Anyone Can Be a Stoner
For last month's Pot Luck Tasting, we experimented with edibles and infused-beverages. As someone who has much more experience with smoking than consuming in edible form, I'm still a little nervous about these products, but I think for people who are new to weed or need to consume discreetly because they have kids or live in a state with restrictive laws, edibles are a much more approachable consumption method, there's just a bit of a learning curve to get the dosage right for yourself.
There's a lot of different types of "edible products" on the market too, besides candy and cookies. There's sublingual strips, sprays, tinctures, capsules, as well as the more "fun" options like chocolates, teas, gummies, and sodas. Some of these things can deliver up to 100mg of THC in one package (please, never consume that much cannabis in one setting). A lot of these products are still dosed for the stereotypical "stoner", which means a low-tolerance user might only need to eat one gummy bear leg to get the dose they need, which is frankly so ridiculous. After doing a lot of research, we tried a 5mg THC gummy as well as an infused-beverage that had 4mg CBD and only 2mg THC.
THC (the cannabinoid that gets you high) is metabolized differently in your body when it's inhaled vs. consumed. When inhaled, the high comes on within minutes and generally lasts an hour or so before tapering off. When consumed, the THC has to pass through your liver, so can take up to 2 hours to set it, can be more potent (which is why dosage is important), and can have different effects than when smoked. It can last 3-4 hours.
Similarly with smoking, your experience when consuming edibles is greatly effected by things like setting and your mood, but also with an added layer of how your metabolism and digestive system function. From my own experience with gummies, every time I ate one (1/2 of one - a 2.5mg dose) my experience varied - sometimes I felt almost nothing, and sometimes it was much stronger. But everyone is different, so you just have to experiment. I recommend starting with 2-3mg THC, ideally with some CBD to counter-balance the psychoactive effects if you're new to edibles, and take it at least 2 hours before you want the effects to kick in. "Indica" edibles will be more sedative, and "sativa" edibles will be more stimulating.
While gummies still haven't become a go-to for me, I have become a convert of the canna-beverage. Being liquid, the THC in a drinkable delivery method gets into your bloodstream faster, about 20 minutes for me. And since it has 2x as much CBD as THC, the high was very mellow and not so strongly psychoactive or debilitating. My partner, who has still never smoked weed with me in the history of Pot Luck, is now requesting these mixers become a staple in our pantry, and finds that they are a huge anxiety-reducer for him, whereas smoking cannabis has the opposite effect. You can read my more extensive review of the Turkish Delight gummies and the Roadie botanical beverage mix on the Pot Luck website. (NOTE: link is now broken, if you find this page, and want the review, email: potlucklosangeles@gmail.com).
The shock I see when some people "who thought they knew me" find out that I smoke weed is both continually amusing and still a bit upsetting. I still usually get the "What?! YOU smoke weed?!" (read: you're secretly a delinquent and have been hiding it this whole time?! What else don't I know?!) reaction, but I'm just like, when can it finally be a "Wow! YOU, someone who works hard and has ambitions and responsibilities and accomplishes all of these things and yet continues to live a balanced life, are also what someone who smokes weed looks like?! What other unfair assumptions am I making about people who make different life choices than me?!"
The thing about cannabis is that it's very easy to be a discreet, solo, casual user, and so I think if you don't use it, it's easy to assume that no one else does either, especially when they don't "look like a stoner." Also, understandably, it still is dealing with a huge stigma.
Something I've really loved about starting this Pot Luck Collective is finding out how MANY of my friends, family, and former colleagues either were using cannabis "secretly" already, or had been interested in incorporating it into their lives, and just needed a better source of information in order to start experimenting.
I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your continued support, enthusiasm, and willingness to be open-minded. It is my hope that the more open I am/we are about the fact that people - who have careers, kids, mortgages, hobbies, and interests outside of weed (so you know, literally everyone) can also smoke weed sometimes, or even regularly, and still be the same, complex person that the world values them for being. This is also what a stoner can look like:
