Marijuana “Edibles” Make Candy Complicated

Pop Quiz! Question: If you look at the candy in the check-out aisle in your local store, an average chocolate bar is 1 serving, and an average bag of candy-covered chocolates (which has about 30 candies) is also 1 serving. What is the average serving of a marijuana edible chocolate bar or bag of a candy that has been infused with THC—the active ingredient in marijuana? Answer:  There is no average serving. Yes, it was a trick question.  But that’s kind of what marijuana edibles are…tricky.  At least for a person who doesn’t use marijuana regularly. For example, in Colorado, a single serving of an edible marijuana food product purchased for adult recreational use (as opposed to medicinal use) can’t have more than 10 milligrams of THC in it. BUT, there can be up to ten servings in the product or package. That means a single bag of marijuana candy, a marijuana chocolate bar, a marijuana brownie, or any other marijuana edible might contain as much as 100 milligrams of THC. Smoking marijuana delivers to the user about 5 mg of THC in one puff. So if you ate all ten gummies in a bag of marijuana candy—each one a single 10 mg “serving”—it would be like taking 20 hits of a marijuana cigarette at one time!  Because it takes longer to feel the effects of the THC when you eat an edible compared to smoking marijuana—up to an hour or two, this happens a lot.  People end up eating more than the recommended serving because they don’t “feel” it right away. But r...
Source: NIDA Drugs and Health Blog - Category: Addiction Authors: Source Type: blogs