Here, THC content is measured and labeled. You know exactly what you are getting. How you ingest it is a big variable.
Like alcohol, weed will affect folk differently. Some people do very well, others turn into a puddle.
While alcohol is far, FAR, more toxic than weed, weed is a more psycho active substance.
Drink a beer, smoke a J, whatever. Just be responsible. How is that so fuggin' hard? If you need either to get through life, you're doing it wrong.
If you feel the need to tell people what they can and can not ingest, you're a fugg 'tard.
Yeah, well said.
Oregon's recreational industry launches for real here in the next couple months. We've been in a transitional period where what were previously medical dispensaries could sell a limited amount to non-medical-cardholders... 1/4 oz I believe. Anyway, yes, the stuff is lab tested to establish potency as well as the ratios of the various cannaboids. Turns out, THC is only one of them. Some folks are very actively trying not to get high-THC pot and are after the CBD's.
I rode with an engineer friend the other day and he told me some interesting stuff. He's had a medical grow license for years. He's a sharp guy and very curious. He'd been experimenting with making tinctures, using various methods, then getting them lab tested. Of interest to me was that he'd had basic butter tested. I make butter then make caramels with that- more below. What was interesting was that the THC doesn't carbolyze efficiently from its acid (non-pschoactive) form. Chemistry majors, I apologize, but I'm gonna call that THC(a).
So, THC(a) is not psychoactive. This is why it is traditionally smoked: that carbolyzes it into THC, and you catch a buzz. However some of the doctors on the cutting edge believe that THC(a) has enormous health benefits, in really sick folks, to the point that they are having patients actually juice what would otherwise be huge quantities of leaf and flower, and drink it, to get all that THC(a) without getting high.
What's interesting to me about it is that that his butter, made the the way I make it, had only carbolyzed about 20% of the THC(a) into THC. This has been intriguing to me for the last year, because I've been making the butter with what appear to be LARGE quantities of chopped up flowers (buds) and have been a little surprised that it hasn't been more potent. It doesn't matter, mind you, because since the stuff is damn near free if you grow it yourself, who cares... but I was mildly interested.
Concurrent with starting to make and ingest these caramels in the evening, ive seen a fairly remarkable change in my "drug life": I virtually never take ibuprofen anymore. I'm a big guy and have a physical lifestyle and ibuprofen has been my friend for a long time, both for the pain relief and the anti-inflammatory properties.
So bringing this full circle, come to find out that I've actually, most likely, been getting a pretty damn large dose of THC(a) in these caramels in order to get the psychoactive effect I like- which when eaten this way is very similar to alcohol- a relaxing body buzz with mild euphoria and general good feelings. So whether it's all that THC (a), or the THC, or some other cannaboids I don't know, but the effect on my body in general has been fairly profound: much less pain, inflammation, etc to the point that I NEVER take ibuprofen anymore.
I find that quite interesting.
As a huge side benefit, the caramels have greatly decreased my desire to drink. I still have a couple beers but I haven't had more than (3) 12-oz beers in almost a year. THAT is huge. Alcohol, which is the drug of choice for many here and everywhere else, is very toxic and unhealthy. So I'll count that as a credit in this equation as well.
I'm taking the time (and absorbing the negative comments) to type all this for one reason only. This is a place that could use some education on this stuff; many of you are exactly the people who need to come around on this issue if we are ever, as a society, going to get past the "Reefer Madness" hysteria.
And by the way, nobody "smokes a joint" of this modern, very potent weed. You control dosage by smoking a tiny little piece to avoid becoming what I'd call "over stoned" which is not pleasant. This is "taking psychoactive substances 101": start small. You can always do a little more.
