Edibles: Know Your Dose

Edibles can be unpredictable, and the dosing inconsistent. We discuss why this occurs, how to reduce the chance of a negative outcome, and what to do if you are having a bad experience. 

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Marissa: Welcome to the Last Call Podcast. My name is Marissa Whitaker, and I'm the prevention educator at SUNY Cortland.

Sarah: And my name is Sarah McGowan. I'm the assistant Director of Student Health and Wellness at Onondaga Community College. Our job are to educate students about potential risks associated with substance use.

Marissa: We approach substance use from a neutral stance, and our episodes are rooted in public health with a focus on science and harm reduction. Hi, everybody. Today we're going to be taking a deeper dive into THC edibles. What you need to know and what to keep in mind if you're going to consume edibles to ensure that you stay safe and reduce the chances of having any bad reactions because they are out there when it comes to edibles.

Sarah: Absolutely. So the first thing that I think is important, too, to touch on Mariss, and unfortunately, you've heard me say this multiple times, so I sound like a broken record, but in any drug that you're taking, you're taking the chance on what could be in that product. So unless it's third party lab tested to ensure that it has what it says in it, even then you're still taking a chance that there could be something else in there that you're not prepared for or that you're not expecting.

Marissa: Yeah. And so now that New York has some dispensaries up and running, the products in the dispensaries that are licensed and legal, they should have a pretty accurate amount of THC that's in them. But the science of THC testing is ever evolving, and there have been a couple articles popping up recently showing that even legitimate cultivators who are selling their cannabis to dispensaries and the dispensaries that are selling them, they're amping up the THC content in their products or others aren't getting accurate assessments back necessarily. So we covered this in one of our episodes last semester called no Cap unless it's on THC. If you want more information on that, I would definitely refer to that episode. Dispensaries are your best bet for accuracy, but it's still an area where the hard, irrefutable science is lagging a bit. Absolutely.

Sarah: And Marissa, I think it's also important to keep in mind that there are a lot of underground or non legal dispensaries that have popped up, and you want to be especially careful about any products that you're obtaining from a place that hasn't been licensed by the state. So, Marissa, I think the first know, and we understand that for the most part, there are a lot of people who know a decent amount about weed and THC and edibles. When you're consuming THC in smokable or vapable form, the effects of the THC are felt almost instantly. And when we're talking about edibles, it could take up to 2 hours to feel the effects of the THC that you've consumed. So, Mariss, what does this mean for know edible user edible consumer?

Marissa: So I can only speak for myself on this, but patience has never been my virtue, and I think that might be the case for a lot of people. But when it comes to using weed and being impatient, edibles might not be your best bet. If you're looking for that instant high, it's not edibles. Just as Sarah said, it can take up to 2 hours. And the reason why this happens is because it's taking longer to get into your system. When you smoke or vape weed, the THC is absorbed into your bloodstream through your lungs, where it travels to your brain and gets you high in just a few minutes. It's a much quicker route of transmission, but when you eat it, it has to not only you eat it, you have to digest it. It goes into your stomach and then that's processed by your liver. So that produces something entirely different from that delta nine THC, but it's called eleven hydroxy THC. And those metabolites give you a much more intense high, a much longer high. So yeah, it takes a while to kick in, but you're also going to feel high for a lot longer and you might feel higher for longer. And not everybody wants that. Some people just want to feel a little bit of a buz for a short amount of time. You don't want to sign up for like a four hour commitment where the only way to stop is to just go to bed. So that's why there are some drawbacks to using edibles, and especially if you.

Sarah: Have things to do. Morris like if you have to go to class, probably not a good idea to try new to you THC edible when you know that you have to be in class in an hour or two and you have no idea what effects that's going to have on you.

Marissa: Yeah, especially because it's so subjective. So you could even have the same pack of gummies or the same cookies, and one day it hit you in like 45 minutes and it was a nice high. And then the next time you're like, well, if it worked that time, maybe I'll just pop it before I do XYZ. And then that time you could be, like, hearing colors and feeling sounds and you have a much different experience and you're going to kind of want to clear your day if you're going to take an edible just in the anticipation that it might not be the experience you thought you signed up for. And you don't want to have an assignment or a test to take in a couple of hours.

Sarah: Well, I'm not sure about you, Maris, but I have no idea how long it takes for my stomach to digest anything. So don't, you know, set yourself up for a certain time limit because it truly could take 2 hours to feel those full effects. So unless you're a scientist and you've done stomach experiments, you probably have no clue how long it's actually going to be before that kicks in and that's.

Marissa: For it to kick in. That's not guaranteeing the experience you have. So maybe you like tee heed with your friends the last time, but the next time you could be having this existential crisis. And again, it's a bit of a wild card, which is fascinating from a research perspective, but not in practice because this is our lived experiences going back to harm reduction.

Sarah: You always want to keep in mind your mood before you start using. If you're in a bad or a weird or a sad mood, probably not a good idea to try a new to you edible just to take the edge off.

Marissa: Yeah, I'm in an introvert in a party in a basement with 100 people. Yes, let's introduce an edible to the situation. Anyway, so now that we've really kind of scared people into not using them, let's talk a little bit about the serving sizes to ensure that maybe these bad experiences don't happen. So how do you decide how much to eat?

Sarah: Sarah I know whenever we have this conversation I always like to use the visual of a Hershey bar. So most people know what a Hershey bar looks like. So if you have a whole Hershey bar, then when we're talking about edibles, one tiny square of that Hershey bar most of the time is equivalent to one serving of cannabis edible. So I'm not know, I always like to use myself as an example because I love chocolate, but who's likely to just eat the one square and not go back for more? So before you consume, you always want to read the label and know that even similar products could contain different amounts of THC but also other cannabinoids or CBD in them that you're not kind of expecting. So you want to be a smart consumer, you want to look at the label and figure out exactly what is in that product because most of the time it's not just straight THC. Also if you see a product that is a thousand milligrams, it's either fake or it's definitely not up to the New York State Cannabis Control Board standard. So currently they're trying to put a cap on THC content, so they're not trying to send you into space or a black whole void of care. So 1000 milligrams is never going to be good for anyone. Doesn't matter how well versed of a consumer you are, please don't do it.

Marissa: And if you are taking 1000 milligrams of cannabis at a time, we might want to have a conversation about a tolerance break. And also long term, the research that's out there of people using cannabis is not using 1000 milligrams consistently with edibles. So you are truly in unchartered territory and it's probably not a good outcome. So speaking of way too many milligrams, if you or someone else has had too many edibles, what do you do? So if you're listening to this this may be a little bit after the fact, or if you've never had edibles, this is something you can keep in mind if you're ever in a position to try them. So if you are starting to feel those feelings of panic, your heart's racing, just know that the toxicity of cannabis is not lethal. But you might feel like you're dying. So you're going to want to take some deep breaths. Try your best to relax yourself in a quiet place. Nothing too loud or flashy or you don't want to be jostled around. Have some water and some crackers. Obviously don't drive, operate heavy machinery or anything otherwise reckless, like stairs, heights, water, things like that. And just as we said before, we are in a bit of a new territory when it comes to edibles. So if you are having a bad time and feel like you need medical attention, please get it. I'm not trying to minimize the effects of edibles. You can get help for yourself. You can get help for somebody else. We talk in pretty much every episode about our Good Samaritan policies. Take advantage of that with cannabis, too. It applies to everything. You can call your RA, your hall director or area coordinator, EMS, 911 if you're off campus. We have these Good Samaritan policies for a reason.

Sarah: Absolutely. And don't feel bad if you do need help. We'd rather have you get the help that you need and feel safe and be transported to the hospital if you have a bad reaction than have you in your dorm room by yourself freaking out in a panicked state.

Marissa: Yeah, and a lot of this is preventable. If you start low, you give it time, you take either the appropriate dose or if you're nervous about even taking the suggested five milligrams, ten milligrams, take even less than that. Take half of that piece of a Hershey bar. Take half of a Sour Patch Kid. As Sarah has said, like, there's not a competition who can eat the most edibles. So you really don't want to have a bad time with this. And the way to ensure that is to take as little as possible and.

Sarah: Then just going back. Maria so I think with the legalized market, we're going to see more and more products that have THC in them. So also keep that in know we're talking know we used Hershey bar specifically in our example, but I believe we're going to see more and more things coming out with THC in them. So then also think about don't sounds crazy, but don't take candy from a stranger if you don't know them. Literally could be anything. It could be THC, but it also could be synthetic. And you always want to be cautious. I believe we're going to see a lot more not just candy products with THC in them, but just overall products. And then that comes with a whole new set of rules when we're talking about consumption.

Marissa: Yeah. And with new products, so you can have cannabis and butter and oil. Those are just things for edible wise, and those are things from Dispensaries. So when we get into that territory of your friend made some brownies or your friend made some cookies, your guess is as good as mine what the serving size is for that. So when we've talked about most of this, these were from regulated products that, you know, the serving. What happens if you have no idea and everybody's different. So you might have a whole brownie and get that level that you want. Other people might have a sprinkle and they're going to be glued to the couch. So it's very different. We are truly in an area where there's not a lot of great and reliable research, so sometimes we have to, again, trust our gut and use common sense with this stuff.

Sarah: Absolutely. Morris so thank you so much for listening to our Edible 201 episode, as always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact us. If there's any topics that you want us to talk about or want us to do another podcast on. You can always get a hold of us and we look forward to talking to you in the next one. You sam.