How the Hitoki Laser Tech is Changing the Cannabis Game

As legalization continues to expand nationwide, the technology and devices in the cannabis space are evolving rapidly. And although some of us may still love the relative primitivism of smoking out of an apple, it's hard to argue that the progress in smoking implements isn't making a consumer's life easier and more enjoyable. Hitoki is a smoking accessories brand that is bringing luxury to the smoking experience since it first launched the Trident in 2020, a bong that utilizes laser combustion technology. I had a chance to use the Hitoki device; in addition to being unbelievably cool to use and witness from a pure aesthetic perspective (lasers!), it truly produces a smoking experience that is smoother and better tasting.

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I caught up with brand co-founder and President Joe Tran to hear a bit about the story of him and his brother Jack concocting the device and how it works.

ONE37pm: How did you and Jack develop Hitoki?

Joe Tran: Jack and I are Vietnamese American with parents that immigrated from Vietnam, trying to escape the war. Like many immigrant families, our parents had struggles in the beginning. and fortunately they were able to make something. Growing up we lived with our whole family, grandparents, uncles, cousins, about 4 families, about 10 people. We were pretty blessed with love and as much as our parents could provide, and it was more than a lot of our peers. But we were childish and did not value or utilize what we had and even got into trouble a good bit in our younger years.

Because we had a good upbringing and bad choices, we decided we needed to make amends, be better people and so we went into thinking about life and things we wanted to make an effect on. But we needed a vehicle to help us do the things we wanted and we needed to be better people with skills, so we decided that we needed to start a business to use as a base for learning skills and to fund the dream.

But we only do things that we are passionate about, or we just won’t work on it. So I thought about the cliché 'do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.' I love weed, so I decided that was going to be the industry. I knew that everyone and their mom was getting into the industry, so I had to make something different.

Luckily—through life happenstance—when I was in elementary school I would frequent this dollar store with my brother. Our mom had a little Chinese restaurant they bought after working many years as a waitress juggling 2 jobs that were in the same shopping center.

So after school we would be at the restaurant helping out and just roaming the area, and there was a dollar store there with these cheap laser pointers. We used to buy the big 20 pack of laser caps and each cap shined a different laser picture. I enjoyed playing with lasers so much I would bring them to school and sell the pointer and the caps separately to my class. So figuring out that cannabis was the vehicle, and then through life happenstance lasers came into the picture and Hitoki’s laser smoking devices became a thing! 

ONE37pm: Can you explain the laser tech to me like I'm 5 years old? 

Using a laser to smoke is very similar to the old school method of using sunlight with a magnifying to light up. More commonly known as 'solar rips'. This old school method was actually one of the inspirations for using lasers. When you use a magnifying glass, you focus light into a point that heats up the surface of the material until it burns to create an ember. As you draw, the ember grows and spreads.

This process is similar to utilizing lasers which create a small ember that spreads as you draw. So the laser is only burning a small pinpoint of your dry herb and the ember takes over and spreads. This method of combustion is cleaner and tastier, because you don’t have butane entering your lungs on the inhale. You're only inhaling your herb with no contamination that can alter the flavors.