Tip for Buying Legal Weed in Colorado: Take It Slow With Edibles

This past month marked the first month of legal marijuana sales in Colorado and the United States as a whole, and as a retail worker in one of Denver’s busiest marijuana shops, I’ve seen firsthand just how many different people are very curious and excited about legal marijuana.

One of the most common inquires is into the selection of edibles currently available to the recreational public. For many people who don’t like to smoke, edibles provide a great way to get some THC (aka medicate) without the smell, smoke, and in a tasty and easy to use method.

There are several tips for novice marijuana infused edible users that I find myself repeating many times a day. A few I’ve touched on in past posts here on Weedist, but here are some solid guidelines and pointers that should help any novice legal marijuana buyer to navigate their first legal dispensary trip.

-All edibles are priced by the milligram, which will also tell you how strong they are. It’s hard to directly compare smoking cannabis to ingesting it, since it metabolizes differently in the body. However, I typically tell people to imagine that one good sized joint of decent quality bud is approximately 25 mg of THC. Since you typically split a joint with other people, about 10 mg is a single “dose”, and many edibles that are made specifically for recreational use are being made in 10 mg pieces or strips. This makes the math easy for you to dose out, but even if you have 1 solid piece of edible food, don’t just eat the entire thing.

The Colorado state limit for recreational edibles is 100 mg per package. So bottom line: if you get a 100 mg brownie, don’t eat the entire brownie!

–Take It Slow. You can always add, you can never subtract. Once you’ve gone past the point of no return, the only thing you’re going to be able to do is sleep. As stated above, there’s really no reason to eat the entire thing if you’re not certain about the effects.

-Eat Something For Maximum Effect. Marijuana infused edibles work on the opposite body chemistry from drinking; when you drink on an empty stomach, you get more drunk. When you eat edibles on an empty stomach, however, they will not work as well because the cannabis has nothing to stick to in your stomach. So drink a glass of milk at least, but a good meal is always the best way to go before eating a marijuana treat for dessert.

-Not All Edibles Are Available For Recreational Yet. This includes Cheeba Chews, which I heard through the grapevine is waiting until spring to catch up with demand; I’ve heard many other edible companies that are doing the same. Keep in mind that medical marijuana hasn’t gone anywhere, and demand for those edibles from Colorado residents with medical cards is still going strong. Also, many edible companies are still waiting on licensing from the state to be able to produce and sell their products. So if you’re coming to a dispensary with a specific product in mind, you might be disappointed.

-Demand Means There Might Be Limits. Because of demand for edibles, don’t be surprised if you can’t stock up and get 20 of one item. Many shops have a limit of 2 or 3 edibles per person, per visit; these will most likely be going away in the next few weeks as things calm down more and production can catch back up, so don’t worry. For now, just be happy you have a choice at all as the industry adjusts to constant edible production.

I hope this helps anyone who is thinking about shopping in a legal marijuana store, because there is a fair amount of info that you might want to know. Any good shop will have knowledgeable staff to help you out during your first few visits, but even with that it’s good to have more realistic expectations about how much you’ll need to get you buzzed.