Like most Americans — like most of the world — you have probably been stuck at home for months on end. Now that your bread-baking phase is over, and now that you have finally admitted that you hate knitting, you might be looking for another way to pass the time, especially as the days get darker and colder.
If you use marijuana medicinally or recreationally, you might be interested to learn that there are plenty of ways you can test your creativity using the good green herb. Here area few creative ways to use cannabis at home — without investing in expensive equipment.
DIY Pipes
Stoners from way back when weed wasn’t socially acceptable often develop the unique talent of crafting a pipe out of almost anything. Once you understand the physics of pipes, you realize just how simple it is to make almost any household object into the right shape for smoking. Still, if you need a creative boost, here are some of the more common DIY pipes:
Apple
A classic in pipe DIYs, the apple already has a near-perfect shape. You only need to drill a hole from the natural bowl in the top of the apple to the apple’s side. As they say, an apple a day keeps the doctor away!
Soda Can
If you flatten a soda can lengthwise and poke holes in the flat center, you can use the pouring spout as the mouthpiece. However, you should be forewarned: This is not the most enjoyable smoking experience, and it is likely to make you cough.
Pen
You can make use of your broken pens by turning them into disposable one-hitters. First, you disassemble the pen and retain the barrel and tip. Invert the tip in the barrel, so the wider portion of the tip becomes your bowl. Then, the other side of the barrel is your mouthpiece.
Ice
You can buy kits to make a frost pipe, which allow you to freeze water into the perfect shape for smoking. Or, if you have a block of ice large enough, you can carve your own, as long as you are careful enough to connect the bowl and mouthpiece without shattering the ice.
Gravity Bong
If you bought some premium weed, you don’t want to waste it on a bad pipe. To make the most of good ganj, you can craft a gravity bong from a two-liter or gallon bottle. The directions for gravity bongs are a bit more complex and require a few more supplies; you can look here for some basic instructions.
Innovative Rolling Methods
If pipes aren’t exactly your style, there are a few ways to experiment with rollies. Stoners in the habit of buying pre-rolls might go old-school and learn the art of rolling your own, which takes more skill than many novices expect. If you need an extra challenge, you might try rolling some innovative shapes, like the shotgun, the cross, the braid or the plumber’s joint.
Another idea is to use some innovative rolling materials. Almost any organic material can be used as rolling papers, but one of the more popular options is corn husks, which are appropriately thin and flexible. However, they don’t make for a particularly clean smoking experience.
Finally, you can roll cannabis concentrates into your joint to give the hit a big boost. Substances like budder, wax and shatter can be sprinkled into the weed of the joint or rolled around the joint’s exterior. If you aren’t familiar with concentrates, you can talk to a knowledgeable budtender at an Ann Arbor dispensary.
Hot Knives
One of the oldest ways of smoking weed — or heating any type of cannabis, from hash to shatter — is the hot knives method. It’s pretty straightforward: You heat up two clean steel knives on your stove’s burner (or over a fire if you don’t particularly care about the knives). Then, you place some bud on one of the knives and squeeze the bud with the other knife, careful not to touch the hot parts with your skin. Inhale the smoke that emerges, and enjoy.
DIY Tinctures
Tinctures are alcohol-based cannabis extracts, which can be applied sublingually or droppered into food or beverages. The benefit of tinctures over oils is you can add flavorings to tinctures, which makes them a bit more palatable on their own. The basic tincture recipe involves saturating a good amount of decarbed weed in a potable alcohol, like grain alcohol or vodka, for several days. Then, you strain out the plant material and add food-safe flavorings, like extracts or juices.
Especially as temperatures drop and you are forced to stay indoors, now is the time to start getting creative with your cannabis usage. You never know what talents or tastes you might unlock during the process.
