Drug Math

Let’s talk numbers. Not good at math? Neither am I, but this is drug math—or, some might say, applied math—so the practicality of it should make it easier to wrap your head around. We’ll start with some basic numbers:

Cannabis is sold by weight, which is broken down into five standardized amounts; 1 gram (easy enough), an eighth (referring to an eighth of an ounce, or 3.5 grams), a quarter ounce (7 grams, or 2 x 3.5), a half ounce (14 grams, or 2 x 7), and an ounce (28 grams). Knowing the amount you buy at one time and how frequently you take a trip to the store makes it relatively easy to figure out how much, on average, you consume in a day or week—if you buy an ounce (28g) once a month you smoke about a gram a day (28➗30 = .933). (You can also pretty safely assume that a standard bowl pack will be somewhere around 0.25-0.5g and a standard joint will be around 0.5-1g). This will also help you figure out how much your medicine will cost. For instance, an eighth is generally somewhere between 25-50 dollars, so if you go through an eighth a day or an eighth every couple of days you might want to look for cheaper options—but keep in mind that, while there are many shops selling stellar $30 eighths, others are less discriminate so you should definitely be asking where their product came from and how it was grown (or produced in the case of concentrates or edibles—check out our post on Questions to Ask Your Budtender for more information to look for). Most places will give a price break for higher quantities, like a half ounce or an ounce, however, the law of bags is ‘the more you buy the more you smoke’ so be conscious of whether your consumption increases when your purchases increase or you might end up spending more money rather than less.

So now let’s discuss edible dosing. For most patients a good place to start is 10mg (for some who are more sensitive to THC, 5mg might work well). Finding your dose with edibles will take some experimenting—therapeutic doses can range anywhere from 5mg to several hundred milligrams. The most important thing when experimenting with edibles is starting with a low dose, gradually increasing it until you find your sweet spot. Because edibles have a longer half life, they have a more cumulative effect, so make sure you give it plenty of time to kick in, it can take as long as an hour and a half to two hours for some to start feeling the effects! Cannabis is biphasic, so a dose that’s too high might have the opposite of your desired effect—the anxiety/paranoia some feel after consuming too much THC is case in point. Most edibles you find in stores are made with concentrates, which can make standardized dosing easier than traditional butter or oil. Keep in mind, however, that the THC content of concentrates plays a large role in accurate dosing—a gram of concentrate that is 90% THC will make 900mg of edibles, whereas a gram of concentrate that is only 70% THC will only produce 700mg. The best way to be sure you’re getting consistent, accurate dosing (aside from using lab tested products, which are, as I mentioned above, difficult to come by in Maine) is to find a distributor you trust and stick with them. If you want to try your hand at home made medibles, check out our post How to Make the Best Medical Edibles.

For the hobbyist that has a grow tent in the basement and is interested in branching out into personal concentrate production—which can be extremely dangerous and is not recommended—the amount of plant matter being used and the concentration of cannabinoids in the plant can help determine how much concentrate you can produce. (If you have a pound of flower that is 25% THC, in theory you can make a quarter pound of concentrated THC. Of course, we don’t live in a vacuum so you will never get a quarter pound of 100% THC, not to mention the other secondary compounds you’d need to factor in for a full-spectrum concentrate). Unfortunately, lab testing in Maine is virtually non-existent and can be very expensive. There is a lab in Kennebunk, Nelson Analytical, that is in the process of getting licensed to serve the recreational market, and a few others are flirting with the idea of getting licensed themselves, but for the foreseeable future anyone looking to test for cannabinoids has to send samples to Massachusetts. (DON’T send your samples through the mail, it is federally illegal—there are drop of locations for labs like ProVerde throughout the state.) If you’re smoking or vaporizing concentrates, the mechanism of action renders cannabinoid percentages not terribly relevant—THC concentration is a much more important factor when dealing with edibles.

There really isn’t a great way to compare the dosing of one method of ingestion with another because of varying bioavailability levels and half lives. For instance, inhaled THC has about a 30% bioavailability, whereas the bioavailability of eaten THC products is much higher—this is part of the reason why some patients find edibles to be more potent than flower. Edibles also have a longer half life than inhaled products, which is why the effects last longer (and why they work better for sleep). There are even differing half lives among edibles—sugar-based products get absorbed directly into the blood stream via the oromucosal membranes in your mouth and therefore have a shorter half life than lipid-based products that are metabolized by the liver. Patients with a high tolerance for one method of ingestion tend to have a higher tolerance for other methods as well, but this isn’t always the case. Another relevant number is cost—some products might be more cost effective for you. Finding the right products will take some experimenting—using a journal to track what works and what doesn’t isn’t a bad idea—but keeping an eye on the numbers can definitely help!