THC vape pens: the cartridge is the risk
A THC vape pen is a battery and a cartridge, and almost everything that matters is in the cartridge. The battery is a commodity. What the oil is, who made it, what the coil does with it and where you bought it are the four questions, and only the last one is fully in your control.
Kevin
Articles by Kevin
THC vape pens: the cartridge is the risk
A THC vape pen is a battery and a cartridge, and almost everything that matters is in the cartridge. The battery is a commodity. What the oil is, who made it, what the coil does with it and where you bought it are the four questions, and only the last one is fully in your control.
THC cartridges: how to judge one
A THC cartridge is distillate plus terpenes in a 510-threaded tank. What separates a good one from a bad one is the terpene source, the batch certificate and the hardware, not the potency printed on the box. The 2019 vaping outbreak showed the difference was mostly about where the cartridge came from.
THC vape juice: what it actually is
THC vape juice describes two different liquids sold under one name: cannabis distillate mixed with terpenes for a concentrate device, and a thin e-liquid meant for nicotine-style hardware. The difference matters because the thinning agents that make the second possible are what the 2019 outbreak was about.
JUUL THC pods: there is no such thing
JUUL Labs has never manufactured a THC pod. Everything sold as one is either a third-party pod built to fit the device or a refilled counterfeit, which places it in exactly the informal supply chain that 78 per cent of EVALI patients had bought from.
THC and pain: how big the effect really is
The BMJ meta-analysis found non-inhaled medical cannabis probably produces a small increase in the proportion of patients reaching a minimally important improvement in pain, a risk difference of about 10 per cent. The January 2026 Cochrane review of neuropathic pain found no clear benefit at low certainty.
THC and anxiety: the dose turns it around
In a controlled trial, 7.5 mg of oral THC reduced distress after a standardised stress task while 12.5 mg increased negative mood and worsened performance. The largest meta-analysis of cannabinoids in mental disorders found scarce evidence of benefit in depression and very low quality evidence in anxiety.
THC and sleep: what the trials found
THC shortens the time it takes to fall asleep in short studies and suppresses REM sleep. Tolerance to both builds within days, and stopping makes sleep worse before it gets better. The best-studied use, dronabinol for obstructive sleep apnoea, was advised against by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
How Much THC Is in a Typical Joint? Your Questions Answered
There are so many variables that can affect how much THC gets into your system from smoking a joint.
CBD for dogs: where the trials are better
The veterinary evidence is stronger than the human evidence. A randomised crossover trial in osteoarthritic dogs found less pain and more activity at 2 mg per kilogram twice daily, and a randomised trial in canine epilepsy found fewer seizures. Both found a liver enzyme rising in some dogs.
CBD and weight loss: what was measured
No randomised trial has shown CBD produces weight loss in humans. The case rests on cell and rodent work about the browning of fat. The one trial that measured metabolic outcomes in people found no change in its CBD arm — the arm that moved was a different cannabinoid.
How long do CBD effects last?
Most routes put the useful window somewhere between two and six hours, with wide variation between people and between studies. How long CBD stays detectable in the body is a separate question with a much longer answer, and the two are often confused.
CBD capsules: the format that measures itself
A capsule is the only CBD format with a dose you cannot misjudge, which makes it the right tool for finding out whether CBD does anything for you. It is also the route that delivers least of what you swallow — unless you take it with a meal, which changes the amount several-fold.
CBD isolate: what purity costs you
Isolate is CBD with everything else stripped out: no THC, no terpenes, no other cannabinoids. That makes it the only form in which an effect can be attributed to CBD alone, and the form in which a bell-shaped dose curve was demonstrated in mice.
CBD water: the format the chemistry argues with
CBD is not water-soluble, so CBD water is an emulsion held together by processing. The doses are the smallest of any format, and cannabinoids degrade with light and time — which is a problem for a clear bottle sitting under shop lights.
CBD lip balm: what is actually in it
A lip balm works by putting an occlusive layer over skin that has almost no barrier of its own, and beeswax, shea and petrolatum do that. Nothing has tested CBD on lips, so the cannabinoid is the ingredient with the least to say for itself on the tube.
Hemp oil for hair: seed oil, not CBD
Almost every hemp hair product is hemp seed oil, pressed from seeds and containing essentially no cannabinoids. It is a light, linoleic-acid-rich emollient with a real job to do on hair — which is a different product from the CBD the packaging implies.
CBD skincare: what the laboratory found
The case for CBD in skincare rests largely on a 2014 study of human oil-producing cells in culture, which found CBD reduced oil production and inflammatory markers. Nothing since has taken that to a randomised trial on faces, and the rest of the jar is doing work the cannabinoid gets credited for.
CBD bath bombs: what a bath can deliver
A bath bomb disperses its CBD through the whole tub, so the amount meeting any patch of skin is very small. Warm water has real, measured effects on muscle and sleep of its own, which is the honest explanation for why the bath helps.
CBD cream: the one format with a trial behind it
A topical is the one CBD format with a positive randomised trial of its own — on peripheral neuropathy, over four weeks. It is also the format where most of what you feel on the skin comes from menthol or camphor rather than from the cannabinoid.
CBD muscle rub: what is doing the work
A muscle rub announces itself within seconds, and that is the menthol or the camphor doing what counter-irritants do. What the CBD adds is a separate question, and the only randomised evidence for topical CBD comes from a small trial in nerve pain rather than muscle soreness.
CBD vape juice: what is in the bottle
CBD vape juice is a carrier of propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin, a flavouring and the cannabinoid. Which carrier ratio, how many milligrams per millilitre and whether a batch certificate exists are the only questions that separate one bottle from another.
CBD vape cartridges: what to check first
A cartridge is sealed, which means everything knowable about it comes from the label and the batch certificate. This covers what those should say, what the 510 thread does and does not guarantee, and why thickening agents are the part of this category with a body count.
CBD wax and shatter: what dabbing changes
CBD wax, shatter and crumble are the same cannabinoid at higher purity, differing in texture rather than in kind. What separates dabbing from other routes is temperature: research on concentrates has found degradation products forming when they are heated too hot.
CBD vape oil: how to tell one from another
CBD vape oil is propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin carrying CBD, and the difference between one bottle and the next is what the certificate says rather than what the flavour promises. Undeclared compounds have been found in this category more than once.