It’s long been a joke in television and movies – some straight-laced adults decide to sample a pan of brownies they find laying around, and the next thing you know they’re giggling uncontrollably and eating everything in sight. While marijuana-infused brownies, or pot brownies, are certainly a popular method of ingestion, there are limitless possibilities when it comes to edible marijuana. The phrase cannabis edible may refer to both food and drink, although the terms liquid edible or drinkable is sometimes used for drinks.
You might be imagining running into little flakes of marijuana in your food, like you’d see parsley or basil leaves, but it doesn’t have to be in a dried form. There are high potency extracts of marijuana that be added to nearly any food. These are called Butane Hash Oil (BHO) and Honey Oil, among other names. These concentrations can have THC (the ingredient in marijuana that creates a high) potency levels of 40 to 90 percent, compared to an average of 10 to 16 percent in dried marijuana. The extracts can then be mixed directly into any food you please, including liquids like soda. Marijuana can also be infused into cooking oil, which you can use to fry foods, or into butter, which you can cook with or spread directly onto whatever food you please.
There are plenty of prepackaged marijuana foods, particularly in states that have legalized the drug, where you’ll find them in pot shops or dispensaries. Some of these ready to eat treats include toaster pastries, gummy candies, a wide selection of breakfast cereals (usually of the very sugary variety), fruit and nut snacks, cookies, cakes, chips, crackers, rice crispy treats, pretzels, dried fruit, peanut butter, syrup, jellies, salad dressings, barbecue sauces, and ice cream – and that’s just a sampling of the possibilities.
It sounds like a good deal – you get to eat something at the same time as you get high, potentially cutting the munchies off at the pass, and you avoid the harmful effects of smoking. But is eating marijuana dangerous? Yes, it can be. For one thing, you have no idea how much THC is in what you’re eating. Also, unlike smoking, which allows you to feel the effects of marijuana in minutes, when you eat it, it can take one to three hours for it to spread through the bloodstream. People might keep eating the drug-laced food, thinking it’s not working, and then end up ingesting far more marijuana than they intended.
The symptoms from overdose can be more severe than in smoked marijuana, and may include anxiety and panic attacks, acute psychotic episodes, confusion, disorientation, delusions, hallucinations, depersonalization, tachycardia (an abnormally rapid heart rate), impaired motor skills, and ataxia (loss of control over body movements).
If you or a loved one need help with quitting drugs or alcohol, consider Asana Recovery. We offer medical detox, along with both residential and outpatient programs, and you’ll be supervised by a highly trained staff of medical professionals, counselors, and therapists. Call us any time at (949) 438-4504 to get started.