Cannabis dosing can sound intimidating but it’s nothing more than portioning an amount that works for you. In fact, portioning is something you’re already exposed to multiple times in your everyday life. All foods you eat, from proteins and vegetables to dairy and condiments have all been measured before they’re combined into a culinary experience. Yes, even frozen food! Now that you know cannabis can be applied like all other herbs in a jar, learning the basics of dosing will deliver better canna-experiences.
Treat Cannabis Like a Chef
Studies have proven stoners aren’t lazy, but they seem to skip a vital step to a great experience. It’s called measuring before consuming. How often have we seen someone grab a nug, pack it into a bowl, and smoke until their eyes are droopy and bloodshot?
Somehow this became the norm, but who wants to be seen as the face of the proverbial taboo? Safe to say, it’s easy to overcome this stigma.
If you’ve ever measured ingredients when cooking, you’re already an expert with cannabis dosing. When you consume the right amount, everything feels right. While a touch more or less might be acceptable, having too much or too little can lead to disappointing results.
Just as a person shouldn’t regularly eat until feeling food comatose, cannabis consumption at the extreme makes you lethargic and tired. Unless you’re treating insomnia, or want to imitate a couch potato, this probably isn’t the result you’re after. So get to being self-aware of what you’re putting into your body.
The Serving Challenge
The dosing challenge boils down to understanding what a serving should look like. For instance, food comes packaged in servings, as does pharmaceuticals and alcohol… and for good reason! Aside from edibles, cannabis products don’t come in set servings. They’re packaged so users can make adjustments based on their needs and preferences.
Adding to the non-existent serving-sizes are varying potencies from product to product. For example, THC, one of the main multipliers in cannabis, can range from 1% to 30% potency. Math wizards know that’s an increase of 30X! Even concentrates have THC potency amount trending toward 80%. All to say…
Practice measuring as you’re consuming. Blenddy
By measuring out your proper dosages, “greening out” and other unwanted effects become things of the past. This approach lets you achieve consistent highs with full control during every single sesh. You’ll get these results when consuming one product by itself or even a blendd of products.
Tools for Cannabis Dosing
Cannabis Dosing can be as simple or as nuanced as you want. No matter how you measure, being consistent makes for repeatable results.
The most accurate approach involves the use of a weigh scale. Due to the ease of repeatability, scales give you better insights to make better decisions. Inexpensive scales measuring to a hundredth of a gram (that’s 0.01…) can be found for just over $10 on Amazon.
If you have a good spatial eye for volume, measuring visually is a quick free alternative. Visual measuring involves placing a token side-by-side to your dose to be recorded for reference. You can add a picture of into your Blenddy Entry. Just as Leonardo in Inception, you’ll need to pick something that always travels with you.
Both approaches work within a strain, but do not work across strains as some buds can be fluffy and light, while others are tight and dense. In addition, dosing the same amounts across strains doesn’t work due to the potency differences noted above. So it’s important to tune each strain independently to your needs.
Techniques for Repeatable Dosing – Finding your Perfect High
If you’re tracking sessions in Blenddy, you’ll be able to add your Impression (personal assessment of your amount) in Session Log. You’ll use your impression to adjust your dosage until it’s just right.
Start with your tool/method of choice. Session dosing results require use of the same tool. For example, combustion tools require a different amount than vaporization because cannabis is lost when burning.
Measure out and consume a quantity of product to keep you in the proper zone. We call this Low and Slow.
Record your Impression of whether your next dose should be less or more, or maybe you’ve hit the perfect amount.
On subsequent sessions, use your measurements to start with the right quantity directly from the get-go.
Note that your activities play a large part in the effects. For instance, a dose ideal for relaxing may not be appropriate for exercising. In this case, you should pair your lifestyle activity to seshes for more granular options. In fact, it’s normal to have a few perfect dosages you can apply depending on what you’re doing.
Dosing with Other Forms of Cannabis Products
Dosing is also beneficial with edibles (incl. sublinguals), and compounds (rubs, patches). Due to the cycle time to feel effects, there’s just an added wait period before recording your impression. You may need to self-report body differences such as a full stomach or energy level, but in general, both processes are the same.
Remember that you are the constant, and no one else has your same body measurements, such as weight or fat content. Provided that your dosing is consistent, you’ll be able to hone in on what works for you in a few fun sessions.
What Does the Future Hold for Dosing?
Regardless the type of compounds in your cultivar, these basics of dosing will help you master using a single or combination of cannabis strains. Aside from having a record on what to do, measuring makes your highs repeatable, perfect, and fast. Sessions will get you onto your tasks as fast as possible. There’s still a whole world to unlock, such as how to apply terpenoid information, but hopefully you now have a good understanding to explore a bit deeper than just over-consuming.