5 Reasons to Be Careful When Consuming Marijuana Edibles

[ghostsinthemachine]

Smoking pot is starting to seem old-school. Vaporizing is on the rise, but the real competition for smoked buds is marijuana edibles. Edibles make up an ever-increasing proportion of marijuana sales in legal states and medical marijuana states, and at this point, the market appears insatiable.

And these aren't your father's edibles. Back in the day, edibles basically meant creating marijuana butter and using it in your recipes, and your pot cookies tasted like weed. Now edibles come in all sorts of alluring (and tasty) forms, from fudge, candy bars and lollipops to cannabis coffees and teas. The only limit appears to be the entrepreneurial imagination.

But—as New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd infamously found out—edibles can be tricky. Unlike smoked marijuana, whose effects are almost instantaneous, allowing users to stop when they feel high enough, edibles take between a half hour and an hour to take effect. Get impatient, eat some more, and suddenly, you've developed a severe case of sustained couch-lock, or something more disagreeable.

It isn't just the length of time it takes to feel their effects that makes edibles a bit tricky. Here, thanks to the Cannabist, are five reasons edibles can be unpredictable, especially when compared to smoked buds.


MORE: http://www.alternet.org/drugs/five-reasons-careful-marijuana-edibles

I agree with a lot of this. BUT the biggest thing is the variance in dosage. Some are really strong and others not so much. Once legal there will be a standard, but for now there is none or little.... I also hate multi dose packaging. A 6 way brownie, that could leave to trouble too...

[Canoe52]

1. Happened to me!

Back in the early 70's. Eating marijuana brownies on the way to downtown Chicago my friend and I ate a couple, didn't feel anything and then ate a few more, still didn't feel anything and then ate a few more.

We were so wasted neither of us have a clue as to how we made it back home.

[ghostsinthemachine]

2. Me too, why I got into making them

Too dosed out on half a cookie. So now I have a system that gets people high with one and gets em really high with two ("One's fun, two is intense&quot but that is the only way I measure them. Macaroons and thin mints. Yum.

[eridani]

3. First marijuana brownie I had was at a house party whose hostess acquired

--a bunch of unanticipated overnight guests. Group couchlock! The legal stuff in WA is assayed, you you know how many mgs per bite you get. After I post this, I'm going to have a Bomb Bon (10 mg), followed by a vape of Afgooey, which should make for a really sound sleep.

[hobbit709]

4. One time we made a batch of chocolate chip cookies

We used 3 cups of powdered sifted pot and 3 cups flour. They came out green.
The first 2 dozen disappeared as fast as they came out of the oven.
By the time you were eating the 4th or 5th one, the first one started kicking in.
There was one of those awful 60-0 football games on and no one could get up and change the channel.

[hopemountain]

6. ….

[B Calm]

10. That's so funny!

[RussBLib]

5. #2 is the one that bugs me

2. Edibles are generally made from undifferentiated trim.

You have no idea if you're getting a sativa or indica or a mixture. No idea how potent the original plant material is/was. It's a total crapshoot. When you combine that with the fact that I get too anxious almost every time with edibles, I will be staying away from them until I start to see products with strains listed on them, like flower.

[ArianaA]

7. Question:

Has anybody here ever tried cooking with cannabis butter, cannabis liqueur?

[RussBLib]

8. we have, but it was a bust

The problem here is that it takes too much (in our opinion) raw material to make a batch of butter worthwhile.

We don't have so much money lying around that we can purchase some high-quality weed and use it for butter. The flowers are too precious, in our opinion.

Our first test batch probably flubbed because we used some older material that might have lost its potency, and it wasn't that great to start with.

I'd love to have so much weed that I could devote a half-ounce or ounce of weed to the project, but not yet.

[ghostsinthemachine]

9. I do, and do specific strains as well....

I make butter and coconut oil. the process is the same.

I grow the same strains every year and use the same trim combination. And I make a lot at a time to get consistency in the dosage.

I use small loose buds and trim, one ounce per stick of butter or 1/2 cup of oil. Grind it up in a blender.

Put into crock pot with either oil or butter and a LOT of water. (Not oil and butter together) and bring to boil. Lower heat to simmer and let set at least 12 hours. (not sure if longer is necessary). Keep adding water so that evaporates rather than the butter or oil.

Strain through cheesecloth or a potato press (With cheese cloth). Put in glass bowl and put in fridge (NOT freezer) to cool and set. the butter fat will rise to the top and the solids will go to the bottom after the butter/water mixture sets. Pour the water off.

Measure the butter or oil and replace the lost amount (usually some loss is expected).. reheat, and use water again mixed in so it will take the solids out more (this is called washing).

usually that is enough, but sometimes solids are stuck to the bottom layer of the oil or butter and I just rinse it off with hot water.

Then I look for recipes that figure 35 to 50 pieces per 1/2 cup of either. Some, like red velvet cupcakes use both butter and oil.

By removing the solids, especially when making fine candies, the flavor is not as harsh and won't have a burned taste at high temps.

Some good things I make are macaroons, caramels, the red velvets and thin mints. They are amazing.