I have been using cartridges lately for my once per night before bed sess. It's extremely convenient and affordable.

Here's the thing. When I use dry herb vaping, I tend to have the same amount every night and it's fine. I don't want to get baked, I just want to sleep.

When I have a cartridge, I end up taking more drags from it. This leads to consuming now which increases your tolerance. It's just so easy to have a little more. When I use dry herb reloading the vape is just enough effort that I think "I'm good" and wander off to bed. Plus you have ABV to make edibles.

Edit - no noticeable effect on breathing or whatever that differs from dry herb vaping.

Real talk? Vape carts are garbage. Overpriced and weak, just smoke bud or rip a dab. The only times I use carts are when i have to sneakily bring it somewhere.

Health wise, the smoke from wild fires probably caused more damage to my lungs than a year of weed.

This is anecdotal, so keep that in mind when making your decision. I have had 2 friends develop lung issues from smoking the oil in vape pens. Several years ago one of my friends switched to flower only and he has since recovered. My other friend who still smokes the oil has developed worse lung problems. I think that our lungs have evolved to be able to clear particulates out of them with relative ease. Oil, however, has never been something that we breathe in. The oil vapor enters the lungs and then reliquifies. This liquid is thick amd sticky and goes into the fine tube of your lungs. The normal process your lungs use to clear debris is not very effective at clearing this sticky oil and can take much longer.

I refuse carts anymore but have never felt the same level of worry with dry herb vaping.

I would recommend strongly against inhaling any oil containing product. Your lungs do not have much surfactant and they cannot deal with it.

Inhalants in general are not good for you. Vaping introduces water, smoking introduces ash/smoke. There are no benefits to vaping or smoking. Unless you are being prescribed it by a doctor. I mean drugs are not good for you. But if you are going to, your body can usually deal with it well with moderation. Edibles are better than inhalants.

I can't speak as to much from personal experience. However, I do know of an extended family member that had a negative respiratory reaction to a weed vape he got online. He survived, but ended up in a coma for a while and suffered serious brain damage from lack of oxygen. He was a talented athlete, and now he will be lucky to walk and feed himself again.

Don't know if it was tainted product, an allergic reaction, or what, but... I would make sure you can trust the safety of the product itself, ease into use checking to see if you might have a reaction, and maybe be prepared with an epipen or something in case you have a negative allergic reaction.

Just to be clear, I'm not one of those fear mongering "weed kills" types. I'm not a smoker myself, but very much support legalization and responsible recreational use. But I do not trust all of the sketchy companies producing vape products in general, let alone products that are illegal in much of the world.

Have you considered vaping flower instead of oil?

Seems to me that edibles are safer than vaping or smoking.

A friend and I have developed some popcorn lung from cartridge vaping too much, but it was unusually heavy usage at an entire gram in a week. Most people can make a gram last more than a month and never encounter issues.

Heating element seems to have something to do with it. Most of those cartridges are cotton heating elements, but occasionally ceramic ones do exist. Ceramic or a quartz dish on a proper dab rig have never given me trouble.

Wikipedia has this article on vaping-associated lung injury.

Just do your research, know the difference between CBD, delta 8/9 THC, HHC, etc and i would recommend filling up your own cartridge if you want to be sure you know what is going into it, most places have lab tests so you know theres nothing bad in it. I've been filling an NRG-S with ceramic coils and carts with HHC from highlyconcentr8ed, never had any issues after several months of vaping it as much as possible.