Quote Originally Posted by Zcomp
I love to see the misinformation(sometimes corrected).
Water/Ice does filter out THC, And alot of it actually. Read this:
MAPS/CaNORML vaporizer and waterpipe studies
Proving unequivocally that water does filter out THC(and in the worst way)
Hmm.

Their studies showed that a joint of low quality had 13 parts tar to 1 part THC. They then went on to say that their best bong showed 30% more tar than the joint ratio. a few mathematical operations show us that, assuming the bong filtered out none of the tar (which is consistent with their findings), close to 23% of the THC was lost in the water. This percentage increases as the smoke:water interaction increases, and it can be assumed that a percolator or similar would perform the worst, just as their device with a spinning paddle did.

Why have I never heard this before? You'd think it would be big news that using a bong means you lose a quarter of your THC. But it is also worth noting that I didn't see any temperatures mentioned for the water. I know for a lot of people the whole point of a bong is to cool the smoke, and the lower temperature water is at, the less of anything it will dissolve, relative to warmer water. I wouldn't be surprised if hot water in a bong had a net removal effect of 40% or more. If pure ice or something similar were used in a bong, almost no THC would be lost (granted, the smoke wouldn't be bubbling through anything either... just cooling by proximity to the ice). I have to imagine snow removes an amount somewhere between pure ice and water; even though it is very cold it still has a porous nature, and that's plenty of opportunity for particles to get trapped.

Also I'm thinking that my above alcohol theory should be discounted. The other cannibinoids are not psychoactive; I can see their levels still having an effect on the feeling of the high, but I can't imagine it being very significant.