0:00:00.4 April Pride: This podcast discusses cannabis and is intended for audiences 21 and over.

0:00:10.3 Elise McRoberts: So like concentrates are still the stigmatized or the scary category of cannabis, and a lot of people who aren’t familiar with dabbing or who have never heard of it, or even if they have, what I hear all the time is people go, “Oh, I don’t know how you do that,” and that’s so scary. And I think when talking about concentrates, a lot of people forget that vaping and hitting a vape pen is consuming cannabis concentrates.

0:00:33.6 April Pride: Welcome to The High Guide. I’m your host, April Pride. As the cannabis and psychedelic movements evolve into uncharted territory, every week we bring you a new conversation with high guides, these are individuals with the latest and greatest information lighting up the space. It goes without saying that cannabis concentrates have a complicated reputation, but maybe the word concentrate is complicated enough, so let’s start by answering, what is a cannabis concentrate? Similar to that of orange juice concentrate, cannabis concentrates are the product of distilling down the most desirable parts of the plant, like its psychedelic compound THC, an ounce for ounce, cannabis in concentrate form has a far greater proportion of THC than raw cannabis flower. Thanks to less involved and more approachable hardware, the world of concentrates has become more accessible to the everyday cannabis consumer, this certainly holds true for the most intimidating of all consumption methods, dabbing, which is not to be confused with, the dab, an arm motion acted out by kids and their parents in boomerangs and photos, a few years ago.

0:01:40.1 April Pride: Fun fact that this was in fact adapted from mimicking a person coughing after taking a dab hit, caught your attention? Listen while we demystify the dab in this week’s episode, thanks to our high guide, Elise McRoberts, Elise is the CMO of Doc Greens and a judge of many cannabis competitions around the world, including High Times Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam and The Emerald Cup in California.

0:02:04.6 Elise McRoberts: I guess in some worlds, I’m definitely a concentrates expert, and I love it because, yeah, it’s just a fascinating space to me, and I’m of course a passionate consumer of them as well.

0:02:15.2 April Pride: And Doc Greens is an interesting story because they’re really using concentrates in various forms to make a name for themselves. And I don’t wanna go directly to this, but I’m kind of curious, what do you know about the theory that everyone ends up dabbing because of tolerance levels, and if it really is a very clean high. I’m curious if Doc Greens subscribes to that theory and that’s why they’re so deep in concentrates.

0:02:49.3 Elise McRoberts: I joined Doc Greens and launched with concentrates is because one, yes, it is what we all on the team love to consume, and we do feel it is the cleanest and best way to get all of your cannabinoids, flavonoids and terpenes. And aside from taking a tincture, it’s the only way you can really get such a true flavor and full spectrum experience, and we just really feel it’s the closest to the flower expression in its purest form. We are on a mission to just help normalize concentrate consumption, help destigmatize it, help people feel comfortable to try it, because in my experience, I’ve given a lot of people their first dab, it’s so beautiful to just see someone’s face light up and have them go, “Wow, that tastes amazing,” and have them feel good and an enjoyable experience, and then they can take on their own journey with it. So yeah, I just hope that concentrates can just seem a little less scary and what I hear all the time is, “Are you just high all the time? Are you super stoned all the time?” And I’m constantly I’m telling them, “No, I’m actually not and there is a way to dab, which is vaporize concentrates in a way that isn’t going to make you sweat or feel like you’re gonna pass out or need to go to sleep, or have that couch lock or anxiety, or the negative effects of cannabis that some people do experience.”

0:04:23.4 Elise McRoberts: The key to having a good first dab experience is low temperature and taking a micro dab, the higher the temperature, the more THC you’ll get and the less terpene, so that’s why you will feel higher or get that high rush sooner, whereas the lower temp and with more terps and less of the THC as they vaporize at different temperatures, you’re gonna get all of that flavor and then also, we don’t necessarily fully know how cannabinoids, terpenes and flavonoids all work together to give us the head change or the experience that we have when consuming cannabis, but we at least know now that it’s not just the THC, we know that terpenes absolutely do play a part in the effect and the feeling, so therefore, when you’re getting more of those terpenes, I just think, the belief… What we believe is getting all of that together, the terpenes, flavonoids, the cannabinoids interacting harmoniously, right?

0:05:23.9 April Pride: This brings up another fine point, while cannabis concentrates may technically be more potent, the different highs experienced between smoking flower and taking dabs is very apparent. You’re not simply higher. It’s a different experience altogether.

0:05:39.0 Elise McRoberts: I can tell you I dab pretty frequently, and so for me, I’m not feeling a high or a head change, I’m really doing it for the flavor and the experience, and also just for me, it’s like a medicine, it’s almost like a vitamin, but if I… For example, at the end of the day I smoke a joint, it’s interesting because I’m so used to dabbing or consuming concentrates that when I consume flower, it’s actually a totally different high, and for me, that then gives me that more stoney feeling, whereas like dabbing gives me a very kind of like, I can be concentrated and alert and just focused, but if I want that unwind experience, I would have to smoke.

0:06:22.6 April Pride: As we’ve been talking about cannabis concentrates, it seems all too easy to overlook the everyday vape pen. Well, not dabbing per se, these cart, cartridges, are packed with concentrated cannabinoids and a lot of other stuff too, depending on the product. You may have heard the term concentrate and extract used interchangeably, but there’s a subtle difference between the two, extracts are a specific type of concentrate made using a solvent. So while all extracts are concentrates, not all concentrates are extracts, for example, vanilla extract is produced by using alcohol as a solvent to pull out the desired flavor component from vanilla bean pods, alcohol may also be used to make a cannabis extract, as is the case with Rick Simpson Oil, RSO.

0:07:10.2 Elise McRoberts: I think when talking about concentrates, a lot of people forget that vaping and hitting a vape pen is consuming cannabis concentrates, and there’s all different types of oil out there in the vape carts that people can hit. And so make sure that if you are a vaper you know what kind of oil you’re consuming through your vape pen, do they add anything to it, do they add in any non-cannabis terpenes or do they add cannabis terpenes or are there other flavor things in it, carts are often just assumed to be this easy thing and there’s actually a lot more to be looked into with your vape cart.

0:07:45.5 April Pride: And we can tell after this discussion of stereotypes and stigmas associated with concentrates, there’s a lot of reputation building to do with these substances, we hope this audio enhanced your understanding of why high guides like Elise choose to dab. No, she’s not high all the time, but she very much appreciates the pure flavor and flower expression that these products can provide. Believing education is the key. We can’t thank Elise enough for sharing her knowledge with us, replacing any fears with some functional advice for your next high adventure.

0:08:16.5 April Pride: If you’re looking for a deeper dive or to get higher with cannabis concentrates, tune in next week to The High Guide where we continue our conversation with Elise and she helps us break down all the different types and textures, just in time for 7/10, July 10th. This is oil spelled backwards and upside down, which is like the 420 in July. Thanks for listening to this episode and join me, April Pride, every Friday at 1:00 PM Pacific in Clubhouse, where we cover all things A to Z, plant-based pleasures. Of course, you’ll find a new episode of The High Guide every Friday, subscribe and follow wherever you listen to podcast. And if you’re looking to stay in closer contact, give us a follow on Instagram @thehigh.guide, until next time, remember to choose your own adventure.