THC Treats: How Do Edibles Work?

It’s the season of sweet treats and gifting tasty confections to all your valentines — enter cannabis edibles. If you’re new to edibles, or maybe just aren’t sure about how they work in our bodies, keep reading for a crash course on how infused ingestible products work.

First, a quick science lesson on the key compounds in cannabis we will discussing.

THCA is naturally occurring in cannabis plants, and is not itself psychoactive. When heat is applied to THCA, it is converted to delta-9 THC which is where the psychoactive effects associated with THC come from. This process of conversion with heat is called, decarboxylation.

When we ingest anything, our liver gets first dibs. In our livers, delta-9 THC is converted to 11-hydroxy-THC. This conversion makes the effects felt from delta-9 THC 3 to 7 times stronger than smoking delta-9 THC. This is because unlike smoking, when you eat an edible, it crosses over the blood-brain barrier and activates the receptors in our bodies that cause a high.

To recap that, edibles give us a more pronounced high that lasts longer.

The downside, is the most edibles (with some exceptions with new technology) kick in around 1 to 1.5 hours after consuming. This means if you are new to edibles, you should start with a low dose (2.5mg).

Edibles do not work the same for everyone; the effects in your body depend on your age, genetics, body size and medical history. This makes edibles unpredictable for beginners so start small and slowly increase your dosage over time so you can understand your individual tolerance level.

It is never advised to mix edibles with alcohol. Also, if you’re worried about the unpredictability of edible dosing as a newcomer, you can always ease your way in with non-psychoactive ingestible products like CBD gummies, capsules or oils.

This is an exciting time to be an edible consumer, because there are so many diverse products on the market now. In all dosing levels from 2.5mg to 10mg in a single unit, to delicious formats of all kinds: baked goods, chocolates, sour candies, lozenges, soft chews and every possible flavour combination you could dream up.

We’re fully stocked in time for Valentine’s Day, so pop in to your local FOUR20 and ask about the edibles selection, or browse menus online.