Edibles have come a long way since people started mixing marijuana into   
   brownie batter.   
      
   Cannabis-infused foods have become a multimillion-dollar market in California,   
   with edibles popping up at weddings, gourmet dinners, yoga classes and reality   
   TV shows. And while smoking remains the most popular way to consume cannabis,   
   a market report    
   from New Frontier Data, a company that tracks the marijuana industry, shows   
   consumers increasingly are choosing to eat their weed.   
      
   [related_articles location=”left” show_article_date=”false”   
   article_type=”curated” curated_ids=”6231,6304,6261,5895,6408″]It’s   
   also now legal for adults in California to have cannabis simply for the   
   purpose of getting high thanks to    
   voters legalizing recreational marijuana in November. That means some folks   
   who steered clear of weed just seven months ago may now be considering edibles   
   for the first time.   
   But eating cannabis-infused foods can be tricky. In fact, if you’ve ever   
   heard a story about someone ending up in serious misery as a result of weed   
   – like Maureen Dowd’s infamous tale of lying on the floor of a Colorado   
   hotel room for eight hours,    
   convinced she was dead – it probably started with an edible.   
      
   “I’m not a big fan of edibles,” said Dr. Allan Frankel with GreenBridge   
   Medical in Santa Monica.   
      
   Frankel has built his practice on helping medical marijuana patients take   
   precise doses of cannabis strains that have been carefully chosen to ease   
   their particular conditions. Given the way edibles work in the body, he said   
   it’s too tough to control    
   the dosing.   
      
   There’s no record of anyone dying from too much weed. But horror stories   
   whispered by friends or shouted by New York Times columnists might scare off   
   people who’ve never tried edibles before. Or folks who haven’t tried them   
   since eating that    
   special brownie in college. Or people who’ve had their own Dowd-style   
   experience and vowed to never try edibles again.   
      
   “A lot of patients and enthusiasts are staying away from edibles   
   altogether,” said Julianna Carella, CEO of Auntie Dolores, an Oakland food   
   company that makes cannabis-infused nuts, caramel corn and other edibles.   
      
   One thing that may make them reconsider? Health concerns over hitting joints   
   and bongs – perhaps particularly in California, which paved the way with   
   anti-tobacco laws.   
      
      
   A man smokes a large joint during the 4/20 celebration at Hippie Hill in San   
   Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. Smoking remains the most popular way to get   
   high, though the market for edibles and concentrates is growing. (Jessica   
   Christian/The San Francisco    
   Examiner via AP)   
      
   “Smoking or inhaling stuff is not a very natural feeling to a lot of   
   people,” said Mike Heller, co-founder of Oakland-based MJ Wooly, which helps   
   companies infuse their foods and drinks with cannabis.   
      
   Though current research suggests smoking marijuana isn’t as dangerous as   
   smoking tobacco, Heller insists breathing anything into your lungs isn’t   
   beneficial over time. Studies do show higher rates of bronchitis and other   
   breathing conditions among    
   chronic weed smokers. And medical marijuana patients who have weakened immune   
   systems from cancer or other conditions may be particularly susceptible to   
   such conditions, making edibles a more attractive option.   
      
   Edibles are also a more discreet way to imbibe without sparking complaints   
   from neighbors or raising concerns over secondhand smoke.   
      
   And if adults understand how cannabis-infused edibles work in their bodies and   
   are smart about consumption, all three experts said they can be a viable   
   option for both medical marijuana patients and recreational consumers who’d   
   rather eat their weed    
   than smoke it.   
      
   How edibles work in the body   
   The sensation people get from smoking or eating cannabis is ultimately pretty   
   similar. But the way they ingest the plant determines how the body processes   
   THC, the compound in cannabis that makes consumers feel high. And that affects   
   everything from how    
   long it takes the weed to kick in to how intense the high might be.   
      
   “If you’re smoking or vaping, you’re absorbing all the THC and other   
   cannabinoids through your lungs,” Heller said. Those compounds go straight   
   into the bloodstream, which means smokers are likely to feel the effects   
   within five to 10 minutes.   
      
   With edibles, on the other hand, the body has to digest the food or drink.   
   It’s absorbed through the stomach, passes through the intestine and makes it   
   ways to the liver, which breaks down the THC and allows it to enter the   
   bloodstream. That means it    
   can take anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours to feel the full impact.   
      
   As with swallowing other types of drugs or drinking alcohol, the impact of   
   edibles will also depend a great deal on the particular person. Someone who   
   weighs 90 pounds and hasn’t eaten that day will likely feel the effects more   
   intensely than someone    
   who weighs more and has recently eaten a big meal.   
      
   The person’s metabolism and prior experience with cannabis can also play a   
   role, though even experienced smokers are sometimes surprised at how hard   
   edibles hit them.   
      
   “There’s a really wide range of tolerance levels,” Carella said. “Some   
   people are perfectly fine with 5 mg (of THC) and someone else needs 500 mg.”   
      
   The type of edibles the person consumed factors in, too, Heller said, since   
   the body can break down tiny THC molecules suspended in beverages more quickly   
   than they can digest the sugars and other ingredients in a heavy baked good.   
   Plus, some THC is    
   absorbed through the mouth when people drink infused beverages or suck on   
   cannabis candies.   
      
   The liver also converts THC into a different type of molecule than what’s   
   absorbed by the lungs. And Heller said that molecule is believed to be as much   
   as 10 times more psychoactive than the type of THC smokers experience. So   
   while the dose of THC is    
   the biggest factor in how high consumers get, Heller said eating cannabis may   
   make the high more intense.   
      
   Expect a much longer high   
   There’s also a big difference in how long the high lasts when weed is smoked   
   vs. when it’s eaten.   
      
   “It’s much, much longer lasting and more powerful,” Frankel said.   
      
      
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   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)