STELLAR
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EDIBLES
An edible refers to a wide array of foods that are infused with cannabis. Pretty much anything made with butter or oil can be infused with cannabis. This includes brownies, cookies, pasta, chocolates, bread, etc. Edible cannabinoids are processed differently than inhaled cannabinoids. Ingesting cannabinoids means that they enter the bloodstream through the stomach and liver, this increases the cannabinoids potency and delays its effects. Ingesting cannabinoids also increases how long the effects last, sometimes even lasting almost 4 to 6 hours.
EDIBLES TODAY
Although cannabis use is much more widely accepted than it was, we still have a ways to go and it is still very common for people to make their own edibles. For consumers who live somewhere cannabis is legal, it's much more common to just go ahead and buy some from a local dispensary. At a dispensary, you can find a wide variety of edibles to chose from. From Brownies and cookies to gummies and mints - you can find it all and more at a dispensary.
HISTORY OF EDIBLES
Edibles have, by far, one of the most interesting ones. So far, historians have been able to track down modern day edibles all the way back to 1500 BCE in India. In India, people would drink a prepared beverage made from mixing ground cannabis buds and leaves, various spices, and ghee (clarified butter). It went by the name "bhang". Overtime, cannabis had a rise in popularity all across Europe. This sparked Bartolomeo Platina, a 15th century Italian scholar, to publish the very first cookbook, "On Honorable Pleasure and Health (1474)." that included a cannabis edible recipe.
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Cannabis edibles were keeping their popularity status, But Alice B. Toklas changed everything. Toklas and her partner Gertrude Stein, who were living in Paris at the time, proved that edibles didn't need to be cooked to be enjoyed. Toklas created a recipe that reached fame when it was published the book, "The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook". She described how to make her recipe for "Haschich Fudge" like this:
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"Take 1 teaspoon black peppercorns, 1 whole nutmeg, 4 average sticks of cinnamon, 1 teaspoon coriander. These should all be pulverised in a mortar. About a handful each of stoned dates, dried figs, shelled almonds and peanuts: chop these and mix them together. A bunch of cannabis sativa can be pulverised. This along with the spices should be dusted over the mixed fruit and nuts, kneaded together. About a cup of sugar dissolved in a big pat of butter. Rolled into a cake and cut into pieces or made into balls about the size of a walnut, it should be eaten with care. Two pieces are quite sufficient. Obtaining the cannabis may present certain difficulties...It should be picked and dried as soon as it has gone to seed and while the plant is still green."
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It is known that Stein and Toklas would host soirees that attracted the likes of people like Ernest Hemingway, Herni Matisse, Thornton Wilder, and Pablo Picasso. Maybe they got to test Toklas' recipe! One can only wonder.
Toklas became even more legendary when the movie “I Love You, Alice B. Toklas!,” came out in 1968. The film was about a character who devours hash brownies and marries a hippie instead of his bride. The way Hollywood portrayed cannabis brownies in this movie immortalized them in cannabis cultures across the world.
WHY EDIBLES?
Edibles offer people the opportunity to not inhale smoke or vapor and also offer sustained effects for long periods of time.
Here are some other reasons why people choose edibles:
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Longer-lasting effects
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Discretion
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Control over ingredients
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No pollen and other plant particulate matter
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Precise dosage
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Ability to make own recipes - allows consumers to know exactly what they are eating.
HOW ARE THEY DIGESTED?
Remember, edibles are absorbed through our digestive system. This means it can take hours for the consumer to feel the effects, and then even more time for it to pass through the body! Cannabis edibles are absorbed through the stomach to be metabolized in the liver. The liver then turns delta-9-THC ( regular THC) into 11-hydroxy-THC (metabolite of THC produced by the body) - which is more potent, has a longer half-life in the body, and can even seem to have sedative effects. This form of THC that is much stronger, can also cross our blood-brain barrier, which also causes it to have a much longer lasting effect and a higher potency. The mechanism in our bodies that is responsible for transforming THC into 11-hydroxy-THC is also responsible for the varying effects of edibles from person to person. Everyone is different!
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The ingestion of edibles is difficult. It can also be hard to find the right dosage, this takes trial and error, and you're height, weight, and genetics can play a role when it comes to how edibles effect you. As noted above, eating cannabis offers users a variety of benefits, but it can also adversely affect consumers, especially if ingested in large quantities.
USEFUL THINGS TO KNOW
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Read the packaging information on your edible! this helps to understand dosing. Edible packaging includes milligram dosages by serving and by package to fully inform consumers of what they're ingesting.
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Someone who ingests an edible without eating beforehand will feel the effects much more quickly than someone with a full stomach.
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Beginners! Follow this simple rule: start with a single dose of 1 to 5 milligrams of THC. Always wait 2 to 4 hours to evaluate its effects before consuming more.
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How long the THC says in your system is dependent on several factors, including frequency of use and dosage, as well as individual-specific traits such as weight, metabolism, and genetics.
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Cannabis edibles are known to cause intense highs. Here are the two main culprits for this:
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People eat more than they should. Remember - edibles take a while to set in! A lot of people don't wait long enough and assume they haven't eaten enough, and then eat more. By the time they start to feel the effects, they have already eaten too much, and are now much higher than they wanted or expected.
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They also take a while to pass through the body, resulting in lasting effects. This extended time period of being high, creates a more intense experience.