You’ve measured, you’ve made the edibles, now what? Let’s double-check the math one more time after baking/cooking. This is good practice to do because sometimes outputs change. Perhaps we realize we made a mistake, or things didn’t turn out exactly the way we thought, it’s okay! I’ll walk you through how to recalculate using last week’s Strawberry Almond Cookies recipe as an example.
If you do accidentally overconsume and feel too high, I’ve got a few tips to help come down from the high and ease the symptoms until the effects wear off.
Welcome to the DIY Edibles for Beginners series. Where I teach you how to cook and bake with cannabis, and explain each step of the process in bite-sized chunks. Become a confident baked baker, make accurately dosed homemade edibles, and save money.
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DIY EDIBLES
Step 6: How to double-check dosing after cooking/baking.
# of servings
Total THC used
Recalculate
Taste test
Even if there’s a mistake, we can still use math to figure out information to make responsible consumption choices.
Step 1: Decarb + Activate THC // Step 2: Measure Cannabis Flower // Step 3: How to Infuse Cannabis Oil // Step 4: How to Bake with Cannabis // Step 5: Types of Cannabis to Use for Cooking and Baking // Step 6: Double-Check Dosing // Step 7: Cannabis Infusion List // Step 8: How to Make Cannabis Milk // Step 9: How to Make Cannabis Tincture // Step 10: How to Make Cannabis Sugar
How many servings did the recipe make?
Let’s say you made the Strawberry Almond Cookies recipe that makes 30 cookies at 5mg THC each. By the end of baking, there are a few extras and you count 33 cookies total.
How much total THC did you use?
That recipe calls for 150mg THC total in the entire recipe to make 30 cookies at 5mg THC each.
Total THC divided by total servings (after baking/cooking)
Take total THC (150) and divide by the final total number of cookies (33), or servings. 150 divided by 30, equals 4.5mg THC each.
Each Strawberry Almond Cookie would then be approximately 4.5mg THC each, so a low 5mg. I’m still happy with that result.
Merde! I used the wrong amount of cannabis flower and realized it after baking, now what?
Oops, we fucked up and realized that 11 grams of flower was used instead of 1.1 grams. Those decimals are hard to see! Now what? Is the entire batch ruined? No, we can’t throw away perfectly good weed cookies. We can recalculate the math.
Cannamath: 11 grams of 20% cannabis flower would yield ~1,540mg THC. Divide the total amount of THC by the total number of cookies: 1,540mg divided by 30 cookies, equals ~51mg THC per cookie.
Now we know each cookie is ~50mg THC. Half a cookie ~25mg. One-quarter of a cookie ~13mg.
Taste test
The only way to really know is to taste it. Eat the amount you want to feel, and wait 90 minutes to 2 hours to start feeling the effects.
My personal edible tolerance is comfortable at 10mg THC, so I will eat what I’ve calculated is a 10mg dose to see if it affects me the way I think it will, based on my past experience with 10mg edibles, like gummies and chocolates, from the dispensary.
Help! I’m too high. How do I come down?
Your heart rate is pumping. You feel a nauseous lump in your throat, maybe you’re feeling dizzy or having a hard time breathing. Anxiety and panic are setting in. Now what? These distressing symptoms you may feel when you’ve had too much THC is called “greening out.”
Here are some suggestions for things you can do to help ease the discomfort until the effects wear off:
Stay calm, be safe, and breathe
Know that you’re going to be fine, the effects WILL wear off. Move yourself to somewhere safe, stay calm, and take deep breaths. Sit or lie down somewhere you can comfortably chill out for an hour or so until the high starts to subside.
Hydrate
Drink cold water, water with lemon, or even orange juice can help rehydrate, and get your body vitamins, minerals, and electrolytes to recover. And it’ll give you something to focus on.
Eat something
Distract yourself from the discomfort and lean into the munchies if you’re not feeling too nauseous. If you haven’t eaten all day, that can definitely increase the high feeling vs. when you have a full stomach.
Take in some CBD
While CBD won’t make the high go away it can mellow out some of the intensity from the THC high to make the experience more tolerable as it wears off naturally. Smoking hemp CBD flower or a sublingual CBD tincture is the fastest way to start feeling relief. Or reach for a fast-acting edible or beverage. I like to keep hemp CBD flower joints on hand for this reason.
What is fast-acting? Check the packaging on your edible, if it says fast-acting or quick onset, the cannabis used is likely made using a nanotech emulsion that makes it possible to start feeling the effects in ~15 minutes rather than the longer 90 minutes onset time from traditional edibles.
Sleep it off
Time is the only real remedy from being too high. If you can find a comfortable place to sleep it off, you’ll wake up feeling better. If you’re not having a good experience, try not to fight it and go to sleep to allow the THC to wear off.
Chew black peppercorns
Dig in the kitchen pantry and chew on a few black peppercorns, or smell the pepper carefully through the shaker. It’s been said, and some research has shown, that the terpene beta-caryophyllene in peppercorn can help reduce the effects of THC.
There are supplements marketed, like Undoo, that claim to help “undo” the effects of too much cannabis, however, I do not have personal experience with these and cannot vouch for the efficacy of these products.
Please note: Everyone’s body and endocannabinoid system responds differently to cannabis. Your personal reaction and the efficacy of the above suggestions will vary. These are anecdotal suggestions gathered from other cannabis consumers, and not scientifically proven facts. There have not been enough studies done to prove efficacy.
NEXT ON DIY EDIBLES:
What else can cannabis be infused into?
From butter, coconut oil, MCT oil, avocado oil, honey, sesame oil, milk, and alcohol tinctures, there’s a myriad of options that cannabis can infuse into to create delicious homemade edibles. I’ll break down the most popular options, the best time and temps to infuse at, and what to take into consideration as you explore beyond cannabutter.
No matter your tolerance, this DIY Edibles for Beginners series is designed to teach you the basics of how to cook and bake with cannabis at home, starting at 5mg THC per serving for low dose and 100mg THC per serving for high dose. You can adjust the amount and potency according to your personal tolerance.
Responsible cannabis consumption starts with education and knowledge. Thanks for being on this journey with me!
XOXO, Christina W.