professor of
pharmacology and cancer biology. "I would expect more overdoses. For
pot, it could mean more hallucinatory experiences instead of just a
pleasant buzz, although it would be unlikely to be dangerous to your
life."

Many students on campus prefer vaporizers because the devices provide
incentives over regular methods. They are efficient, smokeless and
odorless-indetectable by residential advisers, said a freshman who
spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Research indicates that vaporizers may also emit less carcinogenic
fumes than other methods because they are smokeless, said Jeff Kulley,
a staff psychologist at Counseling and Psychological Services.

"It also takes a while-it's not like lighting up a joint and taking a
hit. The heating process takes a bit of time and could slow down
someone's usage," Kulley said.

But the added time it takes to get high frustrates students who use
vaporizers.

"You smoke all day, everyday, and you don't get any work done," the
freshman said. "And the high is different-it's not as fun as other
highs from bongs or joints."

He and Kulley both did not think vaporizers would catch on at Duke.

"Typically, if a method actually takes longer to get high, most people
would abandon it and try something more instantaneous," Kulley said.

The price of the new technology adds another hitch to its potential
popularity. A typical vaporizer runs anywhere from $150 to $800,
depending on its design.

"Maybe the cost would affect whether somebody would want to put money
toward [a vaporizer]," Kulley admitted. "Sixty-five percent of [Duke]
students have either never smoked pot or only once in their lives. I
don't think someone who doesn't smoke it regularly would invest that
much money into a vaporizer."