How marijuana water pipes work

Smoke is a animated mixture of gases, smoke and solids. The vapor is almost almost all water vapor. The relax of it, at least in the container of ANSI issue marijuana circa 1975*, is as follows:

Gas Phase: carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, acetaldehyde, HCN, acetone, ammonia, toluene, acetonitrile, isoprene, benzene, dimethylnitrosamine, and methylethylnitrosamine

Particulates: tetrahydrocannabinol, cannabidiol, phenol, o-cresol, m-p-cresol, 2,4 and 2,5-dimethylphenol, 1-methylnapthalene, 2-methylnapthalene, napthalene, benzoanthracene, benzopyrene

Out of this cloud, what you want is the tetrahydrocannabinol, the long and finicky name for the notorious THC of fable. The rest of it is crap (with the possible exception of the cannabidiol, which is a close, but less active relative of THC). Now, when you go by all this stuff through some water, you lose some of the water soluble constituents. Luckily, neither THC or any of its active connections are water soluble. A group of the other stuff, however, is, and passing the lot during some water reduces the attendance of those constituents in the smoke. This is a good thing as many of the water soluble constituents are carcinogenic and or poisonous. Note that the lower the attention of the constituents in the water, the better this machinery - so put new water in your bong once in a though.

Now, as formerly mentioned, THC isn't water soluble, and that's why you use water in a bong. THC is somewhat soluble in alcohol, so using alcohol in a bong will somewhat decrease the amount of THC that makes it to you. THC, BTW, is rather fat soluble, and so using any kind of oil in your bong, sideways from being gross and messy, will drastically reduce the THC in the smoke that reaches you (bound again, by the same balance based constraints on functional effect).