Of Cannabis Edibles And Overdosing

The Cookie Of Doom

It has occurred to me that some people might just get the wrong idea.

After all, I’ve written at least half a dozen stories here about various of my adventures involving overdoses of Medical Marijuana edibles, which left me in various states of highness, generally in the double digits (AKA “tripping balls“).

I’d like to categorically state that I am not, by any means, attempting to act as a role model, portraying this behavior in a positive light, or trying to “impress” anyone by publishing these stories. Rather, I’ve been attempting to illustrate the dangers of blindly consuming new edibles, and especially the dangers of over-consuming, especially intentionally (recreational users, I’m mostly talking to you here).

As is common in medically oriented literature, I use the word “overdose” here in its correct meaning: a dose that is higher than medically necessary. A mild overdose will simply get you high. “Overdose” does not imply “something that will kill you”, though the term “fatal overdose” does.

While even massive overdoses of cannabis are not themselves acutely life-threatening to healthy individuals, high doses of sativas and other THC-rich strains can induce temporary symptoms of paranoia or panic in some people, with accompanying rise in blood pressure and heart rate. Very high doses of any strain can also cause temporary loss of consciousness (“greening out”). Clearly, either of these effects could have serious consequences based on other factors, such as a pre-existing heart condition or simply falling and hitting your head.

So now I’d like to promote these five safety rules for cannabis edibles:

1. Try less than 1/8 of the recommended dose for any new marijuana edible.
2. If it smells strongly, it probably is seriously strong.
3. If it tastes strongly, it really is seriously strong!
4. Wait at least 2 (or up to 4) hours, or until you feel the effects, before adding another same-sized piece to your dose (assuming you decide you do want more).
5. Edibles always have a built-in time delay. Plan in advance what you’ll be doing and where you’ll be when they kick in (generally anywhere from 1/2 hour to 2 to 4 hours after eating).

Good luck and be careful!

http://BeyondChronic.com

Old Hippie is a father of two boys and thankfully living in California where all this kind of thing is legal. He started smoking marijuana in 1967 in high school, experimented with mind-expanding drugs of all kinds, and then straightened out 15 or so years later to become an airplane pilot. After being diagnosed with depression in 2000, he lost his job and most of the following decade to prescription medications (such as antidepressants) which sapped his energy and will. Finally, a chance conversation with a friend led to a doctor’s recommendation for medical marijuana (MMJ). This changed his entire life, health, and outlook for the better. BeyondChronic.com is his continuing story. It’s also his way to provide experienced advice on using medical marijuana effectively and responsibly, as well as advocacy, activism, and support for others. Old Hippie teaches about safe use of cannabis edibles, Canna Caps, vaporizers, dosing, and even microdosing.

114 comments

I had tried edible brownies before I must of got a bad batch because they had no effect. So I went searching to try and find what kind of car you get from an edible. I went to a collective and asked for a strong edible that I would actually feel and I was given a jolly rancher. About an hour after I took it I felt like I was on meth or something horrible horrible paranoia and I thought the world was going to end. I still smoke my medical marijuana but I will stay far far away from edibles

Well, you did ask for something strong! Unfortunately you didn’t specify what kind you wanted, so it sounds like you got a strong sativa, which can trigger paranoia at high doses. It’s not the fact that you ate it that caused your problem, it was the dosage. You wouldn’t smoke 6 strong joints, one after the other, because you could tell you were getting too high and you’d stop. That’s why the only safe way is to make your own edibles, so you can control the dosage. Anyway, nugs and hugs!

You could potentially die from eating rotten or contaminated food, but you can’t die of an overdose of the THC itself, as long as it’s from cannabis (several people have died from Marinol, which is the FDA’s “approved safe” version of medical marijuana, made with synthetic THC).

How can you stop shaking when you take thc ,I ate an edible about a month ago and still feel shaky and want to know how to treat this problem

I’ve got to watch those drinks. Those Cola’s if I don’t measure accurately? I’m thinking, now this is liquid THC and a little Cola. A 4oz. juice glass should be alright. Yeah, right. It depends on the person … but try little volumes at a time. I’m a medical user in Colorado Springs.

That’s usually an indication of the total potency. It’s supposed to signify that there’s 4x, 8x, or whatever that number of total doses in the edible.

“3. If it tastes strongly, it really is seriously strong!”

Oh boy, I wish I had had this information last night! I have very little experience with pot. I have smoked it with a vaporizer a few times to relax my legs when my restless leg syndrome is so bad that I can’t fall asleep. It relaxes me and I can fall asleep, and that’s about it. My boyfriend is the one with the script and the equipment. He’s been smoking for 20 years or so. He sets it all up for me and I take a puff and go to bed. Easy Peasy!

Last night I had a wretched headache. I could tell it was going to put me down for the count for a few hours or maybe days. I didn’t have the vaporizer and I don’t like the water pipe because it burns my throat… so he ran out and bought me a cake pop “edible.” It was marked “one dose.” I ate it and boy did it taste bitter. I could taste the green from the first bite. Still, I wasn’t expecting to feel any differently than I do when I smoke. Just a little tired.

An hour or so later, all hell broke loose. The floor was on the ceiling, the world made no more sense and I couldn’t stop laughing. But it didn’t feel good. I felt insane. And how come no one ever talks about how your tongue feels like it’s dipped in glue? I couldn’t stop laughing and when I tried to drink, it turned into the worst spit take ever. Then I just started crying, sobbing, weeping and saying that I didn’t like it. I really never want to experience anything like that again. It was really some of the most un-fun I’ve ever known. I finally fell asleep listening to the sound of my own voice saying, “aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.” I couldn’t have stopped if I’d wanted to.

On the upside. no headache!

I just wonder why no one talks about having that kind of experience?

Well, nobody else talks about that generally because they’re more worried about their ego. But I had mine mostly removed, so I happily and honestly talk about everything that happens, good and bad! Felicity has had the same problem from her occasional edible overdoses…she just sits there saying, “I don’t like this, I don’t like this” and waits for the room to stop spinning.

Glad it worked out OK for you (as with most people). I try to write a lot about this to save more people from the problem. Still beats overdoses of hard drugs or pharmaceuticals, which usually lead to a trip to the ER at best or the cemetery at worst…

My only regret is that — like you — I wish you had seen the article before your edible experience!

“One dose” my ass! Read this article and you’ll learn exactly how to calculate your own dosage to the milligram! Nugs and hugs!

My husband bought a Carmel chew from the cannabis club, ate half of it the other day (the dosage was 1/8), and said he just felt a low level buzz for quite a while. I ate the other half before our trip to the mountains today; it didn’t take effect for about 1 1/2 hours, then it hit me and it felt like I was having a bad trip or had taken too much ecstasy. I haven’t been that messed up in over 10 years! There were a few times I felt on the verge of blacking out and driving on the narrow, winding mountain roads was crazy! I would think the high was residing and then it would hit full force again- this went on for about 8 hours. The plan was to go hiking after we got to the cabin, but all I could do was lie on the couch. Moral of the story – Make sure you follow dosage instructions!

Are you in Los Angeles by any chance? I think I know of those cake pops! And they’re so totally devastating if you don’t have tolerance …and you definitely don’t have much tolerance at all! Eek! They recommended them to me when I said I wanted something strong, and the budtender told me to “be careful”‘ because they tended to knock her on her ass.

So I don’t really consume cannabis because I don’t like the high. Occasionally I’ll take one or two hits off hubby’s pipe to meditate or if I have a headache, but that’s my max. Yesterday hubby had a peppermint patty that he said was really tasty. It had 10mg of THC in it. I asked how much that was. He said that much would be nothing (he eats edibles like nothing). Well let me tell you, for me, 10mg is NOT nothing. That was the worst experience I’ve ever had. We’re talking uncontrollable laughter, crying, shaking, twitching, paranoia, panic, crippling fear. It was awful. I still vaguely feel the effects today. I will never eat an edible again, no matter how little the dose.

It’s perfectly safe to eat edibles when you’ve determined the right dose for you. I too will have a bad time on 10 mg, which is why I take far less (more like 1 or 2 mg) on a regular basis. Unfortunately it’s easy to forget that everyone has a different tolerance and sensitivity.

Jennifer, I’ve been a sufferer of RLS for many years and I wanted to pass this drug name on to you that my doctor prescribed for me. It’s really been a help since once It’s kept me up for an entire 8 days straight. The drug is called Pramipexole. I hope it may help.

Last night I ate a gigantic bho edible, it was maybe a 6x6inch rice krispy treat govered in bho frosting. The actual dosage I am not sure of, my friend makes them and I know he makes them strong. After about 2 hours of a great time,I fell asleep. I woke up having severe hot flashes, my feet and hands were ice cold, and my heart rate was through the roof. My blood pressure was so high that my veins were popping out. I shook violently unless I REALLY focused on relaxing, which is what I did the whole time to not freak the fuck out. After about an hour, it felt like the inside of my mouth was puffing up and sort of numbing out. I had bad cottonmouth although I had been drinking tons of water after the first symptoms in hopes that I was just dehydrated. After 2 hours of agony I was able to fall asleep again, shaking the whole time. I smoke weed heavily every day and eat edibles pretty regularly, so this came as a shock to me. This was my first bad experience in all my life. I have no idea what happened. Truthfully, I was on the verge of going to the hospital. But I just told myself that it’s merely an edible and that would be a bit dramatic. So I just meditated and tried not to let me insane thoughts take over. There was a few minutes when i thought I was possessed, that’s how bad it was. Just thought I’d share my experience in case this happens to someone else. We found little information on the issue when researching ways to feel better. I took deep breaths and alternated between laying down and sitting up, drinking water the whole time.

I’m new to edibles and the herb in general. My friend recommend I take a 1/4 brownie today… Huge mistake! I was spinning for hours and felt awful. BUT- I came up with some pretty awesome art ideas in the process. HOWEVER, I forgot them almost immediately after conception, then would get so frustrated at myself for losing such “magnificent” visions! I just now read your article and cried a big ‘doh! This brownie, supposedly lowest dose they make, smells and tastes very strong. Although I already figured out I took too much, it still helps to read this. 🙂

I had one of the worst experiences of my life today with edibles. After a number of years of not using pot at all, I became a medical marijuana patient a few months ago due to a health issue.

I’ve been very happy with smoking it, and usually don’t do it until late in the day. Well, my asthma started acting up due to the daily smoking. I decided to try edibles.

The woman who delivered my edibles to me from the dispensary really should have warned me about what she was selling. She sold my two 20 dose bars with 1,000 mg each of THC!

I ate only a tiny portion of one bar. Like a quarter inch sliver cut in half to “play it safe”.

Holy shit.

About an hour later I was so high all I could do was lay on my bed in a certain position with my head facing down. Any movement brought on intense dizziness and vertigo. I soon thereafter threw up about 30 times into a bog bowl that my husband brought in for me. Seriously, I wretched and wretched then cried hysterically and then wretched some more.

My heart was racing and I felt like I was dying.

After the vomiting finally stopped, I stayed in that exact position for another 3 hours and hallucinated. Yes, the walls were breathing. The baseboards buckled up and down. Lights were unbearable. Strange shapes, colors and sounds bombarded me at a frightening pace.

Finally, I fell asleep. An hour later I woke up still really really high, but I was able to walk to the kitchen and eat cereal, which helped me feel a bit better.

13 hours later, I am mostly normal but still a tiny bit high. I have these two big edibles now and I’m not sure I want to do them ever again. But, they were expensive. So, I might just try a little pinch of the open one next time to see if it suits me better.

I don’t know how they get them so strong! I’ve been making my own, since my bad experience and keeping things pretty mild, but in my mind, still using a lot of cannabis. On Saturday I took my step-mother to a dispensary, where she purchased a small cannabis chocolate. Before I knew it, she had popped it into her mouth! Oh boy! She is used to my edibles and despite my repeated warnings, she assumed it would be the same. For the next few hours she was high as a kite and very uncomfortable. She has ALS and one of her reactions to the medicine was a chattering jaw. It went on for a couple of hours and she was unable to speak. I feel horrible about it. I’m sorry to hear you had a lousy experience too! Better luck next time.

Well, I guess those were legit 1000 mg! I once bought a “1000 mg. chocolate bar” but I doubt there was more than 30 mg in the entire thing!

I suggest you melt those bars and mix them with 4 to 6 times their weight in chocolate, then “recast” them as small cubes using a candy mold. Then you will have some stuff at a dose you can deal with!

Thanks very much for sharing your story with us. Nugs and hugs!

A few weeks back, I ate an edible at a party and about 30 minutes later I felt like shit. I sat down on the couch and instantly felt stuck. I felt like my legs didn’t work. I felt very hot but my hands were cold. My friend told me I was very red in the face. I was shaking uncontrollably. It was an awful feeling that lasted about 2 hours. I finally was able to drive home and go to bed.

I’ve since then have eaten the same edibles and felt fine. Last night my brother and I ate them. He had a similar experience as I did when I had a “bad trip.” His heart felt like it was beating out of his chest, he was very nervous. He doesn’t smoke pot often so this was a completely new experience for him. He was shaking violently to the point where I felt like he might need medical attention. I told him to take deep breathes and stay calm, that he just had to ride it out. He was so uncomfortable. He says it was an awful headache and constant dizziness the whole time. He finally fell asleep and woke up completely fine.

Why do edibles make your body shake violently and uncontrollably???

Edibles don’t do this, per se, any more than bongs are more dangerous than joints. It’s simply a matter of dosage, and most edibles are made way too strong for most people. That’s why I teach people to make their own and control the dosage.

Wow, that sounds like you just described exactly what happened to me last night…. Horrendous isn’t it?

I ended up hugging my dog and watching the flames in the open fire to remind myself that everything changes, including my state of mind and therefore telling myself this would pass… Lol, sounds pretty funny now but it definitely was pretty dam far from funny at the time!

Little tip for anyone this happens to – focus on your breathing. Focus so totally on it that all you are aware of is the sensation of air passing in and out of your nose, keeping the pace slow and steady – this technique coupled with the knowledge that its basically impossible to do any serious long term physical damage to yourself by eating weed basically got me thru!

Worryingly I’m no newbie… Daily toker for 10 years and had plenty of experience… I just can’t imagine what this would have been like if I was a first timer – I’d have been sure I had permanently lost my mind.

Worked a lot of concerts w/Rock Medicine in Nor Cal, we had a lot of patients who had different symptoms after consuming edibles. Make them a peanut butter & jelly sandwich and give em water. It works. If it didn’t we would send them home w/person they were with and advise a Warm shower. Worked as cardiac sonographer and the cardio docs would get called to ER and a lot of peeps present w/heart palpitations, tachycardia (heart beats 2 fast)…a lot of edibles will cause this. The docs laugh about it, when I wanted to tell them HOW to treat em, lol, but they would use Drugs to reduce heart rate and anxiety…its a whole new spectrum when u have access to edibles.

Hahaha I just woke up from a similar experience, only I was playing a space game in virtual reality and 100% believed it was real and that I was going to die lost and alone. Once I focused hard enough to realize I could take off the vr headset, I watched penny dreadful to try and stabilize my concept of how much time was passing, but got horrible cotton mouth and went upstairs to get water… Then all of a sudden demons were trying to get in through all of the windows of my empty apartment and I was convinced I was possessed for the next 15 minutes, shaking and clawing at my bedsheets to try and make it all stop. I remember my first time experiencing an ‘overdose’ where people’s shoes were elephants trying to eat me, and I thought I’d permanently lost my mind and would never be the same so I sat there crying believing I’d ruined my life- but if you’re reading this thread while freaking out, just remember that you’re not stuck this way! If anything try to enjoy it; it’s sort of a fascinating experience and probably the closest most of us will get to feeling like we’ve been sprayed with Scarecrow’s toxin haha. It would almost be fun if it weren’t for the violent spinning and moments of sheer terror. PS I smoke every evening and 2/3 of a 30mg caramel edible took about 2 hours from having fun to hiding under my bed not knowing the difference between reality and my imagination.

Think about Tommy Chong’s voice saying this: “That’s a real trip, man!” Glad you have a good perspective on it! It’s amazing how many people boast about taking 300 mg at once (which is generally BS), when clearly there are lots of people out there who have this kind of reaction on just 15 to 25 mg of THC. Stay safe, nugs and hugs!

New user here,
I’m 55, and have smoked weed maybe five times since I left high school. I drink 2 beers a week. I have CKD and am bipolar, and am trying to reduce the meds I rely on for my kidney inflammation and the anxiety that defines my bipolar experience. So I made 7 cups of canna oil last night. Had dinner around 7, and decarbed and started the greens in the crock pot. Had a 22 ounce 10.9 ABV craft Root Beer. Fell asleep woke up at 3:40. Oil was done, maybe A little too done. I straining and separating he coconut oil and solids and spilled a little. No sense wasting it right? Soaked it up on two pieces of bread. Too much. TOOOOOOO MUUUUUCH! I had to get up and pee twice, could barely walk. And, at around 9:30 a.m. I puked so hard I blasted last night’s diner. Hell maybe last WEEKS dinner too. After that, I felt fantastic. At noon I was still walking unsteady on my pins. At 2:00, I was still floaty. I figure there was prolly 3-5 teaspoons of oil in that bread. I’m coming down on the dose. Gonna try one 1/2 teaspoon tonight.

I had a very bad expereince last night. I had ate a half a bar of white chocolate edible with a high dose of THC. Yes it smelled strong and tasted even stonger. I had been eating it a little each day and was fine; but then decided to eat the rest of the bar (which was about half). I felt like I was dying; my heart was beating so fast, I kept drinking water; bue felt extreme thirst. I then was sitting on the toilet many a times. I then wanted to throw up – my stomach would not release the contents of the bar via mouth. I was highly paranoid. It was the most horrible expereince. Never again. I wish the guy would have warned me. I flet like I was X; but with a little more control. It was awful.

Old Hippie – I have a bunch of BHO, and I was wondering about making an edible with.

In the past, I’ve had great success making firecrackers. Then, I got the idea to put about 8 ounces of nutella in a glass jar, heat it up, then an eighth ounce of finely ground bud and cook it at 275 for 30 minutes. Then, I’d eat a tiny spoonful, and it’d work marvelously for hours!

I wonder, now that I have a ton of BHO on hand, can I do the same with BHO? ..Can I cook a gram or two of BHO in nutella the same way I did with flowers?

Any other advice on making edibles with BHO?

Well, yes, but BHO has to be decarboxylated just like buds do. And don’t forget that BHO is generally at least 75% THC by weight so it is much more powerful. So be careful of your dosing! One gram of BHO is probably around the same THC content as an eighth ounce of bud, so that could be a convenient way to substitute. Nugs and dabs and hugs!

I have friends who smoke a lot so they have a high tolerance. Whenever I make edibles for them, it has to be high potency. Seriously, licking the spoon is enough for me! I remember making brownies once, I ate half a square and within half an hour was in the stratosphere. I was just WAY too high. And I kept getting higher and higher. It was uncomfortable, everything was a blur and my head was pounding. I was high for almost 2 days, the “trip” halted after about 18 hours. I didn’t feel nauseous but I just lost control of myself and I couldn’t think or focus at all. I had to stay in bed because I just wanted to come down. The next day I was just stoned and tweaking every now and then. A weekend wasted.

Now I am more careful with edibles. But I seriously think that the FDA should regulate it- it is very easy for people to consume too many edibles especially if they are new to it.

I can testify to what your calling Green Out ,not seeing it mentioned on any other site. Went to A Rascal Flatts concert last weekend and ate a oatmeal cookie that i had made that was a lot larger than the others. and i had said to myself that is too much but did it anyway.Also i have a strong tolerance. Now i have to stand alot during shows so i was up on the side behind the last row of seats cause they were takin. Half way through the show and (they were pretty good the band} they stopped the show cause something was goin on down front but you couldn’t quite tell and it was starting to take a long time. Next thing i know i was on the ground and there is a pretty girl in my face askin if im alright wakin me ,it was like i did nitreous oxide. I said yeah im fine and stood up, a minute later it happened again this time she woke me up and said i had to get in a seat. And by now they are calling for security, they took me down the steps put me in a wheelchair and when we got outside i got up and told them i was fine the lead security guy asked if i wanted medical i said no i wanna see the rest of the show. We went to the bathroom to look at my face and try to wipe it it wasn’t bleeding it was like road or rug rash scratches on my face around one eye and shoulder. He let me go back in but i had to stay down stairs. I was fine after that. two giant headrushes that and i splated the ground that luckily wasnt concrete or the edge of anything.

I’ve read that a gram or two of Vitamin C can help bring you back a bit faster when you’ve had too much herb.

I have never tried edible pot candy. My husband got some from Colorado and thought it would be fun to try it together. So yesterday I had 2 gummy candies. 1/2 hour later I was having full body involuntary movements. I thought I was having a stroke, seizure, or going to die. We waited 2 hours and then went into the ER. I was horrified and embarrassed. They gave me Ativan and it stopped the muscle spasms/ involuntary movements. Never, ever again will I try marijuana.

I’m a bit surprised at this. Weren’t you advised not to use two at once and that the recommended dosage for new users was 5 mg? That’s what I’ve been told is the situation in Colorado. What was the marked dosage on the candies?

There was a packaging and dosing issue in states like Colorado where I live with edibles. In the first several years after MMJ was legalized, manufacturers were free to sell packaged cookies, chocolate and other sweet confections including soft drinks with little regulation.

So you could have an average sized cookie with 100 mg of THC. A lot of people would read the label instructions to break into 6 pieces for example, but there were no dividing lines on it. So, people would eat a small piece, wait a half hour, then eat the REST of the cookie. Two hours later they were curled up into a ball with their heart pounding in their ears begging to get back to normal consciousness.

So it took a few years for Colorado to change the regulations for edible makers to package and dose their products differently. Still you have to be careful and follow the label directions closely. For instance, the Cheeba Chew is a very popular product which is packaged in “quad dose” 70mg size. It’s about the same size as a “fun size” candy bar, probably less than one ounce. So it’s natural for people just to pop the whole thing in their mouth. I at a 70mg quad dose at one time and that was an 8 hour ordeal! No vomiting or ER visit, but it is a feeling I’ll never forget and don’t want to repeat!

It would be safer for edibles to be packaged in individual serving sizes, if not, they should be easily divided into accurately sized doses (as with a scored chocolate bar). Otherwise, you will have more people going into “tripping balls” mode, or worse yet having to make an ER visit.

I became distrustful of prepackaged cannabis edibles and now make my own. In addition you can make them for several times cheaper than what they’re being sold for at retail and MMJ stores. There have been several news stories about how MOST MMJ edibles do not accurately reflect the amount of THC claimed on the labels.

I used to smoke more, but I haven’t in a year or so. Last night a friend gave me a Kiva bar – one of the single square pieces. It says 15mg on it, which all my insane friends swore i’d “probably not even feel anything”. i noted the package says specifically not to eat the whole thing at once, for the very reason of overdosing. But still hearing my friends voices in my head, I just ate all 15 mg. It took about an hour and then it hit me. I tried journaling (i used to journal a lot when i was high) but my writing sounds like it was literally written by a psychotic person. I didn’t panic or anything like i usually do with an excessive dose because i was alone and knew i could go to sleep if it got too much. Needless to say, what’s “nothing” to a seasoned smoker is NOT nothing to a tiny woman with no tolerance!!! today, more than 12 hours after consumption, i STILL feel sleepy and a little ‘off’!

Luckily, “overdosing” on cannabis generally only means you’re gonna have a bad time…but it literally can’t kill you! Nugs and hugs!

I’m a disabled veteran with PTSD and Bipolar 1. I just recently moved to Washington to be near a better VA hospital and to try marijuana, as none of the pills they gave me in the past have helped. I’ve only smoked a couple of times since I have been here, waiting on my gaming computer parts to get here so I can build my system, smoke, and play.

I have a 13%CBD/15%THCA strain that I tried and one hit off a bowl got me decently stoned for about an hour. I have a 7%THC/12%CBD strain also I will try. I get paranoid easily and wanted to know dosages before I start smoking. I will be starting easy with it, one or two good bowl hits at a time.

I’ve wanted to try edibles for awhile, due to their efficiency. Should I smoke what I have first, smoke for a few weeks to get used to the high again, then try edibles? I was going to try 2.5mg as a first dose, 1/4th of an edible. I’d rather feel nothing the first few times than have a severe panic attack. From your posts, it seems I should go even lower for my first time, though I considered 2.5 to be a prudent low dose. I’m kind of scared of edibles, from what I have read. I can’t imagine an 8 hour bout of severe paranoia, the idea has made me not even want to try them for a long time.

Any tips or advice? Thanks.

OK, well…if anyone is sensitive to your problem (as well as THC), it’s me. 2.5 milligrams of THC is a very low dose indeed, but there are some people who are affected adversely even at that level. Fortunately, you have taken this as seriously as it deserves, because by moving to a totally legal state, you have options that many people don’t, and you’ve already seized upon the one factor that can make all the difference, and that is CBD.

CBD has the wonderful property of calming anxiety without making you feel “doped up”, and should still continue to help you feel more equanimity when you’re on the “down” side of bipolar. Since you’re talking about easily going into a bout of paranoia, you actually should concentrate on much higher ratios of CBD to THC, because THC (and the kind of terpenes usually found in sativas) is what will cause paranoia in higher doses. And you don’t want to get near those doses, but by massively overloading the ratio with CBD, you will stop it from happening. I recommend 4:1 minimum, and 8:1 if you can find it (there are definitely strains like that available almost anywhere legal cannabis is sold).

Felicity and I once got hold of some 15:1 strain, and we not only never felt paranoia, but we couldn’t even get high on the stuff! But it definitely helped us stay calm.

So please find yourself some really high CBD bud and experiment. Once you get something that works, I urge you to sit down with our Canna Caps article and the one that tells you how to calculate dosages, and you can learn to make your own capsules. You can take pretty wild doses of CBD with no side effects, even munchies, but make sure you know how much THC you’re getting!

The other thing I’d really like you to look into is microdosing. Please check out these articles (and write back if you have other questions), because (a) microdosing is often more effective and practical for daily use with mental or emotional conditions than full psychoactive doses and (b) virtually all problems with THC can be stopped by just using less! Even a bowl hit is more than what I’m talking about here, but experiment slowly.

If you keep all that in mind, you will not have a problem with edibles. Nugs and hugs!

Just want to share my experience.
I wish I had seen this before my first edible as well!
I don’t smoke often at all, sometimes I’ll take some small hits off of my boyfriends pipe on nights I drink. I hate the idea of damaging my throat or lungs from the heat/smoke, so I thought an edible would be perfect. I could still experience the high without worrying about damaging anything. Well, my boyfriend got cookies and when I opened them the first thing I noticed was that they reeked. Since I don’t smoke much at all really, I’m not a fan of the smell, and thought they tasted awful, so I guess that should have been my first hint that they were strong. I ate half of one cookie, on an empty stomach which I’m sure didn’t help things, and started feeling it a bit after a few minutes. My tongue was also super tingly right after I ate it. At first I was having a good time, but after about an hour it got really scary. It felt like my brain couldn’t keep track of the order things were happening in. I think that was the scariest part. It was like the events of my day kept switching order so that at one moment that thing I did an hour ago just happened, and then what I just did happened hours ago. I had no idea how much time was passing, if it was minutes, hours, or days.
My body was basically completely numb, any feeling I had was very dull and there was a delay to everything I could feel. I felt border-line comatose. I felt like nothing was real, like I wasn’t really there, like I was dreaming. Like most people I just kept saying that I didn’t like it that I wanted it to stop. My boyfriend had to keep reminding me that this was only because I ate an edible, that it would pass. My mouth was so insanely dry as well, it was honestly like a nightmare, like I was dreaming and couldn’t wake up. At one point I felt like I was watching myself on a TV.
The biggest thing in my OD was that nothing felt real, I couldn’t feel anything, everything I saw and heard made it feel like I was under water. I just kept saying that I felt like I wasn’t really there, I think I said that to my boyfriend every few minutes.
This is the third day since I ate the edible and I still feel a bit off.
I wish more people talked about this! My boyfriend has never ODed and his friends who have been doing it a lot longer than him didn’t say anything about that possibility. I guess they didn’t want me to be scared off, I just wish I had the whole story before trying it.. I would have been way more cautious. I don’t do a lot of drugs, they still make me a bit nervous, so this experience really freaked me out. It helps a lot to know it wasn’t just me!

i kinda have built a tolerance for weed and last night i ate half of a 63.12 mg jolly rancher but all it did was give me a slight buzz. Do you think itd be too much if i ate a whole one?

The problem with all these edibles that are made from liquid which hardens is that there’s no telling if the half you ate had actually “half the THC” or just happened to be the “light” half. So, if you actually got 31.56 mg of THC from that half, taking a whole one is unlikely to be an uncomfortable experience, since half didn’t do much. But since there’s no way to know that, you’re taking a crap shoot, although one with some evidence at least.

I rented a house on vacation and used what I thought was olive oil in the carrots I grilled on the bbq. About 1 1/5 later I went into convulsion, racing heart beat, loss of speech, severe dry mouth. Not knowing what was happening, I thought I was having a stroke and went to the ER. The hospital staff thought I was lying and I my friend had to call 911 within the ER to get help. Even the EMT kept saying “tell us how much weed you smoked” and I did not know what they were talking about. Anyway, they gave me a urine test which came out positive for cannibus and discharged me in that condition. What I thought was olive oil must have been cannibus oil or hemp oil. Anyway, that happened last week, exactly 8 days ago. My head still feels funny. I wanted to know how long this strange feeling will last. I do not smoke or eat marijuana, and I had no idea marijana could do that to someone

Wow, I am so sorry to hear that story. I hope none of our readers would be so careless or negligent as to leave unmarked infused oil out where someone else could get hold of it like that! You obviously got a very high dosage by mistake and no fault of your own, and it must have been very frightening when you didn’t know what was going on. I can assure you that this is not a normal occurrence! It was an overdose to be sure, but luckily it was cannabis, for which there is no such thing as a fatal overdose.

It is common to have a “strange feeling” in your head for a week or two after an incident like this one, because your body absorbed a lot of THC at once and the metabolites are stored in your body. You might want to think about doing some light exercise (assuming you’re in good health etc) and drink plenty of water. The exercise will help burn off some fat cells and get rid of it faster, but it also may cause you to temporarily feel high for a few hours as the metabolites circulate in your body again, so try to time your workouts for “after work” and when you don’t have to drive or anything like that. Drinking coffee or tea should help clear your head a bit too.

Edibles are not to be messed i have recently found out over the weekend! I smoke around three-four times a week and they are relatively strong joints and i have no trouble dealing with the high but after taking half a hash brownie on saturday night i was in for the worst experience of my life ,ever!! I had forgotten i had eaten to be fair cause it didnt kick in till around two hours later. I felt good initially talking shit, and laughing around then it just got more intense and more intense and i kept needing something to distract me to take my mind of the fact i was losing my complete shit!
I started shaking, my chest got tighter, i couldn’t breath, i had to keep going to the bathroom on my own to compose myself didnt work! haha the noise of the tv was annoying me and making me feel more worse, i had to go outside to try and walk around didnt help it was horrible! the feeling of not knowing how to breath was the worst i said to the guy i was with i need to be alone i sat downstairs in his lounge lying on the floor thinking these were my last moments i genuinely thought i was gonna die the feeling is absolutely horrific i kept getting worse and worse the panic attacks over and over and over again, he kept finding me in different rooms of the house lying down in a feral position saying i may need to call the ambulance i didnt know how to get through it it was horrible and I’ve dealt with panic attacks before. My mouth was so dry, i heard voices i kept hearing other noises when i lied down i managed to listen to the sound of my heartbeat and realised it wasn’t beating fast which made it better for me then to calm down but every time i drifted off i heard loud footsteps coming towards me a door slamming and then i jolted up again but noone was walking towards and everyone was in bed! the next day, i still felt fucking high my chest was so sore from me tensing it all night from not breathing properly! ugh worst experience never touching again and I’m gonna stick to smoking it!

horrible horrible horrible

Tried my first edible in late-October of this year. It was a 250mg (indica) brownie from the Venice Cookie Company. I ate about a quarter of it and it kicked in about a half hour later out of nowhere. This was the most frightening but fun moment because I consumed it on a whim; never smoked/ingested marijuana in my life. It literally crept up on me. The high was relaxing but what I found frustrating was how slow I felt everything was going, and how big I thought everything was. It didn’t help that my hearing somewhat diminished because I felt I could only hear my own breathing. I went to lay down and I’m not joking when I say that I forgot how to get up. I began to somewhat panic because I had to use the restroom. Looked over at the clock and thought that it would subside within the hour…WRONG! I felt somewhat normal 4 hours later, but sleepy as hell for the rest of the night. Didn’t get up until noon the next day–13 1/2 hours of sleep, thankfully it was my day off. About a month ago, on a Saturday, I and a few friends tried a 1000mg (sativa) brownie from another distributor. We all ate the same amount because the brownie was quite big and we divided it by 4. Now, before I continue with my story, I want to make it very clear that NOBODY, not even my friends, had explained to me that one is supposed to build a tolerance for THC. It was a mistake on my part! Anyway, the high kicked in immediately for my friends but they all just became happy and moderately hyper. What confused me though was that the high kicked in for me immediately after I’d taken a few bites of a breakfast burrito. Again, it crept up and I was happy and moderately hyper. I went to lay on the floor and let the high run its course–it was enjoyable for about 45 minutes. During that time, my mouth got really, really dry and I got pissed that I couldn’t moisten the inside no matter how hard I tried. And the one time I did manage to moisten it, it dried up really quick! I even felt ticklish and thought that I weighed a ton because I couldn’t pick myself up. What really turned it into a bad experience occurred when my friend knocked over a fan and shattered a glass cup. I wasn’t scared by it at all, but my heart started to race, and I think I let it happen for a good two minutes before the high started to freak me out. All I remember was managing to pick myself up and demanding that someone call 911 because I felt I was having a heart attack. That was in the living room. Next thing I know, I’m in my bedroom surrounded by my friends who are now concerned and telling me to calm down. And then I ended up on the lawn and feeling water being sprayed on me. I couldn’t even open my eyes, and I was shaking very badly and apparently doing some strange movement with my arms. The feelings were different, too. Before the water, I felt as if I was in front of an industrial fan blowing air on me. After the water, my whole body had that sensation one feels when they’ve fallen asleep on their arm. I don’t even recall when the paramedics came or how I was able to get into the ambulance. Everything was a complete daze, and, again, I couldn’t keep my eyes open for more than a second. Apparently I had 2 seizures and vomited, but I do not remember this. And I was even more shocked to learn that I had been in the emergency room for a good 8 hours. I was brought in with a temperature of 40.7 before it rose to 96.8, and my vitals weren’t good because I was told the blood pressure I came in with usually preceded a stroke. I was fine when I was waiting for my ride home, but when my sister came to pick me up I blacked out again and only recall the ride home in snippets. The rest of the night, I couldn’t even move without feeling exhausted as if my muscles didn’t want to cooperate. Potheads (I do not mean that in a rude way), I don’t know how you all do it! I’m reading this comment thread and feel embarrassed that I might have been one of the rare exceptions who couldn’t handle the weed. I loved the feeling of the 250mg (indica) edible that I tried before the 1000mg (sativa) edible, but I don’t even want to experiment with finding the right dose for me because that experience was something else. Who knows? I might come back to it a few months or years down the road. However, right now, I am mentally recovering from the incident.

I had a pot overdose where I seriously forgot how to breathe. I had to have my spouse coach me in how to breathe and stop my panic attack as the world was going back and forth between black and snippets of my environment.

One has to know their limits. And what they can and cannot do. I totally forgot this last time that edible highs sneak up on a person. In the last situation I had- I should have just stuck to a quarter of this small cookie.

Totally happened to me last night. I had too large a piece of Cheeba Chew and I blacked out.
After my GF screamed and woke me up I puked up dinner. It’s was totally from OD.

Never again.

I never want to eat another edible again. I got incredibly sick yesterday off of a cookie. I vomited and dry heaved for hours, hugging a toilet. I couldn’t move or even open my eyes without feeling like the world was spinning. Which just made me want to vomit more. I’d say it took me about six-seven hours before I was out of the woods. And till after 11pm to feel 98% normal. All from one little cookie. Today my chest and forehead feel bruised from where they were pressing on the toilet. And I still feel wiped out. Has this second day wiped out feeling happened to others too? I just want to feel better.

Wow, I’m sorry to hear that. Yes, you often feel drained or foggy-headed after overdoing it. I’m guessing that wasn’t a 10 mg Colorado cookie either. The good news is that you “overdosed” on cannabis, so you only had a very uncomfortable time instead of being dead.

Glad I found this! My husbands buddy is selling homemade chocolate bars and he thought I should try it. I’ve smoked three times and each time I thought I was dying. Paranoia, thought everything was a dream and that I was floating while my body was still on the couch and I was watching myself, hyperventilating and just basically freaking the hell out. Anyways, they thought it would be a good idea for me to try this instead. Glad I looked into it. Babe handed me three squares but I’m a chicken and ate only half of one square. I can smell and taste the thc in it (gross) but he says Im just messing with myself. Will post what happens. I told him if nothing by like 11:45 I’ll finish the square.

My daughter ate a edible brownie for the 1st time on February 17th of course she was violently ill rocking back and forth crying acting strange, i took her to the hospital because I didn’t know what was wrong. She finally told me she had a brownie today is now March 6th and she just told me she doesn’t feel the same and something feels very wrong, can someone explain what is happening I’m definitely taking her to the doctor for a blood test I just can’t believe 1 brownie could do all of this.

There’s a lot of information missing here. How old is your daughter, first of all…6, 16, 26? Also…it’s kind of hard to follow the way you wrote it, but it sounds like you’re trying to say that this is one single incident that happened on Feb. 17 but you didn’t find out what actually happened until March 6.

So assuming for a moment that is the case, “she doesn’t feel the same and something feels very wrong” still doesn’t tell me a whole lot, because it’s not specific. Unless she’s used cannabis again, it’s definitely been out of her bloodstream for weeks, although a THC metabolite test would confirm that she did ingest THC, but you already knew that.

TL,DR: if your child “feels something very wrong” in her body, don’t ask a hippie online. Take her to the doctor or ER and make sure she’s OK. This likely has NOTHING to do with a brownie she ate 3 weeks ago.

I have to say, after the experience I shared here a while back it took me weeks to feel normal again. The first time I ‘overdosed’ I was also vomiting and shaking so hard that people thought I was seizing up. I felt very foggy for at least a week or two after, and it took a good 5-6 weeks to get past the experience (which I’m assuming kicked up a bit of ptsd after the horrible places my mind went during the experience). I was already a slightly anxious person so a few panic attacks also followed the ordeal…

I definitely agree that if she feels physically ‘wrong’ she should seek medical treatment. I am NOT a doctor, but from experience with myself and others we definitely felt mentally ‘off’ for long enough after the experience that we thought we had permanently messed ourselves up from eating too much thc and swore we’d never touch the stuff again. It might also be a good idea for her to seek some sort of counseling/therapy since this experience might have brought some buried feelings/emotions to the surface- which imo is the beauty of this plant when used responsibly!

Good luck and I hope she feels better 🙂

Thank you so much and yes you have assumed correct she’s 17 and yes it was her first time and I am taking her to the doctor I don’t know anything about this and was trying to figure out if her reaction is normal. Again thank you for the information

I hope she will be OK! I was quite concerned when you said “something feels very wrong” after 3 weeks. Her reaction at the time certainly sounded normal and quite typical for someone taking way too much their first time. That can be a very disturbing feeling, even if you know what it feels like “normally”. Some people will feel “foggy” in their head for a few days to a week, and I’ve heard of people feeling “off” for longer than that, but any kind of permanent damage is highly unlikely.

Also please see Lee Dee’s comment…sounds like she’s been there herself too! (just guessing at gender here, apologies if wrong)

I accidentally ingested marijuana infused oil and felt just like your daughter and thought I was having a stroke. (I’m much older than your daughter.) Being someone who does not smoke or ingest marijuana at al,l it took me about 5-6 weeks to feel normal again and because I am on the anxious side, I feel like my “normal” now tends to be a little bit more on the anxious side then before, since my body knows what it feels like to have a massive panic attack,which I’m assuming is what happened in my case.

Glad I found this forum. I have never used marijuana in any form…but with chronic pain from injuries, my doctor suggested edible marijuana. I have put it off for a few years until I found a friend who made some “gummies” and has had experience with using the low doses for relaxation. So, my adventure started at 10:15 AM with 1/2 a dose….I was instructed to see how that affected me in an hour & a half….Nothing…no effect at all. So a second half was suggested…which I took 1 1/ 2 hours after the first half and after another hour & a half still NO effect! So it was suggested I take another half dose (three hours after first dose)…NOTHING UNTIL 2 PM and I never felt so bad in my life! Chilled, shakes, could not move without nausea, dizzy, vomited my guts out and was sick for 3 hours…I almost had my wife call 911…

I focused on my deep breathing to feel better…and I could feel half normal at 5:30 pm. Sound like overdose without the “High” and no pain relief…

Other people ate same gummies and it just “relaxed them…but they have use M before…

Unfortunately, I understand this all too well. Ten years ago I might have suggested the same thing, because it seems to make sense and even be cautious. But in the ensuing decade Felicity and I have personally had thousands of edible experiences, and interacted with literally thousands of other people, and learned just how long some people’s digestive systems take to process this stuff. So sorry to hear that you had such a bad time!

Thanks for the fast reply. I will try again, when I know I can have the time to be more patient…do the initial dose and no more…maybe wait 4-5 hours? I am trying to reduce use of high powered “pills”…for my pain. Everyone I have talked to has had good results with edibles…so I do not want to give up…

The safest way is to wait 4 hours and see what happens, yes. We’ve never personally encountered a delay longer than that. The trick is that if you feel absolutely nothing after 4 hours, double the dose next time and try again. Once you feel anything, you know it’s working, and you can adjust your dose proportionally from then on. Unfortunately, with homemade edibles, you rarely have an idea how strong they actually are, but at least this way you can find a good balance with what you have. Be patient and you can avoid bad experiences. Nugs and hugs!

Thanks again. Your suggestion will be my plan…next time I can try it.
I’ll post progress as I can.

Umm. So yeah i fucked up LOL. Smoked weed twice. and it was a great feeling. I felt good numb and i was very happy and giggly. so i just got my friend yesterday and we planned to come back home and try an edible lollipop. Well i had 2 and so i broke one and gave half to my brother and half to my friend and i had a whole one.
I’m a 15 year old female.
There was ’40 THC” In each lollipop..After like 25 minutes i fucking passed out. Friend said i got up and starred at the wall for a minute. Fast forward- it’s 9pm and i ate the edible yesterday at 2pm.
I feel numb and weird. I can feel but not much. Eating was strange, scratching felt soooo weird. Really weird. I’m just worried, it WILL go away? Right? Because my friend said the highest amount of “THC” he’s ever had in his system was 80, twice as much as i had. I might just be really scared and my anxiety is making things worse, plus i know now that edible aren’t really good for new comers to smoking weed//eating edibles. Also know that it’ll take a while to go thru me, earlier this morning i went to piss like 3 times every 15 – 20 minutes. Very weird feeling because i was still feeling like time was delayed.
Just someone tell me i’ll be ok 😉
and don’t tell me i should stop now because i’ll become addicted. i’m never gonna take edibles ever again. Weed tho, I will smoke that once or twice a month if i really need to, to calm myself from anxiety and or stress. Thanks.

Who would say you’d get “addicted”, other than Jeff Sessions or some other ancient reefer madness lunatic? Anyway, there’s nothing wrong with edibles at all. You just have to know your limits and sensitivity, and that’s what this site is all about…teaching people about it!

There was a clear number 40 on your lollipop, but you didn’t know what it meant (40 milligrams of THC), or that it was four times greater than the maximum dosage allowed in Colorado for recreational edibles, and probably 8 times what you would need to actually get high. Hell, I take edibles every day and that’s 8 times more than I need to get high.

But yes, you’ll be okay. In probably another day or so (maybe a week at worst), you’ll stop feeling fuzzy headed and weird. It’s not the edible…it’s the dosage! How was your brother and friend, by the way?

And yes, if you smoke way too much, you can easily outdo 40 milligrams of THC. If someone offers you a bong hit, a dab, or a waterfall/gravity contraption, do NOT take them up on it because you will get lots more than that in one toke.

I understand how she feels, and how she felt!….I believe I had a few days of lingering ill effects after my first attempt at edibles for pain relief…it is still hard to try again, even the with better guidance received from this forum! But I am NOT 15 years old!

Oh, I get it too. Just read some of those links in the article!

But since then, I realized that “It’s not the edible…it’s the dosage!” Felicity and I take our homemade Canna Caps every day with never any sudden “ill effects”, just like any other medicine. That’s just another reason we want to see cannabis legal everywhere…when things are legal and labeled clearly, everyone will know what they’re doing and accidental “overdoses” will be a thing of the past.

I have been smoking for 30 plus years consistently. I made edibles twice. The first time was with butter and I made brownies. I did not feel any effects of euphoria at all, however, the next day or two, I felt like I was having a heart attack. I was nervous and it went away after a day or two. The second time was this past week on Tuesday. I decided to take about an ounce of shake and buds and slow cook in the crock pot for 4 hours. I then strained the leaves and had my oil. I made the brownies according to the recipe on the box. My friend and I ate the whole tray that night and really didn’t feel anything trippy or euphoric. We were also smoking, so who knows. I eventually I went to sleep. The next day my friend felt like it was hard to breathe and had a bad day. As for me, I feel like I am having a heart attack again. Everytime, I exert myself, I am winded and my heart rate is bulging out of my neck. So, if I ate them last Tuesday and it is Sunday and I am still having this problem, it is safe to say that I am very nervous. My hope is that this will pass or I will be heading to the ER. Eitherway, I will never ingest an edible again. I will however, continue to smoke. It works for me. Thanks for this thread.

Gee, I don’t know what to say (other than “Good thing this was weed and not some other drug, because the usual dose is one brownie and not half a tray”). The THC is essentially gone from your bloodstream after 24 hours, even in such a huge dose. It’s possible that you and your friend were actually reacting to some pesticide in the weed, because that’s the first thing I can think of that gives those kinds of physical reactions (also it sounds like you didn’t get high either time, so it doesn’t sound anything like THC). I would take some activated charcoal capsules to absorb whatever may still be floating around (read the directions, may cause gastric distress). And if you have actual chest pains, you should go to the ER. Be safe!

Thanks for the advice. I will go to checkout the charcoal capsules. The weed (AK-47 / Amnesia Haze) was flushed at the end of flower but not as long as it should have been and it was only harvested for a week or so before we made the brownies, so that is a good point that it may have lingering nutrients that I ingested… My symptoms have subsided a bit, but I am still getting high blood pressure symptoms and getting winded and tightening in chest and jaw when I exert myself. The only reason I haven’t gone to the ER yet is because, I am hopeful this will pass due to my past experience(s). However, If not by tomorrow, I will head over there. Thank you for your advice. I will let you know the ultimate outcome.

This weekend I had one of the worst experiences of my life, from a Venice Cookie Company THC Brownie.

I ate approximately (although it is nearly impossible to tell) the recommended dosage of a medicinal THC brownie – about 5 mg, which was in a 1/2″ square. PS – who the fuck makes a brownie that needs to be cut up into 60 pieces?

Anyway, I had the worst THC trip imaginable. I was stuck in a terrifying black hole, dissociated from reality, literally clawing my way to try and “get back,” even though I was surrounded by friends. I was physically shaking, and then I went into an infantile state where I was rocking my body back and forth (something I literally never do in real life) to calm myself. I looked like one of those junkies you see at the park, and feel sorry for.

This lasted for 2 hours straight, and even 24 hours later, I was still high. Its been about 36 hours since I took the edible, and I actually STILL feel high, although not with the paranoia.

So…what the heck? What happened here? I didn’t take a huge dose. I am NOT a seasoned pot-smoker or drug user, but I can’t believe I had such a crazy, horrible experience.

Ouch! Sorry to hear about your frightening trip. You experienced exactly the same thing (and for the same reason) as my infamous coffee cake trip. It’s very simple…baked goods cannot be reliably divided, because they’re subject to batter flow and all sorts of random stuff like that…and most brownies — even the ones sold at dispensaries — are inconsistent or overdosed.

We’ve found that chocolate bars from major manufacturers like Kiva or Bhang to be extremely reliable and “splittable”, however.

I had an edible brownie for the first time yesterday and I’m wondering if anyone can tell me if this is a normal reaction. Took almost two hours to kick in so I didn’t think it worked initially. Then everything tasted like soap and it felt like smoke in my lungs. My foot started twitching and my phone warped like a fun house mirror. There was a warm sensation and it would spread to different body parts like my brain, ears, nose and shoulders. It felt like I was getting the best scalp massage ever but then I started losing certain motor functions. My eyes were blinking furiously back and forth and started rolling up or going cross eyes. I kept trying to see but I realized my lids kept involuntarily closing. At one point my left eye was closed and my right looked like it was being held open with something it was so big. The scalp massage started to tingle so I kept jerking my head in whatever direction it tingled like a tic. When I tried to talk I knew what I wanted to say but I couldn’t either make the right word come out or it would come out in the wrong order. My jaw would tense or slack and I would either repeat the wrong word over and over again until I said it right or giggled like an idiot. Occasionally getting so frustrated that I would lightly hit myself repeatedly on the forehead. My feet, legs and shoulders would also twitch/spasm. Honestly It felt like being trapped in the body of someone with Tourettes or some similar conditions, which is weird since people say it can help conditions like that. The tingling/twitching/spasms stopped after about 7 hours but it been about 24 hours since ingesting and everything seems kind of clouding. Like I’m just floating. And my eyes still occasionally go cross eyed. I can focus is short bursts but it’s taken me about a half an hour to write this so…yeah? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

That sounds like it was some insane brownie!

The aftermath sounds a lot more familiar than the sensations you’re talking about regarding the original dose itself. The part about tasting like soap and the other physical stuff…wow. That I never heard of from cannabis. This really sounds weird.

Did someone make this one in their kitchen or was this possibly something from a dispensary? And if the latter, do you know what the dosage was?

It was made in the kitchen, not sure of the dosage. A few family members also had some and none had a reaction like I did. But I’m the only one that has never tried it of any sort before. I was high for a good two and a half days from the time of ingestion. I’m getting a little nervous because my full depth perception hasn’t returned yet. I’m wondering if I injured my eyes with all of the uncontrollable spasming, fluttering and eye rolling/crossing. I don’t feel any other lingering effects though.

Two and a half days, wow!

Just to give you an idea how much you must have been overdosed, that’s more than twice as long as the semi-legendary Ganja Goo Balls Incident or any LSD trips I ever took (including the infamous Orange Sunshine Massacree).

I’m pretty sure your eye muscles are just strained a bit from all the drama and all will return to normal soon too. Sorry you had to go through that! But if you were going to take an insanely high dose of anything, you certainly were smart to pick one of the few substances that’s not life-threatening in that case…even things like caffeine and water have killed people!

I am grateful to Old Hippie, the advice and this forum. So, I am about to try again…after my first bad experience with edibles which I noted here before…

One “side effect”, I did not report before, that I expect was caused by the “gummy overdose” was that I could not even think about having even an alcoholic drink for about 3-4 weeks…and I only would have a sociable martini or something similar 1-2x a week. Only now can I tolerate a glass of wine…so of course I did not try any edible M either…

The amount of pain is making me desperate and my MD and psychologist both recommend medical use of marijuana. I would really enjoy having a night’s sleep without pain…so…

Tonight I will try, as recommended, 3 drops of the oil given to me by a licensed provider of medical product (I do not know the specifics, but will report later), but I have a friend who takes an eye dropper full of the same solution, about 1/2 ml (10 drops) at night before bed…and his pain is largely taken care of, and sleeps well without any side effects or “perceivable, uncomfortable “high”…I do not even know what a normal “high” would feel like, since I have never used any marijuana before…of any type.

So, I will report back what my experience after…I pray that it can work, so wish me luck…

That sounds like a reasonable start, and should be a lot more consistent than gummies! Suggestion: since it seems to have taken an ungodly long time to affect you last time, try holding it in your mouth (under your tongue) for as long as you consider reasonable (2 to 3 minutes is the goal here) before swallowing. That may allow it to work faster. Best of luck…and nugs and hugs!

I ate a pot Blondie from a small batch that was made with $100 worth of weed and then went to Drag Con in NYC. I had a full on panic attack. I tripped balls so hard I had no idea where I was. At the con we waited in line for 3 hours just to get in the building and when I finally got in I realised I had lost my ticket cause I was high as fuck so I instantly had a panic attack and broke down in front of the ticket desk. Entering the con was insane, I was trippin balls surrounded by thousands of people in various versions of drag and costumes. I literally just spent the entite time walking around confused with a map in my hand and trying to make my way through the insanely large crowd of people. I was alone for the most part and i felt like I was pissing myself the entire time and i was in heels so I didn’t notice the huge blisters on my feet until I got home. I couldn’t form a full sentence for the life of me and I’m pretty sure I made an ass of myself quit a lot while talking to people. The high lasted for like 30 hours after that and i felt like a prisoner in my own body. It was the most insane day of my life and I’m so sad that I didn’t get to fully enjoy Dragcon because I was high off my ass. I don’t think I’ll ever do edibles again.

This past weekend I had the craziest trip of my life. I’ve taken edibles before and I prefer to get high that way because I don’t like having smoke in my lungs, and so I thought it would just be a fun night with friends. We were planning on getting high and watching some weird YouTube videos. Chill night ahead, right? We even walked to the store to grab some snacks for the munchies we knew we’d have later. I got a brownie from my friend who got it from a dispensary, I think the brand is LOL Edibles. He told me to cut the brownie in half and then split the half into thirds with me and my two friends. We thought that was a small dosage. We ate our pieces, walked to the store and got some pizza rolls, and by the time we got back the high hit us. I swear it took us an hour to start the oven and put the pizza rolls in. I had to have my sober friend help me because I could not focus. We tried playing video games but we couldn’t focus. My body felt really heavy and I felt the movements of my tongue happen after I heard the sound from my words come out of my mouth. It was such a strange feeling, like everything was delayed or happening in slow motion. The pizza rolls are finally done. I put a couple on my plate but don’t think I can eat them all because I started feeling dizzy. It took me a good 20 minutes to finish chewing ones my tongue felt like a rock in my mouth which was also extremely dry and hard for me to swallow. Apparently. My sober friend said I sat on the floor with my knee up and my head resting on my hand for a straight hour. I didn’t feel like it was that long, maybe like 10 minutes, but I was feeling extremely dizzy and nauseous. All of a sudden I lift my head and say, “I’m gonna throw up.” My sober friend scrambled to find something for me, and grabs a plastic bag and hands it to my boyfriend (who’s also high out of his mind) to hold for me. But he doesn’t get to me quick enough, I try to stop it with my hand, but it goes everywhere. I then continue to violently vomit into the plastic grocery bag, gasping for air, for I think 10 minutes or so. When I feel a little clearer in the head we move to the bathroom. I sit next to the toilet for a while just calming myself, but I don’t throw up anymore. Then my bf says he’s gonna puke. So we switch places and I’m sitting there rubbing his back while he vomits. But the sound of him doing that grosses me out so much I reach for the trash can and gag. There was nothing left for me to throw up, no bile or anything, just partially digested food, and it scared me so much I thought I was throwing up my intestines. My bf then falls asleep on the floor and I’m sitting there for hours drifting in and out of consciousness until I finally decide to open the door. My sober friend comes and tells us to move to our friends bed, who was currently stationed on the couch in the same position for hours and not moving. It was insane, I felt like my body was sinking halfway into the floor, and I felt like I was getting motion sickness from even the smallest of movements. We took the edibles that night around 8:30 and my sober friend said we all were passed out by 10:30. I was still high for entire next day, even through my shift at work. It was horrible. It turns out there was 300 mg of THC in the brownie, and collectively the three of us ate half of it. Even now two days later I feel weird. Idk if I’ll ever want to do edibles again, but I do know I’ve learned my lesson and now know to actually think about how much I’m taking. It tasted very strong also, that should’ve been my first warning sign.

Daily smoker here, made some cannabutter and then made two batches of cookies. I ate three cookies, plus ate some butter while making said cookies. Girlfriend ate two cookies. I ended up feeling dizzy and nauseous for almost eight hours, felt like the worst drunk from alcohol I have ever had. Almost threw up several times, couldn’t get enough fluid into my body. Dry mouth, dry eyes, shaking, vertigo, you name it, I had it….She also had a tough time, but was able to fall asleep for a bit which helped. These cookies are very strong, maybe only a half cookie needed max. I also sprinkled the batter with kief before baking. Anyone want some cookies? I’ll stick to smoking.

I enjoy edibles. The high is more intense and lasts longer than smoking, particularly with the indica strain. I got cocky and thought I knew all there was to know about edibles. I used to laugh at the warnings about how easy it is to overdose on edibles. I soon discovered how wrong I was.

I took a tolerance break a few weeks ago because it was taking more and more edibles to produce the same high I was used to. After two weeks, I decided enough time had elapsed to reduce my tolerance level. I made brownies and used significant amounts of product. I do this so I don’t have to cook up a new batch so frequently. Before my two week break, I had increased my dosage from one to five one-half-inch squares. I knew about greenies and knew had to be careful, and I settled on half of what I’d been using, two and a half squares. Oh, what a big mistake! The first two hours went along great. It was a fantastic high. I ate dinner, was watching some TV, and in seconds the greenie was on me. I mentioned to my wife–who doesn’t use cannabis–that I was in trouble. She said my face turned chalk-white. Within minutes I was sweating buckets. She said I passed out, but I don’t recall losing consciousness. Without exaggeration, I felt as if some beast had hold of me and wouldn’t let go. She became so alarmed that she wanted to take me to the hospital. I refused because I’d read that the greenie would eventually mellow out and I’d be fine. And that’s exactly what happened.

I swore off edibles for a while but then got cocky again. I thought I’d learned my lesson. I started out slow and used considerably less weed than I used at the peak of my ingestion period. The problem is the tolerance issue. If someone uses frequently, as any serious cannabis user will agree, it just takes more product to achieve the same result. I don’t pretend to be an expert on cannabis, but I understand the tolerance problem has something to do with the cannabis receptors not operating correctly due to frequent ingestion.

A few days ago, my wife left to visit a friend and stayed the night. I decided to party a little. I ate three and a third squares of brownie, thinking that was an okay amount, since my tolerance had risen once more. Again, the high was fantastic for the first two hours and then the greenie was on me so fast that I was shocked at its speed and intensity. I stood up to walk around–an activity I’d read about to relieve greenie symptoms. Huge error! I took about three steps and the next thing I knew I was down on the kitchen floor on my hands and knees bleeding from a gash above my right eye because I smacked my face into the floor. I had lost consciousness but had no recollection I did so. I had no idea about the extent of my injury, so I tried to regain my feet to look in a mirror and evaluate if I needed sutures. I rose to my feet and the next thing I knew I woke up on the floor wondering what happened. I had passed out again. I was very concerned and decided to lay on my back for a while to recover. After about 15-20 minutes, I again tried to stand up and finally succeeded. Long story short, I didn’t need sutures but I have a magnificent shiner that will take a couple of weeks to dissipate.

I really enjoy the effects of cannabis. But now I’m very wary of edibles. My wife is still upset with me–and rightfully so–and I haven’t used in four days and who knows how much longer before I tempt “taming the dragon” again. The problem is that there is a fine line separating a really good high and developing a greenie when using edibles. I know each person’s tolerance level is different, so there are no effective guidelines for consuming edibles other than start slow and wait a few hours before taking more. I also would suggest to anyone experiencing a greenie not to stand and risk falling. Had I remained in my chair–like I did during the first greenie episode–nothing more would have come of the overdose other than discomfort from the greenie itself. One point I’d like to stress. Experiencing a greenie is very sobering–if you’ll pardon the pun–and not to be taken lightly. Despite what some people claim, cannabis is a powerful drug and may cause users some serious injuries if they’re careless or get cocky like I did.

Will I continue to use edibles? At this time, I don’t feel like using anything, but I’ll likely recover and use sometime in the future. But from now on I’ll opt for experiencing a less than satisfactory high rather than tempt fate that may result in another greenie.

Leave a Reply to AZHiker Cancel reply

*