Sometimes you just want the pain to go away. Sometimes you may want to go a bit further and get a little energetic buzz. Sometimes you want to get really s t o n e d. Sometimes where you want to be is somewhere in between these three, but the point is, when utilizing cannabis as medicine you have a choice of how to use your own medicine as is best for you at the time.

Recently on CBS 60 Minutes, there was a story, (Sex Matters), about the recent discovery that pharmaceutical medicines have very different effects on the body depending if you were man or woman. Duh. I couldn’t believe that no one had been researching that all along. It made me furious, and it has forced me to once again reconsider the prescription medicines I hang on to out of fear of what could happen. I certainly didn’t want to go back to the experiences with pain and immobility that I had before I started “using” prescribed pharmaceutical. But I feel compelled to give cannabis a try as more of a cure rather than a supplement that keeps me on minimum doses of medicines I take that have very nasty side effects, like cancer and maybe death. These drugs are poisonous to the human body.

Learn the dosage for your cannabis medicine

Most of the drugs our doctors prescribe should be the last ditch effort, not the first line of defense. It will be quite a while until cannabis is widely prescribed by the “modern” medical establishment, even though it has been used as a go-to by physicians for hundreds of years. But I digress. This post is about personally dosing marijuana, and how easy and practical it is to do.

You’ll see a few people throw around the words “titrate” and “titration”, so be assured we are all basically speaking of the same thing in the case of cannabis. With pharmaceuticals a one-size-fits-all dosage is more prevalent. They worked hard at making every pill identical and figuring out what the “safe” dosage is for everyone, but it doesn’t mean you even need a full dose, or that you may need much more than is really safe. This isn’t the case with botanicals like cannabis, nor should it be in my opinion. The beauty in it is you take what you need and you leave the rest for later. The strength of nearly every batch can be different, even within a strain, although the same basic characteristics should remain true. You moderate your intake, (or not) to your own personal tastes and needs. Try doing that with a Rx pill or capsule. With Big Pharma, more is better and they want to sell more pills. No wonder they’re afraid of legalization.

What dose may be sufficient to take away pain or muscle spasms for Jane may very well put Joe on the couch for a long nap. Everyone has to find their own dosage. This is especially true when using edibles. Also, keep track of what works best for you and have a few favorites go-to strains because you may not always be able to find exactly what you are looking for. Demand is high for good quality medical cannabis so the popular strains disappear quickly.

Edible doses are harder for me to figure out and is probably why I stick to smoking or using a vaporizer. Smoke or vapors enter your system through your lungs and the effect is faster but has a shorter time span of effectiveness. When you eat cannabinoid products the molecules must go through your digestive tract and then to your liver before it is dispensed to the receptors in your body that need them. This can take more than an hour, so be careful and start with small amounts. The exception to this rule in my life has been with hard or gummy candies that are very low dose to begin with. Also with edibles, the effect last much, much longer. Check the dose recommended on the product. It is really just a recommendation, but it is a good place to start to find your happy place. Not all dispensaries have dosage on the label, but they should at very least have the milligrams of THC/CBD noted. If not, take a chance to experiment on your own, (knowing that the worst that could happen is you’ll fall asleep), or you can find a better dispensary.

Something I learned from my Aromatherapy studies is that more doesn’t mean better results, and so it also is witn medical marijuana. Another misnomer is that the higher the THC content, the better the medicinal effect. While this may be true for some people and some afflictions, you also should remember that CBD, (cannabidiol), will counteract THCs psychoactive effect, and is powerful medicine on its own. Together they are a dynamic duo. When using lower THC medicine with a CBD content you should pay close attention, because if you are used to your cannabis medicine getting you high you may be so fixed on the fact that you’re not high and totally miss the point that your pain is gone. Yup, it happens. I recently had an opportunity to try some CBD hash concentrate and barely noticed a buzz from it, but had an afternoon of no pain at all. It was a wonderful and productive afternoon.

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