How to consume your Cannabis?
Medical cannabis can be consumed in any number of ways: smoking, vaporizing, eating, eating for CB2 delivery, drinking, utilizing sublingual tinctures and transdermal patches - even suppositories! Each method has very different pros and cons. Sometimes one's medical conditions determines the modality as each mode has varying effects and duration of said effects. Each patient will have to make a personal decision on how to consume their medical cannabis based on their specific condition and how they experience that particular delivery mode.
Nonetheless, Green Buddha Patient Co-op will do anything to have you never smoke medical cannabis - one never needs to smoke cannabis. The taking of burnt particulate material into your lungs is not a medically rational decision. Cannabis smoke irritates the respiratory system, raises the risk of bronchitis, and is a negative stimulant on the immune system. While cannabis does not cause lung cancer, the taking of burnt particulate material into your system is not a healthy choice. Fortunately you can vaporize your medical cannabis instead!
A vaporizer is a device that raises the temperature of some ground up cannabis so that the active ingredients vaporize - turning from a liquid to gaseous vapor state - which can then be easily breathed. Thus the medicinal components of cannabis are consumed in a completely smoke free mode. Furtehrmore and contrary to the negative effects of smoking, cannabinoid vapor is a positive stimulant on the natural endocannabinoid system resulting in an enhanced immune system. Cannabis vapor is also anti-bacterial and anti-viral. Vaporize your medical cannabis!
Consumption Modes
Vaporize Cannabis
Extremely easy to self-titrate, stays in your system 3-4 hours. Easy to explore differences in longer flowering energic sativas versus shorter flowering sleepy indicas.
Eating Cannabis
The uninitiated believes that eating cannabis is the safest mode and this is false. Cannabis when eaten takes up to 2 full hours to effect, although it has the advantage of staying in your body for 7-8 hours.
Drinking Cannabis
Drinking cannabis hits the body even quicker and with more punctuated effects than eating. In addition the majority of cannabis drinks contain sugar and give an even greater biopic effect. Not advised. Cannabis tea is the exception. There's also juicing cannabis.
Sublingual Cannabis
Tincture held under the tongue is absorbed subligually. A hundred years ago this is the way we did our medical cannabis, and it is still a fairly good method. Takes approximately 20 minutes.
Transdermal & More
Topical loaded with cannabinoids are applied directly to the skin or muscles. Good for an amazing assortment of conditions: pain management, dermatological conditions and migraines.
Cannabis Caps
Made with gel caps to interact with the body's CB2 receptors located throughout our lower intestine. Particularly useful for those with auto-immune conditions.
More on Vaporization
While there is no link found between smoking cannabis and cancers, smoking anything is not a healthy.
As a number of studies have shown Cannabis vaporization is a safe and efficient way to utilize your medical cannabis.* Harmful toxins in marijuana smoke can be effectively avoided by a vaporization device, cannabis vapor is antibacterial and antiviral. By exhaling your vapor through your nose you can reduce the chance you get a common cold. Not so with smoking cannabis. Vaporizing also allows the user to explore the differences between indicas and sativas - thus having either an animated or sedative effect as desired. Cannabinoid vapor is a low irritant on the passage ways.
When you vape your cannabis flower you can have the best chance at obtaining all the cannabinoids and terpenes available.
Hash oils can deliver an intense hit - but some of the medicinal terpenes have been removed in the processing. (All the terpenes have been removed in shatter or butter.) So for the best results you want to vape flowers or naturally produced hashes. What temperature is best? 350 F to 375 F. or about 175 C to 190 C. Cannabis will start to burn at 400 F.
When first trying out a vaporizer you want to go slow.
Regular cannabis users will be surprised that they may not "feel anything" at first and over imbibe. Studies have shown that vaporizing cannabis is very cost-effective and is the healthy alternative to smoking. Vaporizing also has two other advantages – when one smokes cannabis the smell of cannabis is unavoidable, but not so with a vaporizer. And a vaporizer is judicious in its use of cannabis. When you smoke a doobie - one third of the cannabis is wasted filling the room as smoke. A vaporizer wastes only a percent or two, so a vaporizer saves you money too.
* 1996/2000 CANORML Vaporizer Study; 2003 CANORML follow up; 2007 Vaporization as Delivery
Why Vaporize?
- The Healthy Choice
- Cost Effective
- Discreet - Less Offensive
- Vapor is Anti-bacterial and Anti-viral
- Take full advantage of sativa/indica
- Vape flowers for entourage effect
Vape Pens, "Liquid Pot" and Hash Oils
Vape pens can be even more discreetly used...
Eating Cannabis
One can also eat cannabis, which in order to be effective must be first processed into a fat or oil. Cannabis is fat soluable, not water soluable. Those inexperienced with using cannabis often erroneously believes that eating cannabis is safer and easier to work with than vaporizing cannabis. Nothing is further than the truth. Cannabis edibles or "medibles" when eaten may take up to two full hours for the complete effect to be felt, even as one can start to feel something at 20 minutes or so. Thus it can be extremely difficult to determine dose and self-titrate correctly. The issue is exacberated by the fact that eating cannabis is highly individual in nature, some individuals are hardly affected at all, but can be effected by how much food one has eaten and by its fat content.
Since cannabis eaten takes up to two full hours for the complete effect to be felt - many people have a "blotto on brownies" story. Medibles dosing can be very difficult to dose. The one advantage to eating cannabis is once medicated one stays so for 7-8 hours. So if you have a sleep disorder it is obvious what delivery modality you would choose. If you vaped before you went to bed you would be unmedicated 3-4 hours later. if you ate a little cannabis an hour or so before bed - there's a good chance you would stay medicated throughout your sleep cycle. So eating cannabis is great for sleeping disorders and other conditions which demand a full on body load.
When starting out with medibles begin with a small amount - consume and wait more than two hours before trying any more.
Go slow so you can determine your dose. It helps it you are obtaining consistant medicinal cannabis product. Consider growing cannabis for yourself if you use edibles. For those who take their time learning edibles and their bodies' reactions to them, edibles can be successfully used for daytime pain management. Please keep in mind that the range of response with edibles is far broader than with vaporizing cannabis. This means some folks can have almost no effect while another is wildly effected with the same amount of edible. Be careful. If you feel you have eaten too much of an edible try and remain calm and try and eat or drink other foods. The symptoms will pass.
Drinking Cannabis
- If medibles are a bit difficult for most patients to use in the day time, some find liquid cannabis drinks even worse. However some patients fins them useful. Consistency is an issue in the industry. As well as most of the cannabis drink concoctions are filled with sugar which makes the medication even more difficult to use.
Green Buddha would like to encourage patients to seek non-sugary medible alternatives. This is suppose to be medicine.
Learn more about edibles and cooking with cannabis. Try out the Green Buddha recipes.
Sublingual & Tincture
Tincture is a concentrated form of medical cannabis in either an alcohol or food grade gylcerine. Alcohol tinctures were how we primarily did medical cannabis in this country a hundred years ago. Tinctures are convenient to use, a few drops under the tongue, and are thus very discreet. Tincture comes on in about 20 minutes and stays in your system about the same duration as does vaping, about 3-4 hours.
Transdermal & Topicals
Topical herbal medicines are applied directly to the skin or muscles. They include lotions, salves, balms, sprays, oils, and creams. Patients report they are tremendously effective for skin conditions like psoriasis, joint diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, migraines, restless leg syndrome, some spasms, and everyday muscle stress and soreness. Ttopicals are completely non-psychoactive!
- What is the Green Buddha Cannabis Therapeutics Guide?
- Is eating cannabis good for sleep issues?
- Should I grow if I only use medibles?
Cannabis therapeutics gives the best results when the patients
personalizes their dosing. What this means is one will have to do a little exploring to discover what exactly will work best for you and your condition. Be open to this exploring. Be proactive about your engagement with medical cannabis.
Be sure to read the Green Buddha Cannabis Therapeutics Guide!
Yes, eating cannabis is perfect for those with sleep disorders. The trick is getting enough in but not so much you wake up groggy in the morning. Green Buddha has learned that the amount needed for sleep can be less than what you imagine.
Start small. Wait two hours before doing more. In this way determine your correct dose. Use consistant product.
YES! Growing the world's best bud - not so easy. Growing for medible "cannabinoid content?" Not so difficult and only a few plants are needed. Growing insures you get consistant product which helps with dosing.
If you only use medibles consider growing for yourself!.
The logic behind "Mari pills"
Cannabis caps - also known as mari pills - are especially useful for those struggling with auto-immune diseases as the pills interact with our body's natural endocannabinoid system (ECS) which modulates the auto-immune system..