Everything You Need To Know About Hotboxing

You’ve seen it in every stoner movie. Stoners are piled into a car or a closet, smoking until they can’t see their hands in front of their face. It’s like an all-encompassing weed chamber, and the idea behind it is that it’s going to get you much higher than simply smoking your weed. There’s also that satisfying moment of opening a door or a window and watching all the clouds dissipate as new air circulates within the space. 

Hotboxing is a stoner’s love letter to smoking. It’s alleged to elevate the experience and help weed go further. If you subscribe to the theory of hotboxing, you probably won’t like us very much by the time we’re through here. 

The theory of hotboxing

When you inhale your weed, you’re taking in cannabinoids and terpenes that work to create the perfect high. They’re activated by the heat and turned into smoke that delivers them to your body. A few minutes after your first inhale, you’re feeling pretty good. But what about the rest of the smoke?

Theoretically, the smoke you exhale and the smoke that naturally wafts off of the end of your joint or blunt should also contain cannabinoids. Hotboxing is a way to avoid wasting it. If you fill a small space with the smoke, making your own version of a weed sauna, the theory is that you should get even higher. The cannabinoids can’t go anywhere, and you’re constantly breathing them in.

This theory makes plenty of sense. It’s a reasonable and logical assumption. It’s similar to the assumption that eating all the food on your plate will make you fuller and provide you with greater satiety. When you hotbox, you’re eliminating the chance that any part of your weed will go to waste.

If only it actually worked that way. 

What the studies say

Most of what we scientifically understand about hotboxing is the result of a series of studies conducted on cannabis smoking in a small, non-ventilated area. The group was split into two: non-cannabis users, and cannabis smokers. Six smokers were given a few joints and placed in specially designed scientific hotbox chambers with non-smokers and told to light up. 

After an hour, everyone was released from the chamber and cannabinoid levels in blood and urine were measured. 

The study was then repeated in a room with better ventilation to prevent the hotboxing effect. This was used as the control measure. If hotboxing had any effect on people, detectable THC levels in the body should be different in a ventilated space versus a non-ventilated space. 

Hotboxing only works for non-smokers, and even still, it’s mild.

The non-smokers did inhale enough weed in the hotbox scenario to produce detectable levels of THC in their blood and urine. Many of them reported feeling slightly impaired and mildly sedated. They caught a light buzz and were slightly sleepy. 

The non-smokers in a ventilated room resulted in barely detectable levels of THC and no detectable impairment.

What about the people who smoked?

The people who smoked didn’t get any more or less high depending on the environment. The differences in cannabinoid levels were insignificant, with no meaningful difference between smoking in a ventilated room or smoking in a hotbox. 

The simplest explanation? If you’re already smoking weed, it doesn’t necessarily matter to your body if you’re baking in the clouds or not. 

Hotboxing pros and cons

Smoking weed in a car isn’t a smart idea. If your car reeks of weed and if you’re clearly behind the wheel under the influence, you’re almost begging for problems. You may not be able to notice the smell, but everyone else will. 

Even if recreational weed is legal, driving under the influence is not. There is currently no reliable or accurate way to determine how high a driver is, and this adds to the level of complication.

It’s better to avoid filing a car with weed at all costs. You don’t want to find yourself in a complicated situation with potentially serious legal consequences, especially since hotboxing doesn’t even work. It’s all risk and no reward. 

In addition to the issues surrounding the legality of hotboxing, you’re going to be dealing with a really dank smell for a really long time. Your whole car will smell like weed. Every part of your body and every article of clothing you’re wearing is going to smell like weed. After you hotbox, it’s almost impossible to tone down the loud. 

Just smoke a blunt on the back porch and change your hoodie when you’re done. You’ll get to enjoy your high, you won’t be in a claustrophobic space where you can’t breathe, and you won’t have a laundry list of issues to sort out when you’re done.