My journey to quit smoking tobacco
If you’re keen to learn more about smoking hemp vs tobacco, then you’re in the right place. I recently quit smoking tobacco cigarettes in favor of the occasional hemp cigarette and am here to share why I made this decision.
In this article, I’m going to outline five reasons why hemp cigarettes are inherently better than tobacco cigarettes.
5 reasons hemp is better than tobacco
Let’s jump straight into it, shall we? The reasons why I’m so much more happy smoking hemp cigarettes than tobacco are:
1. Hemp isn’t addictive
A lot of people ask “do hemp cigarettes have nicotine?” and the answer is no. As long as the hemp cigarettes you choose contain nothing but hemp, they will not have any nicotine in them. And because they’re non-addicting, it’s easy to smoke less.
And smoking less hemp cigarettes already means fewer health consequences, but that’s not the only difference when it comes to safety.
2. Hemp is safer (in my opinion)
There, I said it. Having this opinion is bound to get a few panties twisted up, but hemp smoke is safer than tobacco smoke, in my humble opinion (I repeat).
Firstly, by choosing the right pack of hemp cigarettes, you can make sure that you’re smoking nothing but premium quality, organically-grown hemp. OK Smokes, for example, have their cigarettes lab-tested twice, for pesticides, heavy metals, microbials, mycotoxins, and foreign matter, as well as to verify the unique cannabinoid and terpene profile of their latest batch.
Have you ever seen one single lab result from a tobacco cigarette manufacturer that is running the same kind of safety testing? And did you know that amongst US-grown crops, tobacco ranks sixth in the amount of pesticides applied per acre?
Secondly, a 2021 study verified that while hemp cigarettes are not risk-free (I never said they were), they do present a saf-ER option to tobacco cigarette smoke. Harmful chemicals are released when you combust molecules, plus burning any plant matter at all produces tar and carbon monoxide, but their are notable differences in the amounts of harmful substances produced by both hemp and tobacco.
3. Hemp contains beneficial cannabinoids and terpenes
Hemp is an incredibly diverse plant that contains over 100 cannabinoids (read what are phytocannabinoids?) and over 200 terpenes (more information on common hemp terpenes here). Scientists are only just beginning to uncover the huge therapeutic potential possessed by these plant compounds, ranging from improvements in mood, mobility, and sleep, to significant reductions in seizures, pain, and anxiety.
4. I smoke less
When I say I smoke less, I mean I smoke wayyyyy less. I’m probably averaging around one or two per day, but that’s because some days I don’t smoke any, some days I’ll smoke one, and others (as you can guess, when I’m drinking) I’ll smoke five.
Compare this to a light day of tobacco smoking being around five per day, some days I’d smoke ten, and others (yes, you’ve guessed it, when I’m drinking), I’d smoke a full deck. Yuck.
5. They helped me quit nicotine
I’m not going to lie, the first few days and weeks of quitting tobacco were still hard, but mainly because I chose to quit nicotine cold turkey and was trying to fight the majority of the smoking cravings instead of giving into them. I didn’t want to smoke a hemp cigarette every time I wanted a tobacco cigarette, as I was desperate not to replace one habit with the other.
My first month flew by and now I’m six weeks in, I rarely think about smoking and have even gone a few nights on the beers without smoking at all. Having OK Smokes around makes me feel calmer and more confident of my abilities to stay quit, forever.
Read my journey to quit smoking
Hemp cigarettes vs CBD cigarettes: What are you smoking?
Hemp and CBD cigarettes usually look just like regular tobacco cigarettes, except instead of tobacco inside of them, you’ll find something else.
Hemp cigarettes usually contain nothing but 100% pure hemp.
CBD cigarettes also usually contain hemp, but on the odd occasion, you’ll find that some are made from other herbal blends with a CBD isolate incorporated into the blend somehow.
The CBD content can vary wildly from one brand to the next which is why it’s important to know what you want out of the experience before you invest. If you want some help in choosing the right cigarettes for you, then head over to our “best CBD cigarettes in 2022″ article to give you an idea of how they can differ in terms of quality and experience.
Are CBD cigarettes safe?
No, CBD cigarettes are not safe because smoking them involves combusting molecules, which creates free radicals, which in turn causes oxidative stress. Burning any plant matter at all, from wood to tobacco, creates tar and carbon monoxide, not substances that are safe to be inhaled.
However, as mentioned above, CBD cigarettes are considered to be a degree safer than tobacco cigarettes by some, because they produce less chemicals when they’re smoked. Plus, it’s relatively easy to find a good CBD company, that provides comprehensive lab reports with which you can verify the purity of the product.
This means you can make sure that the CBD cigarettes you’re smoking contain no pesticides, heavy metals, microbials, mycotoxins, or other foreign matter and, as stated previously, I’ve yet to come across a tobacco manufacturer that does the same.
Can CBD cigarettes get you high?
As long as your hemp or CBD cigarette contains nothing but US-grown, compliant hemp, you won’t get high from it. Hemp is cannabis, but in order to be classified as industrial hemp it must contain no more than 0.3% delta 9 THC, which is the compound responsible for making you feel high.
Technically-speaking, if you were very sensitive to THC and smoked a few strong CBD cigarettes in a row, then you could ingest enough THC to feel high.
When we independently tested Ok Smokes for cannabinoid potency, we found them to be exactly where they claim to be, with 50mg of CBD and just 0.192% THC (1.473mg of THC per smoke), which is well withing the legally compliant range of 0.3%.
Choose Hemp
So there you have it, five good reasons to choose hemp over tobacco. Any kind of cigarette smoking carries risks and adverse effects, but if you feel the need or desire to smoke something, I say “let it be hemp!”.
Hemp has far more enjoyable effects than traditional cigarettes and it feels great to no longer being a slave to tobacco and/or nicotine.
If you’d like to try some of the best hemp cigarettes around, then check out our other article on the best CBD cigarettes for 2022, which will help you find a good and reliable brand that you’ll enjoy. I tried 12 brands in total and sent them off for independent testing, so that we can all be 100% sure of what’s in them.
If you can think of more reasons why hemp is better than tobacco, we’d love to hear them in the comments below!