Do Edibles Get You Higher Than Smoking?
Do edibles really get you more stoned?
The short answer is: we don’t know, but everyone seems to think so.
Everybody’s body processes cannabis differently, and this has to do with several factors. The biggest out of all of them are: weight, hormones, and tolerance. But do edibles really make you more “high” than other forms of cannabis?
There is little to no actual research published on the effects of ingested cannabis vs inhaled cannabis, but there are plenty of articles on the Internet claiming to know the reasoning behind the different effects.
Most of them say pretty much this:
“Edibles make you higher than other forms because our body breaks down the cannabis differently for each form, and the body processes ingested cannabis more intensely than inhaled cannabis.”
Is this science? Or just speculation? We hope someone tries to find out soon. But some have already tried.
According to a Vice article, Nick Jikomes, the principal research scientist at Leafly, believes “The issue isn’t that [weed is] metabolized differently, it's that it's gonna get metabolized to different degrees in different parts of the body, depending on the route of administration.”
When we smoke, the THC inhaled is spread to the lungs and liver, and from there, the bloodstream. This all happens within minutes.
Edibles have to travel through our digestive system, which takes longer.
“Although it takes longer for the initial psychoactive effect of edibles (30 to 90 minutes) to be felt, the resulting “high” is longer-lasting, with a peak at 2 to 4 hours after ingestion. Factors such as weight, metabolism, gender, and eating habits also contribute to how soon and for how long someone will feel intoxicated following oral ingestion” (1).
Though they produce a very enjoyable and lasting sensation, edibles can be a tricky way to consume cannabis. This is largely due to an occasional inaccurate dosage which can happen when making batches of edibles. Though the THC is measured per batch, there is no way to ensure each individual edible in the batch actually receives the correct amount. Sometimes mixtures can separate, and it’s nobody’s fault.
There is also consumer dosage inaccuracy, which happens when we think we know how much we’re taking, but really we maybe take a larger bite than we think we did, thus getting more “high” than we originally planned.
And lastly, there is always the doomed mistake of taking more when you don’t “feel it” after a certain amount of time. Because edibles take longer to process in our digestive system, some consumers will get impatient and eat more before the effects kick in. This results in a stronger and longer-lasting experience that you can’t really replicate with inhalation.
(And if you’ve done this, don’t feel bad. We’ve all been there.)
Hopefully there will be scientific evidence of the body-processing-theory in the near future, but for now we can always blame inaccurate dosage for the difference we feel.
Daniel G. Barrus, Kristen L. Capogrossi, Sheryl C. Cates, Camille K. Gourdet, Nicholas C. Peiper, Scott P. Novak, Timothy W. Lefever, and Jenny L. Wiley. Tasty THC: Promises and Challenges of Cannabis Edibles
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3570572/
2. Priyamvada Sharma, PhD,1 Pratima Murthy,1 and M.M. Srinivas Bharath2. Chemistry, Metabolism, and Toxicology of Cannabis: Clinical Implications
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5260817/
3. Farah, Troy. Why Do Edibles Give You a Different High Than Smoking? February 9, 2018, 2:57pm
https://www.vice.com/en/article/bj5mza/edible-high-vs-smoke-high