Although marijuana smoke is its most popular form of consumption, there is a growing popularity about ingested cannabis. Many users, however, are unaware of the decarboxylation process, which is very important to make the most of cannabis properties.
The Advantages
For many diseases, ingesting CBD Gum through tinctures, oils or edible products makes more sense, such as childhood epilepsy. Similarly, for patients who do not like to smoke or are not comfortable with the smell of smoke, this may be a more interesting alternative. Consumption of edibles also avoids lung damage, one of the main criticisms of those opposing the medical use of cannabis.
Feeling ready to get your hands dirty? Are you dying to try one of the thousands of recipes available online, but are afraid to do something wrong and waste the weed? In the following, we will explain the precautions and measures needed to prepare edible cannabis.
Start slowly
Before you begin, it should be remembered that the effects of ingested cannabis may differ greatly from smoked cannabis. As inhaled smoke passes through the lungs and thus reaches the blood system within seconds, causing an almost instantaneous effect, digestion is a different process. The digestive process is slower and differs from person to person. While a fast-paced guy who ate nothing a few hours ago can feel the effects of a space cake in less than 30 minutes, others may feel nothing for more than two hours until THC settles in the blood system.
This means that while there is easy control of the dosage of smoked marijuana, as the instant effect allows us to evaluate if it is time to stop drinking, ingested marijuana can fool the less experienced. Judging that the dosage was too low after more than an hour without feeling any effect, users commonly use more cannabis to try to compensate. This eventually leads to overconsumption, with a stronger than intended effect and loss of part of the product.
In addition, the same amount of cannabis can have a more intense effect when ingested than when smoked. Some cannabinoids are lost during smoking, which does not occur during ingestion. The way marijuana is prepared also changes the amount of each cannabinoid – we will explain this further later. The digestive process seems to affect the way cannabinoids are processed in the body and may potentiate their effects. Therefore, it is important to be careful with dosing and testing slowly – starting with a smaller amount of marijuana – increasing as needed.
What is the best way to use cannabis?
Cannabis in its natural form contains large amounts of the acidic forms of THC and CBD – THCA and CBDA. These raw cannabinoids have less affinity for the cannabinoid receptors scattered throughout the human body, and do not attach so easily to them. Unlike THC, THCA is not psychoactive, it does not cause cheap. THCA and CBDA turn into THC and CBD through oxidation, which occurs during flower drying, and decarboxylation, which occurs when the grass is heated.
Although THCA and CBDA are still poorly studied and do not have the same effects as their neutral forms (THC and CBD), there is evidence that these cannabinoids also have valuable medicinal effects. In this article, however, we will focus on extracting the most known and desired cannabinoids.