What Are the Health Benefits of Ingesting Weed?

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1 Ingesting Marijuana-Infused Products 101
2 What Does An Edible High Feel Like?
3 Kinds of Ingested Marijuana Products

Eating weed has always been in style – just ask all our stoned-ape ancestors! They won’t be able to talk just yet, but they’d show you how ingesting psychedelic or psychotropic substances may have had a hand in our species’ evolution, from primate to modern humans. After all, humankind’s most closely related DNA relative is mushrooms – we share about 50% of our genetic makeup with that of fungi. Most of the animals on the planet today have fungal DNA too, making us all one big, giant, weird, genetic family, right?!

Animals may relate to one another through some mushroom splicing, ancient biochemistry stuff, but plants have been on this planet even longer than the oldest kinds of walking, swimming or flying creatures. Plants once ruled the Earth, and now they rule our world of health. Thanks to plants like cannabis, human beings are able to enhance their daily-health to suit the ever-shifting environments we find ourselves inhabiting.

Circling back to the ‘stoned-ape theory’, what do mushroom-animal genetics and plant medicines have to do with one another? They might seem like off-shoot topics, but inherent in the ‘stoned-ape theory’ is the notion of ingesting certain organic materials for a particular effect(s). Here we come to the subject of today’s blog: ingesting marijuana.

How are people ingesting marijuana-infused products today? What does an edible high feel like? What kinds of effects of edible marijuana are good? Bad? We’ll endeavor to whip up a batch of the facts of edibles, freshly baked, and ready to serve to you today. Time to put what we ingest to the test, with this guide to ingesting marijuana-infused edibles.

Ingesting Marijuana-Infused Products 101

Before you go ahead and eat some edibles down the hatch, it makes sense to review the ins-and-outs of marijuana-infused products. Today is somewhat of a ‘golden age’ for ingesting marijuana – there are more edibles for sale than ever, with greater variability of effects in addition to a wide array of prices to suit any budget. For a long time, edibles were either way too potent for your average Canadian stoner, or they were far too weak to be of any real use.

This brings us to our first defining point about ingesting marijuana infused-products like edibles or beverages:

Everyone’s Tolerances Vary

Cannabis is one of the most multi-faceted, variable plants that we humans ingest today. With millions of different kinds of cannabis to choose from, it’s no wonder that predicting the effects of edible marijuana is such an uphill slog. Even if we could predict the exact effects per dose – which we can’t – we have barely scratched the surface of how cannabinoids, terpenes and other yet-undiscovered plant compounds can influence our brains & bodies.

So, the first thing you need to know about marijuana-infused products is that each time you ingest one, it has the potential to affect you differently. Even if you’re familiar with a particular strain or cannabis brand, crop variability and extraneous circumstances of cultivation can lead to new experiences. Knowing that each time you imbibe cannabis could lead to unique effects means you need to follow the “Golden Rule” of dosing:

Start Low & Go Slow

Ingesting marijauana-infused products is often bite-sized or dosable through partial consumption. This means that not every cannabis product is meant to be “one dose” or consumed in one sitting. Sometimes it’s better to take a square, a piece or a drink of a cannabis consumable product to see how it affects you first. Alternatively, you can also microdose cannabis by ingesting small amounts, which has become all-the-rage in today’s hyper-conscious, productivity-focused world.

When you start with a lower dose then build up to your ideal range over a comfortable period of time, you’ll notice that your tolerance to cannabis is very manageable. Even if certain products hit harder or faster than others, by becoming well-versed with your tolerance to cannabinoids & terpenes, you will be able to predict with greater certainty how ingesting marijuana products will make you feel.

Speaking of how ingesting marijuana makes you feel…

Edible Marijuana Effects Are Delayed

The thing about ingesting marijuana is that the effects can come with a whole slew of ancillary influences that you may or may not be expecting. Sometimes they take effect pretty quickly, other times you might not experience the “high” you’re after until much later into the day/night. For the most part, all ingested marijuana products will take between 20-60 minutes to kick in.

These are just averages so they’re not to be taken as gospel, but consider that the ingested marijuana-infused products need to be digested before they can start to influence your mind & body. Digestion is definitely the slower of the methods of absorbing cannabinoids & terpenes, and yet some stoners’ metabolisms can make short work of even high doses of THC from edibles. Like with tolerance and dosing, duration of effects and how fast/slow they come on will be determined by your health & wellbeing.

Nevertheless, don’t forget that your familiarity with cannabis in all its varieties will go a long way towards cultivating a strong, balanced tolerance for THC, CBD, CBN, CBG and other phytocompounds.

Since we’re on the topic of how marijuana-infused products make you feel, let’s transition into some accounts for what an edible high feels like.

What Does An Edible High Feel Like?

We’ve talked about the kinds of tips & tricks that can help you get started, or fix your cannabis edible habits, but what does an edible high actually feel like?! We’ve created a scenario that encapsulates the effects of edible marijuana, from start to finish. Keep in mind that this is a generalized example that combines many facets of an edibles experience, but it does not cover everything that an edible high will feel like.

It’s Friday night. Work is done for a couple days, and you’ve earned yourself some adult play time. You bought a particularly potent edible from your favorite online weed dispensary, Haute Health, and you’re ready to infuse some THC into your week’s end. What should you do first?

First thing is always first: READ THE LABEL CAREFULLY.

The majority of edibles mishaps occur because someone either didn’t read the product label properly (or at all), or they misdosed because they mistook a product’s potency for another’s.

You’ve double-checked the potency and pre-measured the dose you’re going to be imbibing, so next comes the fun part: EAT, DRINK & BE MARY(J).

The best way to prepare for the edibles to kick in is to just have fun, make merry, socialize or relax doing what you love to do. Many stoners put on a movie and watch as the infused marijuana food or drink begins to percolate in their systems. Others prefer to laugh, dance, sing or be raucous with friends until the edibles take effect and ramp up the fun-o-meter.

You’re beginning to feel tingly, maybe a bit disoriented, your reactions are definitely slowing down, and you can’t help but smile, giggle or make comments that are almost uncontrollable. YOU’RE IN THE GRIP OF THE THC NOW…

Edibles can kick in within 15-20 minutes if you have a lower tolerance or fast-acting metabolism, or they will likely be about an hour (30-60 minutes) if you’re like most Canadian edibles aficionados. THC highs can come on all at once, or they can be gradual to the point of almost forgetting you’re high in the first place.

Be hyper aware of how you’re feeling moment-to-moment after taking edibles. Some people find tracking their thoughts & feelings to be helpful when first starting out with ingesting marijuana. This can take the form of voice recordings, journaling, notes on your phone or even apps like TripSitter. However you like to await the arrival of the high, the more detailed or organized you are, the better your chances are at having positive future cannabis experiences.

It’s been an hour or so and you’re feeling the cannabliss of it all – funky visuals, heightened sounds, textures, smells or flavors, and all the world’s a stage that you seem to be the main character of. It’s safe to say one thing: YOU’RE FLYING HIGH, BUT KEEPING A LOW PROFILE.

Maintaining composure is essential to having a good cannabis edibles experience. You might be nervous, anxious, heck even scared of random things when the THC kicks in, but you just need to ride out the initial jitters until the full onset of the infused marijuana product takes hold.

Some stoners call this the “early riser” – those frantic feelings you get when cannabinoids first begin to be absorbed into the bloodstream. Not every edibles user experiences “early riser” effects, but if you do just breathe deep, try to do something relaxing or an exercise that requires your entire focus, and work through the buzz until it becomes a nice, easy-going hum.

This Friday’s shindig was a total smash, but you’re STILL smashed and it’s been hours… THE EDIBLES KEEP ON KEEPING ON.

The last thing to keep in mind with marijuana edibles is that they typically last for a long period of time, compared to smoking or vaping. After ingesting marijuana products, it’s not out of the ordinary to feel high for 6-8 hours, even more in some cases. You might experience shorter or even longer episodes of psychoactivity from ingesting edibles, but on average most marijuana-infused foods and beverages can be counted on for a decent 6-8 hour high.

Kinds of Ingested Marijuana Products

There are really only two kinds of ingested marijuana products: the kind you eat, and the kind your drink. You might’ve heard or read the term “cannabis consumables” before, which is a catch-all moniker used to better describe ingestible marijuana-infused products because the word “edible” implies that it must be eaten.

Cannabis edibles usually come in the form of sweets like candies, gummies, cookies or chocolates. Cannabis consumables can be more variable or even more medical in intended usage – such as with cannabis-infused beverages, dissolvable tablets or strips, capsules, pills, oils and more. All of these cannabis products represent ingestible marijuana products, but HOW you ingest your weed does matter. Some product types will take effect faster, others will last longer, whilst many more are centered around providing a tasty experience versus many cannabis edibles that focus on delivering maximum potency-per-gram or milligram of edible.

What you ingest is completely up to you, but here’s a list of each kind of edible cannabis product that you can find at Haute Health to get you started: