Beginner’s Guide to Edibles and Smoke

Trying cannabis for the first time? Not sure where to start?

At the Grove, we have the entire gamut of cannabis products in stock; flower, vaporizer cartridges, edibles, extracts, concentrates, topicals, and tinctures.

Because folks who are new to cannabis generally have their first exposure to the plant through inhaling (smoking and vaporizing) or taking edibles, we wrote up a little guide with best practices for inhaling and ingesting your first cannabis products.

General rules of thumb for ALL consumption methods:

1. “Start low, go slow.”
2. Make sure you’re in a comfortable space and/or around people you trust before trying cannabis for the first time.
3. If you’re taking any kind of medication that has a grapefruit warning label on it, talk to your doctor before trying cannabis products (THC or CBD).
4. Keep a CBD tincture on hand. In the event of an accidental misdose, taking some pure CBD can help to minimize the uncomfortable effects of THC and bring you back to baseline.

Edibles

– Onset of effects: 45 minutes – 2 hours

– Duration: 3-10 hours (depending on dose)

What is a safe first time edible dose?

For most people who are completely new to cannabis and have no tolerance to the plant’s effects, starting out with a dose of 5 mg of THC is a solid place to start. Take 5 mg, then wait 2 hours before taking another 5 mg.

Depending on the product you buy, 5 mg might seem like a very, very small piece. You might feel that seems like too small of an amount, and you may wonder whether it will be enough. The reality is that if you’re new to cannabis, there’s really no way to predict how THC edibles will affect you until you try them out. 5 mg might be too little for many people, but it’s better to do too little than too much for your first time– trust us. You can always take more to feel desired effects, but cannot take less!

How long does an edible high last?

Everyone’s body chemistry is unique and reacts to the effects of edibles differently. The tolerance window for cannabis edibles is enormous: some folks feel the effects for a long duration from 5 mg of THC and other people don’t feel high until they’re taken upwards of 100 mg of THC and feel the strongest effects for only an hour.

What edible you’re consuming also effects the duration and experience. For example, cannabis lozenges, gummies, and drinks tend to move through the body at a faster pace as they don’t take as long to digest as a dense baked good. These forms can also be absorbed sublingually (under the tongue) if you suck or chew on them first, bypassing the conversion that happens in your liver (more on that shortly). Generally, marijuana infused lozenges, candies, and drinks will kick in more quickly and provide a more concentrated experience in comparison to baked goods but also don’t last as long. Naturally, your body takes longer to digest dense foods with more fiber and fat in them, so the effects of a cannabis infused baked good high in fiber and fat will also take longer to absorb.

When THC is digested, the cannabinoid is converted to a stronger form that is compounded by “first pass metabolism”. First pass metabolism describes how the concentration of a substance changes when it is passed through the liver or gut lining. In the case of THC, liver enzymes actually metabolize tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) into 11-hydroxy-THC.  This new form of THC has been scientifically proven to be more potent and more readily crosses the blood-brain barrier than original THC.  The difference in effects between smoking or vaporizing cannabis versus ingesting marijuana can be explained by the synthesis of 11-OH-THC in your liver, so be careful because the effects may surprise you!

Finding your “sweet spot” may take some trial and error, but for the majority of new marijuana infused edible consumers out there, a dose of somewhere between 5-10 mg of THC seems to be the most common.  In our home state of Nevada and most state where cannabis is legal, the state recommended single dose is 10 mg THC per serving.  We recommend starting with half of a single 10 mg dosage which is most easily achieved with gummies or drinks.

When you come by the dispensary, ask one of our knowledgeable budtenders for recommendations on the edible that’s right for you!

Tips and tricks

Metabolism
If you tend to have a fast metabolism, you might be able to predict that your onset of effects will be on the lower end of the 45 min-2 hour window, and the effects may not last as long as they will for someone whose metabolism is slower.

Planning around mealtime
To feel the full effect of the edible dosage, a recent study at the University of Minnesota found it’s best to take your edibles with high fat foods. They studied the effects of cannabinoid absorption after consuming a concentrated CBD oil capsule while either fasting or with a high fat meal. When taken with fatty food, the CBD in the body was increased by four times and in the blood by 14 times. Most edible baked goods are already a solid source of fat or oil that acts as a carrier for the cannabinoids. If the edible is a candy, drink, or capsule, you can ingest your edible an hour after your last meal or with a spoonful of healthy fats like peanut butter or MCT oil to help increase absorption.

Since edibles have to pass through your digestive system before they are metabolized and circulated in the bloodstream, a full stomach can delay the onset of effects by as much as 3-4 hours. A common mistake people make is taking an edible on a full stomach, and “doubling down” a few hours later when they don’t feel anything. Once the food is digested, the double-dose that person took will hit them all at once, and can potentially result in an uncomfortable experience.

If you must take an edible on a full stomach directly after a meal, it’s best to play it safe and wait at least 4 hours before determining whether or not you need to eat more.

Metabolism
If you’re a person who tends to get anxious, it can be helpful to try an edible that has a 1:1 CBD:THC ratio. CBD will help to soften the effects of THC and prevent overstimulation. You can always purchase a CBD tincture to ingest if the edible experience is overwhelming. Ask one of our budtenders on staff and they will help guide you to the right product.

Inhalation- Smoke and vaporizer

– Onset of effects: 5-10 minutes

– Duration: 2-4 hours (depending on dose)

How do I consistently dose inhaled cannabis?

Dosing inhaled cannabis is complicated, but we are here to make it simple! The temperature of heat applied to a bowl  and percent of THC in a smokable product, determines how much activated Delta-9 THC you will consume. The general guidelines below will make things easy to understand and can be applied the same whether you are smoking a pre-roll joint, a bowl of flower, or a vaporizer cartridge.

For starters, take one hit, wait 5-10 minutes and see how you feel. If after 5-10 minutes you feel like you need another hit, take one more. Then wait 5-10 minutes again and repeat until you’re in a comfortable place. Trust us, when the feeling is right, you’ll know.

Generally speaking, for folks new to cannabis, one to two hits is enough to feel sufficiently “high” although that will depend on a few factors that we go over down below.

Inhaling cannabis tends to be much more predictable than edibles are. The effects are almost instantaneous, and the duration of effects is relatively short as far as cannabis products go. The effects will linger, however, if you smoke too much. Only you can determine what “one hit” means for you, and likewise only you can determine how much “too much” is for yourself.

How can the size be measured?

No matter how experienced a smoker you are, measuring inhalation  size can be a challenge. 3 main factors will determine your hit size: the potency of the flower or vaporizer you’re smoking, what you’re smoking out of (joint vs. vaporizer vs. bowl-based vessel), and the grinding method all play into how high you will get off of a single inhale.

Product potency
It’s helpful to conceptualize the strength of a flower variety in terms of alcohol. If you’re drinking whiskey on the rocks, one sip will be likely much smaller than a sip of a beer, a glass of wine, or a cocktail. Be mindful of the THC label on whatever product you’re getting and adjust your hit size accordingly.

• Flower joints and pre-rolls
  21% THC or more- measure one dose as a one-second inhalation.
  10-20% THC- measure one dose as a two-second inhalation.
  3-10% THC- measure one dose as a three-second inhalation. It will not taste or feel good in your lungs, and you’ll end up inhaling a lot of plant matter for very little THC. We do not carry any cannabis bud testing below 10% THC.
• Vaporizer cartridges pending they are 100% cannabis oil without fillers or additives
  65% THC or more- measure one dose as a one-second inhalation.
  40-64% THC- measure one dose as a two-second inhalation.
  20-39% THC- measure one dose as a three-second inhalation. Most vaporizers testing this low are cut with fillers, which is why we do not carry oils testing below 50% THC.

Bowl size
Smoking out of a bowl can be tricky. The bigger the bowl size, the better chance that you’ll take a larger breath than you intended. Make sure to be mindful of the potency of the flower you’re smoking if you’re using a pipe, a water pipe, or any other bowl-based smoking vessel.

• Large (1 inch diameter)
  Pay attention to the size of the surface area that the flame of your lighter is touching. Aim for a surface area that is roughly the size of a Q-tip (or the tip of a joint). With the bigger bowls, aim for a small corner of the bowl, and decrease your hit size if you’re smoking flower that is 20% THC or more.
• Medium (½-¾ inch diameter)
  Pay attention to the size of the surface area that the flame of your lighter is touching. Aim for a surface area that is roughly the size of a Q-tip (or the tip of a joint). Aim for a small corner of the bowl, and decrease your hit size if you’re smoking flower that is 20% THC or more.
• Small (½ inch or less)
  Treat a mini pipe the same way you would treat a pre-roll joint, and base your hit size on the potency of the flower you’re putting into it.

Grinding method

• Fingers
  When you grind flower with your fingers, you end up losing some of the THC because it will stick to your fingers. This might result in a milder high. Grinding flower with fingers can be difficult, especially in more humid environments. Having inconsistently ground cannabis flower will sometimes cause the bowl to burn more slowly and at different rates.
• Grinder
  When you grind flower with a grinder, you end up getting the most out of your THC because it allows you to get all of the plant material into your pipe, bong, or other smoking vessel. This might result in a more intense high. Using a grinder allows for a steady burn rate and more consistency which means each inhale will vary less.

Tips and Tricks

Don’t hold it in
The old stoner movies have it wrong: after you inhale, you do not have to hold any smoke in your lungs before exhaling. Lung tissues absorb cannabinoids virtually instantly– and holding in the smoke doesn’t do anything besides irritate your throat and lungs. You may feel it’s more potent, however that’s just the effect of withholding fresh oxygen from your body.