TJ--no it's not an amp. Though it might make you think your guitar is a little different sounding than normal.
I have the Vapo first in my effects chain - it seems to work best there.
You do get smoke at about 310
Now, I'm not a doctor, but from what I gather, that smoke is the vapo's itself - the the volcano will fill the bag up with white mist, for example. My theory is this - the higher temps (ie 390) vaporize all pyschoactives and THC in the herb at once- which creates a lot of 'smoke'. Assuming this because there is alot more 'smoke' from a fresh load at 390 than there is after you've hit the load at 270, 300, 300, 360 or whatever. I had some catch last night and it was definately different that when you are normally using it.
I gotta assume "finishing up at 390" is way too high---aren't you getting some serious nastiness from that?
Well, yea and nea, if you've vaped it at lower temps, yeah, it gets nasty quick. If you have a fresh load, not so much. I go until I get the burnt popcorn taste (If i am not fucked up beyond belief by then), then take 3-4 more hits, so I'm convinced its done. Overall, the herb looks like regular tobacco once I'm done - some is scorched, but I'm still getting the hang of this.
If you do a youtube search for Vaporizers 101 (I am still @ work, otherwise I'd post) there's a very informative video by this dude from a medical society who goes through how to use it and so forth.
As far as cooking goes, I agree how vaped it is will affect the effectiveness when cooked - as I said above, I go until it looks like tobacco. Some dude on a message board made a standard box of browines with about 3/4 of an o. Said they were strong as hell. Even if it doesn't pan out, I'm cool, I get more than enough mileage with this thing.
From what I hear the volcano is godly. The box version I use (mainly) has two temps - the set one and then where you are at right now, which helps when trying to get a good drag. Also picked up a basic tower model, which I like a bit more even though theres been a bit more of a learning curve.