Jungle Fever: Smoking Paraphernalia & Legal Highs

The bong or a water pipe is a filtration device designed to help smoke a variety of substances, including legal highs such as herbal blends and tobacco. The bong is similar in principle to a hookah pipe, but is easier to carry around and stores away in smaller places. It has been used as a means of smoking substances for thousands of years and has remained relatively unchanged. Bongs and their counterparts are used all over the world, but particularly in Thailand, Laos and Africa.

The bong allows the user inhale cool smoke, which is safer for the lungs and mouth and generally more pleasant. The vapours travel through the water and the user inhales it from the mouthpiece at the top of the device. Studies suggest that some of the mind-altering properties are lost in this process, so the user will have to inhale more smoke in order to have the same effect. This may result in having to use more of the legal substance than regular tobacco smoking.

There are many different types and sizes of bongs available on the market today and buying them is simple, especially online. In many shops bongs are classed as water pipes or smoking pipes, because it is illegal to sell any paraphernalia that is linked to illegal drugs, which is often the case with the bong. However, it is perfectly legal to buy and own a bong, as long as you are not smoking illegal substances. Other devices that are similar include Roor Pipes and chillums, which are also legal to use.

Herbal highs refer to organic compounds and is a term covering all legal recreational drugs, rather than specific substances. Users of herbal highs should always try to verify the ingredients, as it is easy for a manufacturer to substitute other substances for herbs and get away with it, so always be cautious.

Types of Herbal Highs

One of the most common and popular herbal highs is Salvia Divinorum, which is a plant-based hallucinogenic drug that is also used by some native tribes as a healing substance. This drug, which is smoked, often through a pipe or bong, enables the user to become disassociated with reality, feel at ease and relaxed and often induces laughing. Varying doses are recommended, depending on how many times the user has previously smoked the substance.

Another popular herbal high is Red Vein Indonesian Kratom, which is either drunk in a tea or smoked. This is a legal substance, which is said to relax the user and help to reduce anxiety. However, it can become addictive and caution is advised in order to prevent the user from becoming dependent on the substance to relax and reduce stress.

Both these substances can be smoked in devices such as the Eclipse Vape-2O Vaporizer or by being rolled into herbal cigarettes, using a Rizla rolling machine.

Some herbal highs may become illegal, in time, as more research is carried out on their long-term effects on people’s health. You are therefore advised to keep an eye on the Government’s website, in the Crime and Justice section, just to be sure.

There are many types of accessories available for smoking tobacco and other legal highs. The most useful and widely available is the ashtray, which is sold in various shapes, colours and designs.

Novelty Ashtrays

Novelty ashtrays are widely available in many different funny, weird and wonderful designs. Dedicated websites sell hundreds of them, from useful tipper ashtrays in various colours, to not so useful Rasta novelty ashtrays. Fun and cool ashtrays come in the form of the American fire bucket, which users fill with sand. They are also available in the shape of fruit, interesting blown glass designs and wooden shapes. Practically anything goes when it comes to novelty ashtrays, so if you can imagine it, it probably exists.

Glass Ashtrays

Glass ashtrays are some of the most common, they are often to be seen in pubs; outdoors only now, of course and other public outdoor spaces where smoking is permitted. However, the glass ashtray does not necessarily have to signify cheap and cheerful, as more and more bespoke versions are now on the market. For example, there are certain websites that will customise glass ashtrays with the client’s own initials or design. Manufacturers are even making crystal ashtrays as a sign of decadence.

Spinning Ashtrays

The spinning ashtray is both nice to look at and hygienic, as the spinning action ensures that the cigarette butts and ash are sent to the bottom of the device. These are available to buy on various websites and from specialist shops and are relatively inexpensive. They come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and colours and can be made to match the decor in your home.

There are many different types of bongs out there, but perhaps none as special and individual as Roor pipes. The world-renowned German glass blower, Martin Birzle and his team specialise in perfecting 2mm-7mm thick glass bongs. Each individual bong has the signature mark of the creator to ensure its authenticity.

Roor pipes can be bought over the internet and in specialist shops, but always keep an eye out for the signature mark. They start at around £80-£90 which may sound somewhat expensive, but their quality and usability is of a very high standard.

How to Use Your Roor Pipe

•    Make sure your pipe is clean, dry and free of any dust or other particles that may be harmful if inhaled. Your Roor pipe will only give you the optimum experience if it is properly maintained and looked after.

•    Test the optimum water level by heating some water in a clean and substance free pipe. You do not want too little water, which will hinder the proper vaporisation of your tobacco or other legal high. Similarly, you do not want too much, as it might bubble up and touch your mouth, which can be dangerous and painful.

•    Ensure that whatever you are smoking is correctly spread out in the bowl of the pipe, so that vaporisation occurs consistently and evenly.

•    When you are ready to start smoking, light the substance and inhale deeply. Make sure that you remove the bowl so that the pipe is only filled with enough smoke that you can empty in one motion.

Nature is the world’s greatest pharmacy, as it provides a number of herbs and plants for treating almost any malady.  There are many herbs and plants that can be smoked, either for enjoyment or to calm the nerves and eliminate anxiety.  Some legal high herb mixes are enjoyable while having healing properties.

As you smoke any legal herb mixture, be sure to keep an ashtray nearby to eliminate mess and the risk of fire.  Novelty ashtrays can even make the smoking experience more enjoyable.  If the herbs you are smoking have a hallucinogenic effect, the colours and decorations of novelty ashtrays can make you laugh.

Mullein, also known as Verbascum Thapsus, is a very useful herb.  It is a good base for any herb mixture you may want to smoke, as it is similar to tobacco.  However, it is also used to treat cough, earaches, eczema, and many other minor ailments.  When it is smoked, it has psychoactive properties and can create a very exciting high.

Mexican Haze is an herb and plant mixture that has been widely used in Mexico for its healing and spiritual properties.  It contains many different herbs and plants, although chacruna, salvia, and kratom make up the majority of the mixture.  When it is smoked, Mexican Haze can have a hallucinogenic effect that some users say causes a spiritual experience.  Some users use Mexican Haze in a hookah or water pipe rather than rolled into a cone or blunt.

Rolling handmade cigarettes can definitely be a messy business and cigarettes can be awkward to smoke if they have been poorly rolled.  Rolling cigarettes can also be a time consuming affair and can cause the user to waste precious herbs if done incorrectly.  Then there are smokers who simply aren’t interested in rolling their own cigarettes but enjoy the taste of handcrafted smokes.  Rolling cigarettes can take practice but luckily there are a few rolling devices out there on the market to take some of the guesswork out of the technique.  The Rizla Rolling Machine was one of the first rolling machines that emerged, and it makes the task efficient and easy.

The Rizla Rolling Machine is a tin that can roll different paper sizes and dimensions depending on the type of machine purchased.  The user can completely control the length of the paper rolled.  The King Rizla Rolling Machine can even roll cigarettes of up to 200 mm.  Simple to use, the user merely puts the desired herbs into the Rolling Machine Rizla and closes the rollers, turns them and then inserts the papers, before licking the gum line and rotating the rolling.  The machine shapes, forms and seals the cigarette perfectly for ease of use.

A top accessory for any smoker to have on hand, the Rizla Rolling Machine works on any and all herbs.  Rizla also sells papers specially formatted to fit its machine, ensuring a custom cigarette every time.  Frequently reviewed on blogs and websites, Rizla’s sturdy design guarantees durability and it has an inexpensive price, which means that it can be reused hundreds of times.

We all know that ashtrays are every smoker’s staple, but most people do not think of purchasing a spinning ashtray.  A sleek and high tech device, the spinning ashtray does exactly what its name suggests.  It does not spin around and make it more difficult to tip ashes, but rather makes it far simpler.  Keep tipping until the tray fills up, then simply push down on the metal button on the device, and watch the ash fall down to the ashtrays’ bottom compartment, revealing a neat and clean top.  Empty only the bottom compartment when needed.  The compartment itself is larger than most conventional ashtrays, which means that smokers will have to empty it out less often than a conventional ashtray.

In addition to its retro design, a big bonus of the spinning ashtray is that it can be put in the dishwasher for easy cleaning.  The spinning ashtray can get squeaky clean and dishwasher suds can remove the stench associated with smoking.

A perfect place for spinning ashtrays is on an outdoor patio.  Instead of worrying about knocking over an ashtray or an unpredictable gust of wind blowing ashes into faces or worse food, the spinning ashtray can help ensure guests and your patio stay clean and comfortable.

The spinning ashtray is affordable and with different patterns, colours and styles, can match any décor possible.  The spinning receptacle makes storing and discarding ashes while smoking simple and convenient.

Getting a legal high is an easy task nowadays with all of the legal herb mixes that are out there.  These mixes, made up from different herbs and plants, can affect you the same way as other drugs.  However, they are completely legal.

These herbal blends are typically best when they are rolled up and smoked.  This is also the easiest and least expensive way to partake in herbal mixes.  However, smoking herbs can leave you with a lot of ash and herb remnants to dispose.  Spinning ashtrays are one easy way of taking care of this problem; they are ashtrays that spin as you tap off the end of what you are smoking.  As it spins, it disposes of the ashes.  This keeps them from getting into the air.

As you try out different herbal mixes, keep these ones in mind.  Super Skunk is an herbal smoking mix that is very easy to use.  It has a mixture of herbs that is blended to give users a euphoric high that leads to a tranquilizing effect.  It is pre-crushed, so you don’t have to do any work with it.  Just roll it up and enjoy.

Another fun herbal mix to try is the orange joint mix.  It is made up of completely legal herbs that, when smoked, make you feel high and exuberant.  This herbal mix can also work as a sexual stimulant, because it increases blood flow in your body.  It can also make you feel warm.

Ashtrays come in all shapes and sizes, are made from all manner of materials and are often surprisingly decorative and attractive.  The paraphernalia of the dedicated smoker is no less exotic than that of the writer, and has an equally long and proud tradition.  In fact, as smoking greatly predates writing in the history, or prehistory, of mankind it probably has greater claim to distinction.

Nowadays novelty ashtrays are usually mass produced and made from plastic, but in past centuries they were made from everything from sections of Narwhal tusk to hollowed-out giant quartz crystals, exotically carved and rightly treasured by their owners.  Today, these glamorous artefacts command huge prices in the auction houses.

The spinning ashtrays familiar from the 1970s may have gone out of fashion, partly because pressing the knob often resulted in ash being thrown around the room at centrifugal velocity, but glass ashtrays are apparently here to stay as they are simple, convenient and easy to clean, and come in a range of designs, some more attractive than others.

Ashtrays may seem like rather banal objects, but they have their fans and many museums such as the V&A have collections of them as important elements of social history.  From the polished ivory and marble ashtrays of the 18th century aristocrats to the plastic tat of the 1970s, this is material culture as relevant as gold coins to the social historian and archaeologist alike.

Ashtrays, let us not forget, are prime examples of objects that can be both beautiful and functional, and as such deserve perhaps more attention than some other products.

In the world of recreational drug use there is a great amount of jargon, just as there is for any other hobby from fishing to cricketing to chess.  Members of a particular group feel more comfortable and united if they share a specialised vocabulary that means little if nothing outside the group, as exemplified by such terms as ‘bong’ and ‘blunt’, along with much other specialised vocabulary.  The Volcano Vaporizer, for those not in the know, might be some fiendish device created by Fu Manchu for all the average man in the street knows, but to the aficionado it means something quite specific.

Bongs, for example, have a lot in common with the more familiar hookah pipe, used widely in the Middle East to draw smoke from various plant materials through often scented water and into the lungs of the user.  The water acts as a filter to remove the more harmful elements in the smoke, and it also cools the smoke down to promote a more pleasant experience.

Bongs have their origin in Thailand, where the original name derives from the bamboo implements that used to be used for drawing the smoke up.  Nowadays they are made from all sorts of materials, with glass often being considered the material of choice because it contributes nothing to the smoke as wood does.  There are specialists in these and other pieces of legal high equipment with sites on the internet which sell not only the kit but the plant products as well.