Introduction To Edible Cannabis (For those who actually read introductions)
The recipes on the following pages are culled from discussions with thousands (no joke —more than 5,000) of my helpful patients who have concocted palatable forms of edible cannabis. They are designed to be practical, easy, and helpful for patients who are inexperienced and/or wary of cooking with cannabis. I am starting with a few recipes, and will add more as time allows.
Precautions (Please do read this)
1. Because there is a variable (usually 30-60 minute) delay before the onset of effects, many neophytes think it is not "working" after 20-30 minutes. So they eat more brownies, cookies, or candy, and when the effects really kick in after an hour, the blood levels of the 11-OH THC are then effectively doubled. It can be an unpleasant experience. So please, be patient. If you decide the dose was too low after 1-2 hours, increase the portion tomorrow. Really.
2. Expect to take 1-2 weeks to get the dose right and at a stable portion of edibles, especially if you have not developed tolerance to the effects of THC.
3. Ounce for ounce, cannabis has stronger psychotropic effects when it is consumed in edibles than when it is smoked or vaporized. A large portion of the THC in edibles is metabolized in your liver before it gets to the receptors in your brain. The principle metabolite, 11-hydroxy (11-OH) THC, is much more psychoactive – more than twice as psychoactive – as plain old THC. As a rule of thumb, if you smoke a gram (typical of a generous joint), the edible dose is less than one-half a gram. I advise cannabis-naïve patients, those who have not developed any tolerance to its effects (which takes a week or two to develop), to cut that dose in half.
4. Edible cannabis lasts twice as long. This makes edibles ideal treatment for insomnia, but makes the experience of an excessive dose twice as miserable.
5. People are proud of their tasty edibles, so they are usually presented in a very appetizing form – yummy brownies, cute cupcakes, irresistible Rice Krispy marshmallow squares, colorful cookies, delectable candy – you get the idea. What is the dose of a yummy brownie or delectable candy? Well, you might think: Why, two of them, of course. Nobody eats just half of one. Especially if the goodies are a gift from Aunt Myrtle or your most trusted guru of cannabis consumption.
No, no, no. And no. The maximum starting dose is one-half of the proffered serving size, and, for the cautious or cannabis-naïve, one-fourth of the usual serving size. There is always tomorrow for more – after you have some idea of the effect it will have on your unique body (men are different from women (duh), big people are different from little people, and people are just plain different when it comes to the dose of cannabis that is optimal or tolerated without unpleasant side effects). And the only way to be sure of how a bite of an edible will affect you is to make the brownie yourself.
6. Edibles are stronger on an empty stomach. Not rocket science…
The recipes on the following pages are culled from discussions with thousands (no joke —more than 5,000) of my helpful patients who have concocted palatable forms of edible cannabis. They are designed to be practical, easy, and helpful for patients who are inexperienced and/or wary of cooking with cannabis. I am starting with a few recipes, and will add more as time allows.
Precautions (Please do read this)
- The biggest risk of using edible cannabis is ingesting too much. Unfortunately, most people do just that – even when they are advised of the risk. I sympathize, but consider yourself duly and sternly warned. The reasons for inadvertent over-dosing are many:
1. Because there is a variable (usually 30-60 minute) delay before the onset of effects, many neophytes think it is not "working" after 20-30 minutes. So they eat more brownies, cookies, or candy, and when the effects really kick in after an hour, the blood levels of the 11-OH THC are then effectively doubled. It can be an unpleasant experience. So please, be patient. If you decide the dose was too low after 1-2 hours, increase the portion tomorrow. Really.
2. Expect to take 1-2 weeks to get the dose right and at a stable portion of edibles, especially if you have not developed tolerance to the effects of THC.
3. Ounce for ounce, cannabis has stronger psychotropic effects when it is consumed in edibles than when it is smoked or vaporized. A large portion of the THC in edibles is metabolized in your liver before it gets to the receptors in your brain. The principle metabolite, 11-hydroxy (11-OH) THC, is much more psychoactive – more than twice as psychoactive – as plain old THC. As a rule of thumb, if you smoke a gram (typical of a generous joint), the edible dose is less than one-half a gram. I advise cannabis-naïve patients, those who have not developed any tolerance to its effects (which takes a week or two to develop), to cut that dose in half.
4. Edible cannabis lasts twice as long. This makes edibles ideal treatment for insomnia, but makes the experience of an excessive dose twice as miserable.
5. People are proud of their tasty edibles, so they are usually presented in a very appetizing form – yummy brownies, cute cupcakes, irresistible Rice Krispy marshmallow squares, colorful cookies, delectable candy – you get the idea. What is the dose of a yummy brownie or delectable candy? Well, you might think: Why, two of them, of course. Nobody eats just half of one. Especially if the goodies are a gift from Aunt Myrtle or your most trusted guru of cannabis consumption.
No, no, no. And no. The maximum starting dose is one-half of the proffered serving size, and, for the cautious or cannabis-naïve, one-fourth of the usual serving size. There is always tomorrow for more – after you have some idea of the effect it will have on your unique body (men are different from women (duh), big people are different from little people, and people are just plain different when it comes to the dose of cannabis that is optimal or tolerated without unpleasant side effects). And the only way to be sure of how a bite of an edible will affect you is to make the brownie yourself.
6. Edibles are stronger on an empty stomach. Not rocket science…
- Edibles do not make you high, they make you sleepy. (Or if you overdid it, dizzy, nauseated, clumsy, and paranoid.) That makes them ideal for sleep, but very few patients can take edibles during the day. Some patients can take a tiny dose several times a day for pain relief, but most prefer to stick with other cannabis delivery systems.
- A safe and effective way to start using edibles for sleep and nighttime pain relief is tea. The dosing is simple, and it is hard to overdo. Try my recipe for tea to see if edibles are an agreeable option for you.
- Edibles are a blunt instrument, unlike the infinitely subtle and variable taste and effects of inhaled cannabis. Except for recipes in which subtlety is needed, such as the Magic Tea, any kind of cannabis can usually be used to prepare the building blocks like cannabutter.