An Experiment With Edibles

As a longtime cannabis smoker, it has been only since getting my MMJ authorization that I truly began to experiment with edibles. To be honest, eating cannabis is not my preferred way of getting it into my blood. There are certainly some pros and cons to both methods. I find that smoking is more effective and works at a much faster rate, but edibles do offer the benefit of access to cannabis for those who cannot or will not smoke or, like me, occasionally there are times when smoking is not allowed (like a concert or sporting event) but no one thinks twice about seeing someone eat a cookie or some gummy bears.

My main issue with edibles (other than the time it takes to feel the effect) is the sheer amount of stuff I need to eat to notice it at all. Looking at this scientifically, I realized that primarily when I have taken edibles, I have also been smoking throughout the day. As such, I thought that, perhaps, I was just unable to notice the edible cannabis as it was being lost against a backdrop of smoked cannabis. Furthering this scientific inquiry, I conducted a small two-day experiment. It would have been longer and more in-depth, but I ran out of pot cookies!

The goal of this experiment was to see how edible cannabis affected me without smoked cannabis being part of the equation:

• Day 1: I ate one pot cookie (containing 96mg of cannabis). After waiting nearly an hour, I THINK I felt a small effect, but it was so mild that I can’t be certain.
• Day 2: I ate the remaining 3 pot cookies (288mg of cannabis). Again, after waiting for about an hour, I definitely felt something, but I was disappointed in the overall effect. It wasn’t a bad high or anything, just mild. It was, however, quite long lasting.

Considering that I can smoke one decent bowl out of bong or pipe and feel great almost instantly for about 2 solid hours, I feel that smoking is a better choice for me on most occasions.

Some things to consider:

• I have historically mild/non-existent reactions to edibles (the only time I ever felt a really good high off edibles was after ingesting about 30 pot gummies and a baggie of pot gold fish. Even then, I didn’t really notice much until I had one beer. That seemed to be a catalyst or trigger and it all smacked me at once for a great night out at a sporting event.
• I have been smoking a lot of weed for years and my tolerance levels are well above the average.
• The dispensary from which I procured the cookies could have been wrong about the amounts of cannabis in each cookie, but I was able to taste and smell it quite obviously.
• The data gathered in this experiment is far from exhaustive as there are many types of edibles and applications.
• My wife had half of one cookie and was pretty stoned for a good while; her tolerance is well below my own.

Edibles Experiment Conclusions:

• Personally, edibles are best used as supplements to smoking (smoke a fatty and then eat some edibles, your high will be fast, effective, and long lasting) or as a great way of getting your cannabis when smoking isn’t doable. Traveling is made easier with edibles, I think.
• This experiment bears more research. There are just too many types and potencies of edibles out there to make any snap-judgements or general statements.

Gun to my head choice:

• I would stick with smokeables just because I know it’s effective for me while edibles are more of a gamble. Thankfully, I don’t have to make that choice and can use them both!