The Beginner’s Guide To Marijuana Edibles

If you are a novice to edibles, read this. If you are an old school pot smoker who hasn’t tried an edible since they were a gooey, chocolaty brownie that tasted like a weed infused gym shoe, read this.

Edibles can be a wonderful ride, or a hideous rollercoaster. The difference between the two experiences generally comes down to two factors: 1) Your knowledge of what you are consuming; and 2) Your headspace going into it.

Smoking Vs. Eating

THC consumed through smoking/vaping is processed nearly immediately. Within minutes you will feel the effects and thus it’s easier to regulate your intake. Depending on the strain you smoke, you will get either a head high (creativity, inspiration) or a body high (relaxation, couch lock) or in the case of all the new hybrids, a combination of both. I’m a head high guy.

Eating Vs. Smoking

The THC from a marijuana edible has to be fully digested before the effects can be felt. For some, that can take as little as 15 minutes, but for most the effects take at least an hour and sometimes two. That’s usually where the first mistake is made. You take a bite of a gummy or a cookie and you wait. Then you wait some more. Pretty soon you think that you must not have eaten enough, so you eat more. One word of advice: DON’T. Better to not get high enough than to get too high. For me, the bad edible experience is simply not worth it. I rarely touch them anymore. Plus as I said, I’m a head high kinda guy.

With edibles, you will mainly get a “body high”. You generally will not be solving math problems or doing anything that requires focus or intellect for hours. Speaking of which, edibles last FAR longer than smoking; about three times as long. So keep that in mind before you eat an edible on the way to grandma’s place. Between the time it takes to kick in to the time it wears off, you are looking at a full day commitment.

Common THC is what they call a “Delta 9” molecular configuration. You don’t really need to understand this, but you do need to understand that when Delta 9 gets processed through your liver after eating, it actually AMPLIFIES the THC to a Delta 11 configuration. It literally makes it STRONGER. So you may be a veteran smoker who can smoke joints with the best of them, but your lungs are not your liver. I hate to break it to you.

I can speak from personal experience. I’ve been consuming for 30 years and can handle a decent amount of THC through smoking marijuana or vaping it. But if I take even an “average dose” of THC through eating, I am rendered high as a kite and I have even had experiences that brought about fairly severe negative, but temporary, reactions.

What is a cannabis edible?

A marijuana edible is a very generic term that can apply to any food or beverage that has “infused” THC within it. The most popular cannabis edible is a brownie, but these days they come in gummies, beverages, lollipops, and just about anything else you can stick in your mouth. Typically the way THC is infused is through a tincture of oil or butter. There is no way to know how much THC is in a cannabis edible without looking at the label it came in. If you just pick up a cookie and eat it, you’ve just rolled the edible dice. I did that once. Once.

What is a “dose” of THC?

Thanks to legalization, we are starting to hone in on what is a safe dose and what isn’t. But again, what is “pleasant” varies widely from person to person. A generally accepted “dose” is 10 mg of THC. However, many veteran consumers consider 15 mg to be a dose, yet most states suggest or require edibles to be divided into 5 mg individual servings. Confused yet?

Medical cannabis patients generally require a much larger dose of THC in their marijuana edibles and most states have allowances for this. Where a recreational consumer may take in 10-15 mg, I’ve seen a medical patient take in over 100 mg without flinching. Dear God in Heaven, don’t ever make me eat 100 mg of THC. Not without some great Rush albums, a six pack of IPA and some difibrillator  paddles close at hand.

What do I do if I eat too much THC?

The good news is, you’re not gonna die. The bad news is, you are likely gonna have a bad day. I’ve had some personal experience in this department, so let me tell you what has helped me.

First, HYDRATION and NUTRITION. Water can do a lot of good for helping mellow your buzz. The same can be said for nutrition. If you’re blood sugar is low, it can make for a bad high. If you’re starting to feel negative, ask yourself “Do I have serious dry mouth?”. If you do, drink some water dumbass. If not, ask yourself how long it’s been since you last ate something substantial. Often times, your problems are solved right there.

Second, try CBD. The chemical in cannabis called CBD has great anti-paranoia qualities, from what I’ve been told. I’ve never personally put this to the test, but if you are concerned about having a “bad day”, you may want to purchase a straight CBD edible along with a THC edible and keep it nearby to play it safe. Or buy an edible that is a 1:1 ratio of THC and CBD. That is the marijuana golden ratio.  Even smoking cannabis flower can be quite enjoyable with a 1:1 ratio.

Third, RELAX. You are not going to die. Chances are you ate the edible when you were not in a great head space and your mind has decided to have some “fun” with you. When I had a particularly hard experience, I found I could not focus on thought for more than a few seconds at a time. So I put myself into situations that required focus. Basically I cleaned the shit out of my apartment while listening to the Allman Brothers. Music helps draw your focus away from your experience as well. Except maybe a King Diamond album. You might not want to put on one of his albums. Just a suggestion.

Finally, turn to ALCOHOL. I know this is not politically correct to say, but my parachute in a past experience was to crack a beer…or three. Alcohol helps you relax and forget and the act of nursing a beer can have a positive effect on your headspace. If something works, I don’t care whether it’s politically correct or not.

Medical Cannabis Edibles

Medical cannabis edibles are in a class by themselves. They generally are either really potent THC or concentrated CBD. The potent THC forms are great for people suffering from cancer. At the very least it brings back your appetite and relieves your pain and in some cases, people report that it actually cured their cancer. Look up Rick Simpson Oil (RSO) and you’ll hear an interesting story about how one man cured himself of melanoma using highly concentrated cannabis THC.

But the truly amazing stories come from the CBD forms of edibles. Since CBD is a non-psychoactive form of cannabis, they can be consumed by people who don’t want to get high, or by children who are suffering from seizures. The web is strewn with beautiful stories of children who were suffering hundreds of seizures a day until they were administered CBD orally. Many had a massive reduction in seizures and some even saw a complete removal. For the love of God, if FOR NO OTHER REASON Mr. Sessions, legalize cannabis for the CHILDREN!!

Pot being illegal never stopped me as a recreational user. So I don’t care that much about recreational legalization. I care about MEDICAL. Wounded vets are not committing suicide, Parkinson’s patience are have extended moments of clarity, and children are getting MASSIVE relief. Sorry, I’m typing a lot in caps. I’ll stop shouting.

Homemade Cannabis Edibles

When I was at Cannacon in Seattle recently, I saw a booth carrying a product called “Zen Zingers” and so naturally I had to check them out. I was quite impressed! Paracanna (the company who makes them) has put together a kit that is specifically designed for people who want or need to make edibles at home. This gives them more control over dosage; what cannabis strain they want to use; and keeps the government out of their decision making process. Which is always a good thing.

If you want to find out more about them, I interviewed their founder in the video below. A transcript of the interview is posted below the video. If you go out and try one of their products, leave me a review in the comment section below. Help me educate the masses! Oh and FYI, I was not compensated for this interview. So don’t worry that I’m posting this to try to sell you products.

Please don’t forget to follow my blog and share this posting with your friends who need to become better educated. Cannabis is a beautiful plant with few negative side effects. Through education we can avoid the pitfalls and soak in all good stuff, my babies.

Power To The Flower.

Scojo The Herb Advisor

 

Scojo:	Greetings and salutations everybody. Scojo, The Herb Advisor, here at Seattle Cannacon 2018. It’s not Commicon. Captain Kirk is not high. There are storm troopers. I saw one out on the road, and he was, in fact, high. So, if you come down here, check out the storm troopers. I digress, let’s move into zen.
Chris Bjorklund:	Zingers.
Scojo:	Zen zingers. This is Chris, and I have to say, I saw this place … I saw this from afar and I was like, “This is a badass looking product. I got find out more about this.” So, tell me more about it.
Chris Bjorklund:	Thank you. So, at Paracanna we have come up with a do it yourself edibles kits. So, the problem right now is people are limited to the five milligram to 10 milligram dose per gummy. We thought, “Well, that’s bad for a lot of people who want more than that.” And, you can’t eat an entire bag of gummies because you’re going to get sick. So, we’re a candy company from the beginning that changed the recipe to work with THC.
	So, we have really good facing candy kit so you can make it at home in 10 minutes or less. You can self dose it. So, including in one of our kits you get the mold, the droppers, and the dosing instructions. But also, you get the magic formula. The dry mix. So, you mix that together, you add your own THC that you buy from a licensed dispensary. You go home and you make it in 10 minutes or less. You have 15 perfect gummies at a fraction of the cost of it is to buy pre made.
Scojo:	Now, if I wanted to find out more about it, do you have a website? Are you social media?
Chris Bjorklund:	Yep. You can go to Paracanna.com and find out lots more information on there.
Scojo:	Okay. As we’re … It’s early in 2018. Looking into 2018, is there something you’re most excited about?
Chris Bjorklund:	What I’m most excited about is the stories from our clientele. We have a lot of people who are on … either been in accidents, they are so full of drugs. For example, we are dealing with one person right now. She was in a severe car accident. Her doctors pumped her through of all these pain medications so, she can’t work. She’s not getting better. She has stomach cramps and everything else from the medication that she needs to take.
	So, she came to us with her doctor and she was self medicating herself with this difference strains of CBDs and THC. She’s weaning herself off of all these pills with the help of her doctor and the dispensaries as well with our vehicle to do that. So, what I’m seeing more in 2018 is, especially from our perspective, a lot of doctors are coming to us and saying, “I have these patients but I have no way to get them to infuse this.”
	We’re also working with autism families because children with autism are severely reliant on medication that doesn’t actually work all that well because a lot of side effects. So, we’re working with doctors who are now using our kits for little kids because it’s candy. It really taste the candy. So, it’s easy for them to self medicate the children with something that the kids are going to eat, rather than taking a blue pill or a red pill or, something else that they can’t swallow. Here’s a gummy for them.
	So, I think in 2018, we’re going to see a lot more of these stories evolving around all the benefits of CBD and THC for various illnesses.
Scojo:	Wow. Yeah, I love that. Especially for kids, I mean, what’s happening with CBD and seizures and all that stuff is just amazing.
Chris Bjorklund:	Yeah, and Parkinson. My grandfather has Parkinsons. He unfortunately passed away and, I wish we could introduce it to see how this would have worked with Parkinson’s. You see it alone that it works. It works.
Scojo:	Now, our Attorney General of the United States, Jeff Sessions, famously said, “No good people smoke marijuana.” We’re sending a message to him in the next few days. Do you have anything to say?
Chris Bjorklund:	Yeah, I’d say Jeff, call me up. Visit our booth. Come in and have a talk. You’ll see that I’m not a bad person. My background is software engineering and product marketing. I work with some of the biggest companies in the world. I’m not a bad person but, we’re helping people. So, anybody who is against this, come and talk to us. Yeah, if I’m a bad person, come and tell that to my face. But, you should see all the testimonials of our patients that are thanking us for what we’re doing as just, as a candy company! So, that’s my message. Maybe take your head out of the closet and see what’s actually happening out there.
Scojo:	I don’t know if you know, Ronald Regan famously had like a dish of M&M’s or something. I think we should get Jeff Sessions a dish of some zen zingers sitting on there.
Chris Bjorklund:	Absolutely, because every now and then, you need a little zen in your life.
Scojo:	That’s right. Well, this is Chris. You got to check this stuff out. Check out his website. It’s absolutely fascinating. From Cannacon 2018, I’m Scojo, The Herb Advisor. You can check out my stuff on TheHerbAdvisor.com. Power to the flower everybody.