They’re amazing, and they’re everywhere. Cannabis edibles were invented – as we know them today – came about in the 1980s as a creative individual’s answer to helping AIDS patients with narcotic-free alternatives to treat their pain.
In those days, there was only generally a single variety available to a select group of people, but today you can get just about anything, from any flower extract, in almost any potency.
With all this diversity, how do edibles make you feel?
The truth is, it’s different for everybody, but there are ways to help you predict what to expect.
Before we get into our list, Green Leaf has a great video on this topic we’d recommend you check out – How to Choose and Use Cannabis Edibles: Pros and Cons / Mandee Lee / Try This / Green Flower
Now, here are four factors that help you determine how edibles will make you feel.
1 – The Strain It Was Made From
The most important – and less verifiable – factor in how your edible makes you feel is what kind of strain(s) the raw material was extracted from.
As we commonly know, cannabis is a dynamic plant in the range of effects it can produce in our bodies.
It’s more than just the differences between indica and sativa. Cannabis strains all have different cannabinoid and terpene concentrations and profiles – and each interacts with our physiology, well, differently.
In today’s market, edibles from commercial sources are typically made from strain blends, which is why strains are rarely, if at all, listed on labels.
As time goes one, this will likely be corrected, especially when it comes to medical edibles. But for now, even though this may well be the more important of the listed factors, we simply don’t have a way to tell what strain is in our edibles. Thankfully, this isn’t an issue for most people. What is an issue though is knowing how much you need to take based on how you want to feel.
2 – How Much You Take
How much you take is probably the most important factor – aside from strain – that most people are keenly aware of when they dose cannabis edibles. If you’ve done them before, you already know that the more THC you ingest, the higher, for longer you’re going to be vs any other method of cannabis consumption.
The reason is that THC, when taken orally, is processed by the liver and altered in a way that smoking doesn’t do by a process of dephosphorylation. That means that the amount you’d take to get high from smoking, wouldn’t have the same effects as if you ate it.
Smoking comes on quickly and tapers off in just a few hours, but eating an edible can take up to two hours to come on, and be active in your system for up to 8hrs+.
For a quick reference, a low dose is considered anything 10mg or less, medium doses are 15mg-30mg, and high doses are usually 35mg+.
3 – Environment
Knowing where you are and what to expect after you eat a weed gummy will by far reduce your risk of a bad experience if you accidentally take too much.
For example, taking a high dose of edibles in an active construction site surrounded by strangers might not be the best idea, but the same dose in a quiet room or in the forest with trusted friends could be just what you need to get the most out of what otherwise might have been a difficult high.
4 – Your Own Expectations
Last but not least, expectation – what you’re looking for in an edible high. Expectations loop in everything we’ve already talked about, and adds your intentions to the mix.
A good way of looking at it is; a medical user might just want a low dose to help with pain or mood or some other form of medicinal benefit; while a recreational user hanging out with friends on the weekend might want something a bit stronger and more invasive to the senses.
Based on what you expect to get out of it, your method for dosing is going to widely vary.
Cannabis also has the known property of amplifying whatever state a person might already be in, and bring into reality whatever somebody thinks will happen to them while high.
So having a clear expectation of what you’re going for will usually help you get exactly what you want from your edibles.
Conclusion
Now that you know more about strain variances, how much edible THC to ingest based on what you want, where to be when you take it, and the importance of expectation, we want to hear from you!
Did we miss anything important you want to share with us?
How do edibles make YOU feel?
Leave a comment below, then visit our Edibles Shop to see what snacks we have waiting, just for you!