Original Article published 5/7/2024 at the following URL:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/benjaminadams/2024/05/14/smoking-safer-through-science-weedgets-demonstrates/

Smoking Safer Through Science, Weedgets Demonstrates

By Benjamin Adams, Contributor

Smoking can be safer through scientific innovation without resorting to vaping or other methods that often deliver subpar results. Today Weedgets announced an industry-first partnership from American Cannabis Nurse Association (ACNA) due to the company’s focus on safer smoking methods. The Maze-X Pipe, made by Weedgets, was recently rigorously tested, approved, and officially endorsed by ACNA, marking an industry first.

"The American Cannabis Nurses Association (ACNA) is dedicated to its members, ensuring they have access to top-quality medical-grade products," Nicole Foss, President of The ACNA said in the announcement. "Partnering with Weedgets, a renowned innovator in hardware, allows us to uphold our commitment. We look forward to launching co-branded activities throughout the year for the benefit of all our registered patients."

The endorsement will lead to co-creating regional showcases, educational webinars and materials, product marketing sheets, featuring thought leadership in ongoing communications and newsletters.

Weedgets focus on safety is evident in the way the Maze-X pipe works, as well as its other products that cool and filter smoke, making it safer.

Smoking Safer

Vaporization, edibles, or other ways to consume cannabis rarely deliver the same instantaneous effect as smoking, yet smoking could lead to a list of health concerns, due to the release of unwanted resin and tar into the lungs and the high temperature of the smoke.

So smokers transformed themselves into engineers in order to solve the problem of smoking in a safer manner. Water pipes, bubblers, and bongs—technology that’s been available for decades—attempt to cool the smoke with water. Some experienced smokers chase smoke with air because it’s too close to the flame in an attempt to cool the smoke as well. But this new patented technology provides a new approach: Creating a maze inside a pipe that forces the smoke to travel a much longer distance, in an elongated, labyrinthine path.

Weedgets is applying waterless filtration technology, using physics to cool and filter the smoke. The team designed a very deliberate, always changing direction, essentially forcing the smoke to travel through a maze. While the Maze-X pipe is the typical length of a pipe—five and a half inches, but the smoke travels 14 inches.

Weedgets CEO Michael Barenboym.PHOTO COURTESY OF WEEDGETS.

Michael Barenboym, CEO of Weedgets, a play on the word “gadgets,” has a background as a biomedical mechanical engineer who has developed artificial heart systems, steerable endoscopy and laparoscopy instrumentation, cancer ablation systems, spine reconstructive surgical instruments, steerable catheters, microvasive surgical equipment, endoscopic staplers and suturing devices. He’s also done a lot of work for pulmonary devices including implantable devices for COPD, so it's a surprising move into the field of smoking devices.

But smoking can be much safer, he says, without giving up the delivery method. “Everything that we do is tailored towards one goal: Making smoking devices safer for the consumer, because there's nothing more important to any human being than their own health,” Barenboym says in a video call.

Barenboym’s patent for the pipe shows a maze-like pathway that’s designed to cool the smoke, one of over 100 patents he’s involved in. It solves the issue of the need for smoking without some of the negative health impacts.

“So for me the approach is to develop devices exactly the same as we do in the medical field—to develop technologies that will allow people to smoke safer,” he says. “Historically, in the smoking device industry, there are two major aspects making the smoke safer and pleasant: reducing the temperature and reducing the amount of resin.”

Cooling Technology Explained

The maze-like structure inside the Maze-X pipe looks like a helix but in fact changes the direction of the smoke pathway several times as it runs its course. He explained that the longer pathway allows the air to circulate much longer, cooling the smoke, while the maze-like structure captures harmful particles. He explained that when you smoke it, it feels like air and it’s designed to be smoked slowly.

“That's the reason why you get 100 degrees compared to 300 degrees Fahrenheit,” Barenboym says. The oils and cellulose in cannabis burns at a high temperature, but the pipe provides a way to fix that.

The Maze-X pipe provides three levels of filtration, from the glass bowl to the aluminum casing, and maze coil. Weedgets released another product, their own charcoal filter, designed so people can use them frequently, and they’re disposable, and they can serve a fourth level of filtration. They last about two to three months, and people can plug them in and smoke them like regular cigarette filter.

Weedgets features a limited edition Maze-X pipe with a titanium but most models are made from aluminum, which also helps to cool the smoke as well. They offer several different models, including the Limited Edition Titanium Maze-X Pipe, the original Maze Pipe, or the Slider Pipe.

“We are the first company in the world, primarily focusing on for the end user, nobody else is paying attention to them,” he says.

"We are proud to align with the American Cannabis Nurses Association (ACNA)," stated Barenboym in the announcement. "Our range of hardware and accessories was designed with patients in mind, and this partnership will provide greater access to those in need. We are excited to progress together!" Learn more about Weedgets technology on the website.

Follow Benjamin Adams on Twitter. Check out his website.

Benjamin Adams has been published in Vice, HuffPost, The Advocate, and many other publications, while contributing to a handful of books. He edited High Times and Culture magazines and specializes in celebrity interviews. He holds a Bachelor of Communication from Southern New Hampshire University, and studied art at Carnegie Mellon University and University of Utah. Follow Benjamin M. Adams on Twitter @benbot11.