More and more lawmakers are seeing the appeal of regulating cannabis like tobacco or alcohol, and considering that the drug is remarkably safe and even beneficial to many users with severe health conditions, there is hardly a downside to allowing adults to buy and consume cannabis at their leisure.
So, if you have waited patiently for cannabis to become legal in your area, you might be wondering: How are you supposed to partake? Here are the most beginner-friendly ways to use weed:
Pre-rolls
Smoking is the quintessential method of consuming cannabis, but there are skills required to smoke weed correctly. The two options for smoking include rollies, like joints or blunts, or pipes, but both require some skill to make or use successfully. For example, rolling cannabis flower into a joint or blunt demands manual dexterity that most beginners lack. Meanwhile, pipes are a costly investment, and packing the bowl of a pipe with the right bud density can take practice. Fortunately, there is a better, beginner-friendlier option: pre-rolls.
Pre-rolls are like cannabis cigarettes — joints that have already been crafted and are ready for use. Most dispensaries offer pre-rolls of a variety of strains, so you can find an approachable cannabis variety that produces manageable effects. In places where medical marijuana is the only option, like a Maryland dispensary, patients should talk to budtenders to find pre-rolls in strains that will help them manage their condition. If you are a recreational user, you can also consult budtenders, or you can look for strains with THC content between 10 and 15 percent.
No matter what strain you smoke, you probably shouldn’t consume the entire pre-roll during your first 420 session. Because your tolerance is low, your likelihood of overdosing on THC is high, and an overdose so early in your cannabis experience could make every future high less enjoyable. Instead, you should take a single puff — bringing the smoke into your mouth first and then breathing it into your lungs alongside fresh air to prevent coughing — and wait five minutes to see how you feel. If you don’t notice any effects from your first smoke, you aren’t alone; this is a common experience amongst stoners that will likely go away on your second or third weed encounter.
Vaporizers
If you aren’t partial to smoke, you might consider picking up a vaporizer from your local dispensary. Vaporizers work like smokables in that they deliver cannabis compounds directly to your bloodstream through your lungs. However, many stoners believe that vaping is superior to smoking because it allows for more minute control over dosage while eliminating the pervasive odor, helping to keep 420 sessions a bit more concealed. Some stoners also suspect that vaping is safer and healthier than smoking, but that claim has yet to be substantiated by science.
Vaporizers are more expensive than pre-rolls, but if you are committed to using cannabis more than once, the investment could be worthwhile. There are two types of canna-vapes to consider: oil and dry herb. Oil vaporizers can be more beginner-friendly, especially if you buy one that takes pre-filled cartridges. These contain a known dose of cannabinoids, so you can keep total control over your high. In contrast, dry herb vapes heat up flower or concentrates. While these materials can be more affordable than pre-filled carts, they can be variable in their cannabinoid content, and heating them up properly takes some knowledge and practice. Ultimately, you can talk to a budtender in your area to weigh the pros and cons of different models and find the weed vaporizer that is right for you.
Conclusion
There are plenty of other methods of consuming cannabis — like taking edibles, dabbing, applying topicals and more. However, many of these methods make it exceedingly difficult to understand dosage, which increases a user’s likelihood of an unpleasant weed experience. Inhaling smoke or vape typically results in immediate effects, so you are better to understand your body’s response to cannabis and moderate your consumption accordingly.
As you gain more experience with weed, you can venture into other, less-beginner-friendly methods of marijuana use. Until then, you should stick to the simple and straightforward tools for getting high.