Eating food infused with weed is still much, much less popular than smoking a Mary Jane. Presumably this will never change, if only because lighting up a joint is something cool in itself. However, lovers of really strong phases should at least take a little more interest in marijuana food. Why? Because consuming the herb in this way is capable of giving them a stronger and definitely longer high, and one that is a bit different from the standard stoned experience. However, let me warn you right away that the beginnings of the adventure with "green food" can be uneasy and quite dangerous....
Marijuana edibles, from the English "marijuana edibles", in US states where it is legal are becoming more and more popular every year. Ganja fans can choose to their heart's content from a variety of chocolates, candies, brownie cakes, lollipops, dishes, pizzas, salads, tinctures and God knows what else. Some of these products contain a truly enormous dose of THC - individual chocolate bars can sometimes have as much as 100 mg of the compound (with 5, top 10 mg always recommended as a single dose). In Poland, of course, it's not so good, but many of these treats can be easily prepared yourself. You can find recipes, for example, in our hemp kitchen.
A strong kick for the whole body
It is popularly said that the phase given by food infused with the herb will be felt by our whole body, while smoking will actually only subdue our head. There is a lot of truth in this. This is because when we eat ganja, we absorb it not through our lungs, but through our digestive system - which results in Mary Jane being distributed through our body by completely different routes. THC then travels through our digestive tract to the liver, where it is processed into a metabolite called 11-hydroxy-THC. Its important advantage, from our point of view, is that it penetrates from the human bloodstream to the brain very efficiently, according to scientists, and it also produces a stronger psychedelic effect than when we smoke the herb.
Why it's better to "go around"
It is a general rule, probably applying to all drugs, that the longer the path a stimulant has to take to get into our blood (and then further), the more the specific phase takes longer (and also starts with a longer delay). Every smoker knows that the state of getting high never lasts super long. Sometimes a person would like to be able to enjoy it really all night, without reaching for the bongo or bong again. With ganja food, on the other hand, the high usually lasts from 3 hours to as much as 12 hours (some say it never keeps them under 6). The only serious downside to eating in this case is that you generally have to wait a long time for the effects: from half an hour to an hour (some MJ fans claim that the food "chopped" them only after as much as 2 hours). With smoking, you know - it gets pleasant almost immediately.
As an aside, it is worth mentioning that the "temporal" value of "green food" is appreciated by many people who take marijuana medically. The pain-relieving effect then lasts longer and they need to reach for the stimulant less often.
Low yield, but powerful effect
The longer path the stuff has to take to get into the bloodstream unfortunately means one more thing: perceptibly lower yield. It is estimated that when smoked, up to approx. 50-60% of the THC contained in our commodity (this number can, of course, be much lower - much depends on the smoking method. We have already written about this in detail here and here). In the case of food, only about 10 to 20% of THC is usually absorbed. So we need a relatively higher dose, but the phase will be definitely stronger. Not very economical, but if the extra money spent on weed is not a big problem for someone....
"Ey, why is it different than after getting high?"
The phase one has after cannabis food will also usually provide us with a slightly different feeling than the one one one has after smoking. And this is true after both sativa and indica. This is because the cooking/roasting/combining process itself usually changes the herb. First of all, some terpenes (i.e. organic compounds that direct our high towards the more active and pro-party one, or the relaxed and internally experienced one) are lost. This happens especially when the herb is subjected to high temperatures during the preparation of a particular treat. Thus, our trip can be significantly different when we eat a cookie and when we eat a dish based on hemp butter, even if the same commodity was initially used for both products.
In general, people usually describe the high after "green food" as more relaxing and full of ease. They also less often (or to a lesser extent) experience the feeling of fatigue or discouragement that gets some people after smoking, once the high has subsided.
Bad good beginnings
Many people are usually put off by their first experience with marijuana. The truth is that they can often be nasty, because people are unable to gauge the correct dose. Lack of patience (I remind you that you have to wait sometimes as long as two hours for the effects) usually ends up with you reaching for "one more cookie." Then by the time the phase really hits it is too strong and simply unpleasant. Quite a few people then tend to fall into paranoid states. Sometimes they also fly off so hard that they can barely put letters together. And given that the trip lasts at least a couple of hours... well, it's easy to guess that it's not the least bit of a cool experience.
Food infused with marijuana has to be approached very carefully. Here, exceptionally, the principle of "the more, the better" does not work, on the contrary - it is worth starting with small doses. Get your body used to it.
Many connoisseurs also note that "green delicacies" work very individually - on each person slightly differently. With homemade preserves, one is never sure of the dose one takes with each bite. Mishaps with defective, or super-potent cookies happen even with professional products you can buy in American dispensaries - many users write about it on the forums there.
The resulting effect will also depend to some extent on whether the hemp treat was eaten with an empty stomach - something that is strongly discouraged for those who are just beginning the adventure with hemp food. It's better to eat something "normal," either beforehand or together with the "green specialty."
All these strictures may scare someone at first, but in practice it is easy to master this basic "set & settings". After a few attempts, one usually doesn't make serious mistakes anymore. Our body also gets used to it, and negative reactions are no longer so acute if we accidentally overdo the dose.
"What about other than a strong and long phase? Other benefits of "green food"
Eating cannabis, instead of jerking joints, is obviously much healthier. First of all, because smoking itself is clearly harmful to our bodies. Unfortunately, it gives our lungs and the entire respiratory tract a nasty blow.
The second of the non-trivial advantages of ganja treats is that they are not as conspicuous as a joint. After all, smuggling, for example, cookies and eating them in an environment of unaware people shouldn't pose the slightest problem. Well, and it also doesn't smell of weed from us and our clothes for the proverbial kilometer for the next few hours/days.
The adventure with marijuana food should start with making hemp butter (how to prepare it is explained in detail in Margaret's recipe). It is the basis for the preparation of most ganja-cookies. Bon appetit!
