We look into the three main arguments in the debate between bongs and joints – portability, smoking experience and health factors.
Which is better for your smoke - Bong or Joint?
Once you get into your groove of smoking, you start to wonder what would be the best way to get the experience of the herb. Rolling papers and Bongs are the most common ways of smoking out there and there is justifiably a lot of debate about which is the best. This is a discussion best had with a couple of experienced friends after a great smoke, but nevertheless, we’ll try to shed some light on the matter.
Portability
In this category, the plain old paper has the bong beat fair and square. Rolling papers are easy to carry around and easy to dispose of or hide should the need arise. There is no simpler way to carry around a high than a pack of paper and a baggy of the herb. Bongs on the other hand, small as they can be, cannot be hidden or carried around easily. In a situation where mobility is important or discretion is needed, the bong is the wrong sort of accessory for your smoke. There have been instances where people have eaten papers when the situation went south, but just try doing that with a bong. Where would you hide it?
Smoking Experience
This one is the most subjective one of all. Personal preferences come into play so strongly on this question that our benign smoking community picks up arms in support of their preferred method and goes off to fight internet wars. On the whole, the joint experience is a little harsher than the bong smoke. Bongs cool down the smoke considerably and offer a smoother hit of the herb. On the other hand, bongs can be too much to handle since a lot of smoke needs to be inhaled in a single go. Sharing wise, both are equally handy and can be passed around in a circle of friends. Joints though are the more common way to smoke being easily accessible and on and on it goes. There is really no winning this argument.
Health factors
This is a tricky one to answer, mostly because studies into marijuana are severely limited due to the legal status of the drug across the globe. Still, a recent study was published which compared the health effects of smoking a joint versus smoking a water pipe (most commonly a bong). Here the news is bad for bong lovers. The study found that though bongs filter out more tar and other toxic stuff in the smoke, it also filters out more THC. THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol) is the major psychoactive ingredient in weed, the chemical that is attributed to all the health benefits of smoking. Since more THC is filtered out, the smoker needs to inhale more and more smoke out of a bong to get the weed high, which leads to greater ingestion of harmful chemicals. The unfiltered joint surprisingly performed extremely well in this study against the bong.
Don’t despair yet our bong enthusiast friends. The study did no research in the noxious gases and fumes that the bong would potentially also filter out which a joint simply cannot. Until more research is done in to the full effects of one type of smoking versus the other, a decision cannot be made for either side.
So there we have it – the old debate rages on with no clear winner. It’s anyone’s game at this point. If you want to check out some exclusive Rolling paper brands and some cool bongs, find it all and much more on OutOnTrip.com.
