There are an endless amount of ways to consume the goodness of hemp and cannabis. You have your tinctures, edibles, vapes, pre-rolls, and more! But is one of these any better than the other. The truth is, it really depends on you! Your individual biology can dictate which works better for you.
Read on as we compare and contrast: Edible Or Smoking cannabis. The processes vary in many ways, and we do our best illustrate these differences below. Riley does an amazing job breaking this down in the clip above as well! Head on over to her comment section on TikTok and let us know what you think!
Making Edible Cannabis
Edible cannabis can be fashioned in a few ways. All you need is some cannabis oil, butter, or tinctures! The first two can be made at home using an oven and the decarb method on your flower. The latter is a bit trickier, and you’ll need to get some distillate. As always, you can find some great hemp-based distillate here at Arbor Vita8!
Once you have your base, simply add it to whatever baked good you’re making. Measure it to your liking, and proceed to bake. Be careful, though. Know your tolerance! If you’re a newbie, it’s better to monitor the heavy handedness. We discussed in our last article how too much can lead to a horror story that’s better avoided.
Smoking Cannabis
This one’s a classic. Historically, smoking cannabis has been a famed method of consumption. In this case, you break down your flower into a fine grade, and place it into your reservoir of choice.
This can be in a joint or even a bowl. Some choose to place it in a tobacco leaf. This is possible, but remember the implications of tobacco. Adding cannabis will not spare you from the potential effects the packaging warns you of.
Smoking Vs. Eating Cannabis
So which is better? It depends on context. Of course, there are always negative implications behind putting smoke in your lungs. In this case, edibles overtake smoking. But, how edibles bring cannabis into your system can cause more intense effects. Smoking can be a bit of tamer experience depending on how much you’re consuming.
As Riley explains, “when we smoke cannabis, that THC is going from our lungs to our blood to our brains. This is going to result in rapid feelings of being high. In contrast, when we eat our cannabis that has to travel through our digestive tract first.” This interacts with our liver. From there, it excretes compounds that are stronger than what we get from our lungs. This explains the more intense high associated with edible use.
Arbor Vita8
Thanks as always to our wonderful canna-partner Riley Dee! Again, please visit her Tik Tok to learn so much more about cannabis. For all of our hemp aficionados, contact us today! From seed to sale, Arbor Vita8 if your full service hemp partner. We’re here to help, and are happy to do so!
Clip Transcript
Riley Dee:
Absolutely, I should have made this video sooner, but let’s talk about the differences between smoking and eating our cannabis. So when we smoke cannabis, that THC is essentially going from our lungs to our blood, to our brain, and this is going to result in really rabid feelings of being high. Now, in contrast, when we eat our cannabis, that has to travel through our digestive tract first. And who is in the digestive tract? You guessed it, the liver.
And if we remember from the last two videos, the liver is going to transform some of the THC to 11-hydroxy-THC, which is actually a bit more potent of an agonist at that CB-1 receptor. Now, because it has to go through your digestive tract, it could take hours instead of minutes for you to feel high. But after digestion, you now have 11-hydroxy-THC and THC in your blood trying to get to your brain. And 11-hydroxy isn’t only a better agonist at that receptor, but it’s also better at crossing your blood-brain barrier.
