Disclaimer: This guide is for entertainment purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
We often get asked how to fly with a dry-herb vaporizer or carry it safely on an airplane. First of all, let’s differentiate these from typical vapes—e-cigarettes used for vaping nicotine juice. We are not focusing on those in this article. Instead, we’re talking about dry-herb vaporizers: devices most people use to vaporize cannabis flower. These tools are excellent, but because they’re used with cannabis, they tend to smell and collect residue—hardly ideal if you’re traveling to or from a country where cannabis (or even vaporizers) are illegal.
Therefore, to ensure safety while flying with a dry-herb vaporizer, we’ve put together a guide that is the culmination of 12 years’ worth of experimentation, hearsay, and experience.
Cleaning Your Device
Before any type of flying can happen with your dry herb vaporizer, you must start by thoroughly cleaning it. Any type of THC residue must be removed, and all specks and pollen particles should be wiped clean so that there are no traces of what you have used the device with before stepping onto the plane. The best way to clean most vaporizers involves a bit of disassembly, 99% isopropyl/isopropanol alcohol, cotton swabs, paper towels, a glass, a pouch of rolling tobacco, and time.
Start by taking apart whatever you can that came into contact with marijuana. Typically, that would be the mouthpiece, oven, or other inserts. If you have a Mighty, disassemble the mouthpiece and cooling unit. If you have a Tinymight 2, push the cooling unit out of the glass mouthpiece and take it apart. If you have any other type of dry herb vaporizer, repeat the same steps. Eventually, you will have many sticky pieces of vaporizer parts in front of you, waiting to be cleaned.
Begin by removing any silicone pieces, like o-rings. Since we will soak all of these parts in alcohol, it is best not to include the silicone parts, since they can deteriorate from such a bath. Now, fill a glass with alcohol, take all metal and glass parts, and dunk them in the alcohol. You should leave them for at least a few hours to allow the alcohol to really start dissolving all the resin and residue. After several hours, the alcohol will be colored off-yellow (yes, those are cannabinoids, which you can technically extract via evaporation if you are so inclined), and particles will be floating about. You can give the glass a light shake or stir just to make sure all of those particles get dislodged from the parts.
Now, pour out the alcohol. If you are going to save it, follow another guide for how to create iso reclaim. Yes, that means creating a new batch of cannabis resin from your leftover vape residue. It contains THC and can be very potent, but that is for an entirely different article saved for another day. Once your alcohol has been poured away, you should be left with a glass full of cleaned parts. Since the parts are covered in alcohol, now is the perfect time to wipe them off. Use tissue paper to wipe off any residue or particles. Twist the tissue paper into a long string and run it through any tubes or long crevices that need cleaning. Use the cotton swabs as well. The point is, the alcohol has already dissolved most of the resin and loosened all the particles. But you still need to remove them to get a perfect result. Therefore, after the alcohol bath, it is very easy to deep clean the parts. This will give you peace of mind when flying later. Once you are happy with the result and don’t see any more particles or residue, rinse the parts under warm water and use some dishwasher detergent if needed. Then, give them a final warm water rinse and set them out to air-dry on another piece of tissue paper.
Preparations, or, The Decoy
Now you have a very clean vaporizer in front of you, and no part of it seems to have come into contact with cannabis. But can you really know? What if the customs man inspects your device and sends it off for analysis? You will be worried, and this situation is better to avoid. Therefore, now comes the sneakier part. You will vaporize regular tobacco in your dry herb vaporizer to transform it into a tobacco accessory and not what could potentially be considered drug paraphernalia by an inspector. The recommendation is to load up your dry herb vaporizer with organic, dry, pure rolling tobacco and then vape it. Discard the vaped tobacco and repeat a few times. If the vaporizer now starts smelling like tobacco, that’s a good thing. It will not smell like tobacco smoke since your vaporizer doesn’t burn plant material, but rather musty or heated tobacco, like an IQOS “heat-not-burn” tobacco vaporizer. The scent can be removed later by cleaning it again with alcohol, and it will be quicker because tobacco doesn’t leave behind so much resin.
Once the vaporizer has been used a few times with tobacco, load up a fresh serving of tobacco in the oven, but do not vape it. Instead, leave it in there so that it is clear what the device is intended to be used for.
Prepare for Takeoff
Now it is time to fly. Opinions will diverge here. Some say, pack the vaporizer in your carry-on luggage. Others say, pack it in your checked-in luggage. Generally speaking, packing it in the carry-on luggage seems safer due to airline battery rules. However, you are at a higher risk of having to explain to the person operating the x-ray machine what the device is. I personally put the device in my checked luggage. Place the device among your clothes to protect it from damage during travel, and place the pouch of rolling tobacco together with it. It will be crystal clear to whoever checks your luggage what your device is meant for. It is packed together with a pouch of rolling tobacco, smells like tobacco, and has tobacco inside it. You now have plausible deniability, and at worst, you have transported a tobacco vaporizer.
