Many medical patients have problematic respiratory systems and their lungs may be highly irritated by smoke, so they often find relief in vapor inhalation.

Some say vaporizers produce a more clear-headed high because smoke is not inhaled, but there are few studies that research whether vaping and smoking indeed create different types of highs. In an early study of 18 subjects, each subject either smoked or vaped one of three different strengths of THC (1.7, 3.4 of 6.8 percent), followed by measurements of delta-9-THC in blood and carbon monoxide in expired air. While blood levels were not significantly different, expired carbon monoxide was greatly reduced when vaporization was used.