From what i can tell vaping appears to be the cheapest way to enjoy your herbs. A d8 .510 cart is $12-$20 for a 1g cart and each cart has ~150 hits so each hit is $0.08-$0.14. Now edibles on the other hand sound super expensive. A 1000mg (1g) thing of d8 gummies is $60 for 40 gummies or $1.50 per gummy. Each of these gummies have 25mg of d8 in them. To vape 25mg would need ~5 hits and cost $0.40-$0.65. Or am i way the fuck off base and fucked up my maths. Always did suck in that class.
Edit: i have also heard that vaping is better because it uses much lower temps and doesnt burn off most of the terps before they get to you.
I hope I did not offend. At the moment i am using carts, but at some point i do plan on getting a dry herb vape too. It would seem to me that dry herb would not allow you to control your dose as well as a cart. The dry herb vape i have seen (planet of the vapes one) turns on and uses the whole chamber in like 3 minutes which would be to much for me at the moment. Where a cart auto draw pen lets you control it better.
Don't listen to that guy. In 25+ years I've never heard anyone refer to dry herb vaping as anything other than dry herb vaping and with the popularity of e-cigarettes, I've never heard of anyone refer to carts as anything but vaping (or carts).
I have a few carts I use sparingly because they seem to be rougher on my throat than dry herb vaping.
But the best middle ground by far is dry herb vaping. It is very cost friendly, customizable in terms of effects, and probably "safer" than vaping. This is my primary method of consumption.
How do you control your dose dry herb vaping? With an auto draw vape cart i can just stop whenever i am ready, but the one dry herb vape (planet of the vapes one) i looked at vaporizes whatever is put in the chamber and you get like 180 seconds before its all used up. I am not yet to the point where i am comfortable using a dose that high.
Edit: the flower i am looking at is 20%-32% so if i measured out say 250mg for the chamber thats a 50-80mg dose and i am not to that point yet
I just use the .1 gram capsules, but my other vape is .2 grams.
And it's not all used up after the first session. I usually start with only 3 or 4 hits and do that every 20 minutes or so. Depending on what I'm vaping it'll last for an hour or 2, maybe a cap change in between.
If we are going to talk about cost efficiency, honestly the cheapest way to go about this is growing your own. I'm not the best grower, but my bud is decent and gets the job done. Spent 100 dollars on seed in March and and currently curing about 6 ounces right now
Indoor is not hard, you can pull 1 oz out of a 40x40 space or a spacebucket (the latter can be built for about 50$). A 60x60 tent can net me around 4oz every 3 months or so, although I grow 1 auto at a time for about 1-2 oz at a time, this is enough for me and the wife.
As for your calculations, my anecdotal experience is thus: 1g is up to 6 smokes for me, 5 g gets me 32 doses of edibles but the high is a bit more potent and lasts longer.
Edibles are only expensive if you're buying them pre-made. Buy distillate and make brownies and it's significantly cheaper plus you can control your dosage.
Edible highs also last a lot longer anyway.
Alternatively just move to Oregon and the shits so cheap here that it doesn't even matter lmfao. I ain't a heavy smoker but $30 gets you a whole ounce if you know where the good deals are and that'll last me like 3 months lol
So here's what I did this year and it worked out pretty good. Note i live in us so if you live elsewere this may not b an option. I got a pound of cheap legal hemp flower from an online wholesaler for 400$ and use it as filler flower in between the good stuff of to occasionally mix it in to make good stuff last longer. Its lasted me 6 months got it beginning of summer and on the final maybe 10g. I am a heavy smoker.
Then I got my first dry herb vape. Dry herb vapes are definitely the most cost effective way to smoke, the smokes a lot cleaner, taste a lot better, and sessions last a lot longer. Its nice to be able to dial in on your preferred temp range. But nothing is quite like a hard combustion hit. Sometimes I indulge a good bong hit still even if its not the most cost effective
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If you want to lower your cost even more, grow your own and buy a heat press to make your own live rosin. No solvents and the terpene profile is preserved.
Now for the hard part: vaping is still bad for you. Most people rip on their dabs like they are smoking flower, looking for big clouds, which is a big no-no. I personally take small pulls with extra air so it isn't so concentrated on each hit. I'd rather not prematurely give myself COPD.
Dry herb vaporizers are much better than combustion, you are correct there. Even vaping concentrates is fine. The ones you want to avoid are the ones with VG.
Vaping is substantially better than smoking from a harm reduction perspective. Inhaling a burning plant is always going to be worse than inhaling a heated vapor.