By itself, cannabis won’t ever kill you, and is highly unlikely to cause physical harm. Marijuana’s lethal dose is so high that a fatal THC overdose cannot “be realistically achieved in a human” by smoking, eating, or vaping, according to the World Health Organization. There were more than 70,000 fatal drug overdoses in the United States last year, and like all the years before it, cannabis caused exactly zero drug-overdose deaths, according to the CDC. Compared to opiates, alcohol, and even caffeine, cannabis is absolutely the safest high.
Just because an experience is “safe” doesn’t mean it’s always pleasant. Ask anyone who’s gone overboard on infused edibles before—it’s not fun. In the era of regulated cannabis markets, it’s fair and proper to demand an experience that’s more predictable and more precise than simply “non-fatal.” You want something specific. You want to be able to function. You want a particular effect: pain relief, relief from insomnia, an elevated state of mind, relaxation, stimulation, and so forth.
Whatever it is you want, it’s important to get it with as few (or, ideally, zero) unwanted side effects. That means it’s important to control your dose. And precise and predictable dosing is far easier to achieve with high-end dry-herb vaporizers, designed to include this very function.
The practice of discovering and then delivering your preferred dose is called titration. In the not too distant past, titration techniques for cannabis users were crude at best: grind up some flower, apply some flame, take a hit, and wait. Too little? Take a little more. Too much? Take less next time. How much THC and CBD, exactly, did you consume, and what was your ideal Goldilocks dose? Uh, I don’t know, dude!
Titration was all guesswork and heuristics, and little to no science, which is why every titration how-to could do little more than advise patients to start small and work their way up towards the “ideal dose,” whatever it was.
It’s still this way to some degree—it is next to impossible to predict what your ideal dose is, without some trial and error—but with the advent of precisely labeled gel caps, oral drops, and other medical-grade products, some of this inherent imprecision has gone away. Ten milligrams of THC is what you see on the label, and 10 mg of THC is what you will (probably) get.
Dry-herb users are aware that the full spectrum of cannabinoids and terpenes—most of which are lost during the extraction and distillation process—may be required to deliver the precise desired effect. Complicating the calculus somewhat is the understanding that not all flower is created equal. THC percentages printed on the labels of store-bought cannabis strains can vary, as can the CBD content. Terpene content is important, as well. But the point is that precise dosage beyond “grind up a pinch and take a medium hit” requires a more sophisticated device.
The DaVinci IQ3 Vaporizer was designed with On Demand Dosage Calculator with an algorithm that considers the potency and amount of whatever you’ve loaded in the oven chamber—extract or flower—and measures the quantity of active compounds released by the per draw and cumulatively per session.
The On Demand Dosage mode allows consumers of both concentrates and flower to control the desired dose, based on estimated THC and CBD potency percentages. The device also allows you to set a maximum desired dosage per session, which means you’ll be automatically cut off before taking one toke over the line. The On Demand Dosage feature also remembers the THC level consumed during your most recent session. Thus, if you find your ideal level, the device will be able to remember it for you.
The actual amount of active compounds released depends on a few factors, including temperature selected, length of draw time, and how long the cannabis has been heated up. The final calculation hinges on user input and also takes into account user behavior—did you take a few hits and quit, or were you one and done? Either way, when you power down the IQ2 after your session, the LED display screen shows your estimated dosage. Too much, too little, just right? Adjust accordingly, or do the exact same thing the next time. The device will help you remember.
In this way, the titration exploration has a map and guide, rather than leaving the user to fumble around in the dark, hoping to bump into an ideal dose, only to crash into something else entirely.