Many a desperate toker has sat on his couch staring sadly at the empty remains of a once bountiful sack of nugs. Not wanting to run out to meet his connection or visit the dispensary (or maybe just unable to pay for another eighth until payday), he glances cautiously at his oft used pipe. “Can I smoke that resin?” he wonders.
Weed Resin Definition
Resin is the tarry, nasty-looking byproduct that accumulates in your pipe or bong after smoking cannabis. Though sticky and smokable like wax, manufactured cannabis extracts are produced to maximize cannabinoids like THC and CBD and terpenes. Resin contains a lower concentration of those precious chemical compounds than the flower that produced it. It will also taste like something that has been burnt…because, ya know, it has been.
Is Marijuana Resin the Same as Hash?
No; marijuana resin is not the same as hash. It is neither hash nor any other intentionally manufactured extract of cannabis flower like wax or shatter.
Can You Smoke Resin?
Yes, you can absolutely smoke resin, and it will get you high. During and shortly after college, I came home enough times to find my roommate digging out that charred goo from every manner of smoking apparatus to know this to be true. Now, you probably shouldn’t smoke resin if you have any reasonable alternatives but, if you have arrived at that unfortunate juncture, this article will help you make the most of a bad situation.
Best Way to Smoke Resin, Step-by-Step
1. How to Prepare Resin For Smoking
First, you will want to collect all the resin you have at your disposal. It’s tedious work, but it is best to get this out of the way and do it all in one fell swoop. Here are some tips to maximize your resin yield:
- Gather all your smoking devices, along with a paperclip or pin, lighter, and a plate.
- Use the lighter to warm up a pipe to loosen the resin. Be careful not to overheat.
- Taking care not to damage the pipe, use the paper clip or pin to scrape all visible resin from the bowl of your pipe(s).
- Gather the resin on the plate.
2. How to Smoke Marijuana Resin
Once you have collected your resin, you have to decide how you prefer to smoke it. None of these are good options, but some are better than others:
- The Knives!: The best way to smoke resin without a pipe (and undoubtedly the coolest looking method) is to place it between two kitchen knives and hold them over an oven burner or a flame. The resin will evaporate, and you can inhale the smoke with a straw or funnel. Although this will look cool, it’s a complicated maneuver that will taste exactly like licking a used bowl and comes with a high potential to get burned. You would be wise to avoid this if at all possible.
- A Pipe: The simplest approach is to put the resin in a pipe or one hitter and apply a lighter flame to it or to the outside of the pipe. This requires little effort, but still carries a substantial risk of burns and that foul taste. Even worse, it’s easy to inhale some of the resin when smoking it, which you will immediately regret.
- Bongzilla: Anything a pipe can do, a bong can do better. The water will filter out some of that burnt taste and prevent direct inhalation of any renegade resin. It will take a bit more time to set up than your trusty pipe, but that effort will be worth it!
- A Dab Rig: For the most advanced approach, you can smoke the resin out of a dab rig. Although resin is not as high quality as hash or extracts like shatter, it combusts in a very similar fashion, which is well-suited to a dab rig.
3. Can You Smoke Resin after Cleaning with Rubbing Alcohol?
Do not use rubbing alcohol in the process of removing the resin from your pipe if you intend to consume it! Isopropyl alcohol is not meant for human consumption, so unless you have the proper laboratory equipment to fully remove all of the alcohol and know how to use it, you should err on the side of caution and collect your resin by hand.
Does Smoking Resin Get You High?
Yes, smoking resin gets you high. It still contains THC, CBD, and other cannabinoids that were in the original flower, so the effects on your brain chemistry are the exact same as consuming cannabis flower.
Resin Smoke Effects
The effects of smoking resin will be the same as consuming cannabis generally, which may include:
- Heightened senses
- Increased appetite (a.k.a. “The Munchies”)
- Distorted sense of time
- Impaired motor skills
- Pain relief
- Anxiety/Paranoia
- Euphoria
How Long Does Resin Stay In Your System?
You should note that also means that smoking resin will cause you to test positive for marijuana on a drug test just like smoking a joint would, and it will stay in your system just as long. Just as even smoking small amounts of cannabis can cause THC to remain in your system for up to 30 days, smoking a little bit of resin might have the same effect.
Other factors like diet, weight, exercise, and frequency of smoking will also influence this, but it’s safe to assume that THC can be detected in a urinalysis for a minimum of three days. If you consume resin or cannabis in any other form more than once a week, you should expect to test positive for five to seven days and up to 30 days if you are using daily.
Is Smoking Weed Resin Bad?
While you can absolutely smoke resin in a pinch, you will find both the processes of collection and consumption to be gross. Now that you know you can do it and how to smoke it, let’s hope you never actually have to.
