How to Cough Less When Smoking Hemp? [Smoking Without Coughing]

Coughing is likely the most annoying side effect of smoking hemp. While you are getting all those positive effects and benefits, you are also inhaling hot smoke, which can be a bit harsh on the throat.

But this is not unique to hemp alone. Smoking, in general, can have annoying side effects. It’s all about knowing how to stop them and changing the things about smoking that cause the cough.

Reducing the hot temperature in smoke and filtering it are both excellent starting points. But there’s a ton more from where those came from. 

Please keep reading to find out all about them.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

What Is a Smoker’s Cough?

How to Prevent Coughing

Tips for Smoking Without Coughing

How to Soothe Your Throat After Smoking

What Is a Smoker’s Cough?

Regardless of how you do it or what material you use, you're likely to develop a cough if you're smoking. This can happen right afterward or in the long-term if you are a frequent smoker.

But the case we're talking about here is the cough that comes right after you take a deep inhale, a common feature of smoking, especially among new smokers that have not learned to inhale in a way that feels pleasant.

Because when you smoke hemp, you are still combusting your flower and inhaling smoke, it's only natural that you'll start coughing if you take a very long or deep inhale without being used to it first.

In short, the type of smoker's cough we are talking about here is not the chronic condition brought on by years of smoking 20-40 tobacco cigarettes a day. We're merely talking about the occasional cough that happens when you smoke your weekly hemp joint and take a longer-than-usual inhale.

Fortunately, you can follow a variety of tips and tricks to prevent this from happening and turn what should be a pleasant event into an uncomfortable one.

How to Prevent Coughing

While we are advocates for the responsible and wellness-oriented use of hemp, we are also not blind to the facts. The truth is that smoking in great quantity can be detrimental to health, regardless of what you’re smoking.

But that’s not to say that smoking hemp is just as bad as developing nicotine addiction, but it is smoking nonetheless.

However, the chances are that if you’re smoking hemp, you are also following a CBD or other cannabinoid intake goal. This means you’re not smoking 20 or 40 pre-rolls in a day.

That said, the best way to prevent coughing caused by smoking is the ultimate prevention method; not smoking.

If that’s the route you want to take and are willing to give up on a relaxing hemp smoke break in the afternoon, then we strongly recommend using CBD edibles instead. You also have other options like CBD vape products and sublingual drops, but we understand that if you’re reading this, you’re probably more inclined to smoke your hemp.

That’s why we’ve included a set of rules you should follow that will help you stop or reduce the coughing.

Tips for Smoking Without Coughing

In our experience, smoking without coughing is a thing of practice. It requires understanding your own body’s tolerance to smoke and realizing what feels comfortable and what doesn’t.

The tips below are a mix of alternatives and techniques to help with that.

1. Try a Diffuser or Percolator for Your Waterpipe

A percolator is a small gadget that is fitted into the stem of a water pipe or bong. The percolator usually sits between the mouthpiece and the water chamber, where the smoke collects before you pop off the full bowl and inhale it into your lungs.

The percolator is there to accomplish one goal; disperse the smoke or vapor particles enough so that when it hits your throat, it won’t be as hot as it would be otherwise. When smoke and vapor are cooler, they tend to irritate your throat a lot less than they would if they were hot. This will help you avoid coughing and might even help with any throat soreness the day after.

A diffuser has a similar purpose and is often confused with a percolator by inexperienced water pipe users. The diffuser also sits in the pipe's stem that ends in the mouthpiece, but it is a solid one-piece that looks like a honeycomb grid, unlike the percolator. The main goal of the diffuser is to increase bubbles and airflow, resulting in a cooler, cleaner inhale that reduces the risk of hurting your throat.

2. Take Smaller, More Controlled Inhales

We’ve all overdone something at some point in our lives. A situation where it happens a lot is at the gym. Perhaps we lift more than we should be lifting or running an extra mile or two that makes muscle soreness feel a lot more overwhelming than it usually does. The same concept applies to smoking hemp.

If you are taking deep, long inhales on a pre-roll where the heat source is very close to the mouth, and the smoke has little space to cool down before you inhale it, then chances are you are coughing a lot, especially if you’re not a seasoned smoker.

Fortunately, the solution is quite simple. By taking smaller amounts of smoke in at a more controlled pace, you will suppress the cough much more efficiently. Not only that, you’ll be able to prevent coughing because by inhaling at a slower pace, you can identify where your tolerance level is and stop before reaching it.

3. Take Deep Breaths

At first glance, you might think that taking deeper breaths than you can handle is causing your cough, which might be true in some cases. But there is also the chance that not taking deep enough breaths is what’s causing you to cough.

By inhaling weakly, you are causing smoke to get caught in your throat. Naturally, you will feel asphyxiated if this happens, and the result will be a cough. This is the body trying to get rid of the smoke hurting your throat. Concentrate on taking slow and controlled breaths reaching your lungs instead of sitting in your throat for a while.

4. Use a Dry Herb Vaporizer

Using a dry herb vaporizer means that you are not inhaling smoke but vapor instead. Dry herb vaporizers can be used with dry herb, but they heat up just enough to vaporize the trichomes sitting on the surface of your ground hemp flower instead of combusting the material.

Vapor is, by definition, cooler than smoke is. The reason for it jumps at you, smoke is created by combustion while vapor isn’t. So it’s expected that vapor will be easier on the throat than smoke is. 

Vapor might not be as strong and potent as smoking hemp, but it is a way to dose and control the strength of the gas you inhale. Some dry herb vaporizers are specially designed to cool down the vapor even further through a series of vents before reaching the mouthpiece.

If you’ve identified that smoke temperature is the leading cause of your cough, other gadgets and accessories can be purchased to cool it down even further.

5. Purchase High-Quality Hemp Flower

Purchasing high-quality hemp flower means that when you light it or vaporize it, the herb will not burn to a crisp right away, neither will it be too hard to light. A high-quality herb burns slow enough to generate smoke but not so slow that it becomes difficult to use. 

Herb that’s too dry will make for more residue, ash, and ultimately, a higher risk of a cough. But it’s not all due to the dryness of the herb. It also has to do with the herbicides and additives that low-quality herb may come with.

Some farms don’t look after their hemp as well as the best hemp farms in the world. Purchasing from trustworthy brands ensures that you get clean, natural, and even organically-grown hemp.

6. Hydrate Often

A simple trick that everybody has thought of is drinking water often. Keeping your throat hydrated will reduce the amount of coughing, and if your hemp smoke feels harsh, it may alleviate some of the symptoms that cause coughing.

7. Use Hemp Wick

Seasoned hemp smokers have migrated to using hemp wick instead of a lighter. The reason for that is that hemp wick burns cleaner, with fewer carbon emissions, and is entirely flint dust-free, unlike a lighter.

Hemp wick also promises to deliver a more flavorful inhale that respects hemp's authentic flavor and scent. It's also effortless to use. Just light it with a lighter and just the lit end of the wick to light your pre-roll or packed bowl.

How to Soothe Your Throat After Smoking

Smoking without coughing can be a challenging feat to accomplish. While smoke can be harsh on the throat, the heat in smoke alone can cause a cough to flare up. To prevent a smoker’s cough, all you have to do is avoid the things that cause it, so cooling down your smoke and making it as clean as possible should be the first things to look into, and you can do this by following the few simple steps and tips mentioned above.