Even for long-term potheads, taking edibles (without turning into a vegetable) can be a challenge. Our trusty cannabis correspondent Amanda Chicago Lewis made this dosage guide so you won’t spend an afternoon with the spins—or feeling nothing at all. The goal is to figure out your “floor,” meaning how little you need to consume in order to have the experience you want. Take it from someone who once ate too much weed brownie at Coachella and woke up with her face next to her car’s exhaust pipe: It’s always better to not be high enough than to be uncomfortably high.
Add up your answers: That’s how many milligrams of THC you want to start with.
Where is your stomach at?
- Need a cheeseburger. Now. [+0]
- I could go for a green juice. [+1]
- Pregnant with a Chipotle baby. [+3]
To get a sense of your metabolism: When you’re hungry, how many standard pizza slices can you eat?
- One veggie slice. [+1]
- Three, and then leftover crust. [+3]
- I measure pizza consumption in pies. [+5]
Where are you heading?
- My girlfriend's niece Persimmon's birthday—I want to laugh at the kids, not make them cry. [+1]
- A sexy date. Inhibitions begone. [+3]
- Night ten of the Phish residency at Madison Square Garden. [+5]
How often do you get high?
- My friends think I'm a cop. [+1]
- I've been known to enjoy an occasional toke on the Devil's Lettuce. [+2]
- Every week before Bob's Burgers. [+5]
- I hit the bong as soon as I get home from work. [+7]
- In this house, we wake and bake. [+10]
Now calculate your total, and go forth and eat.
A few additional tips:
- Don’t eat more if you don’t feel it at first: It could take over two hours to kick in.
- Digesting regular food after you consume THC will get your metabolism going and get you high faster.
- If you’ve had bad paranoia or anxiety when using marijuana in the past, look for a product with both CBD and THC. CBD will lessen the mind-racing aspects of the THC.
- If the amount the quiz recommends for you is too low, increase your dose by five milligrams the next time you do edibles, until you find what works for you.
This story originally appeared in the March 2018 issue with the title "Higher Society."
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