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Marijuana, when used for therapeutic use, can be prepared and ingested in several different
ways. The most common way that most people know about is smoking. Rolling that into a
cigarette-looking item, and inhaling. I think that's how most of us have seen cannabis used
in movies or recreationally.
Another mode of ingestion, that has very similar effects on the body as smoking, is vaporization.
And patients report liking this method, because it actually takes out the smoke and inhaling
cannabis. And there are several large machines on the market or even handheld vaporizers,
that allow patients to use a very similar amount that they would use in smoking. But
put it in a device that actually heats up the plant matter so that just all of the molecules
vaporize instead of actually burning the plant matter and inhaling. And, of course, cannabis
does not cause cancer but smoke can create problems with your throat and some people
just don't like the smoke. So vaporization is another way to inhale cannabis without
the smoke.
But for medical cannabis patients who need longer relief and need a longer lasting relief,
they find that actually eating cannabis, or turning it into what is called a tincture,
or even a topical rub produces better effects.
Now, all of these different types of ingestion or modes of use have different effects. If
you're using, if you're smoking medical cannabis, either through what people call a joint, or
through a pipe, or ***, you're going to feel the effects right away. And a lot of people
like this because it lets them know their titration rate. Right? They know if I take
one puff and I feel like this, then I don't need anymore. But for edibles, it can actually
take up to 45 minutes for people to feel the effect at all. And that's actually why we
find, you know, you hear people OD'ing, figuratively, on edibles. It's really that they've just
taken too much. And I think you'll hear from some of the other videos that it's actually
impossible to overdose on cannabis. But it can have some unfavorable side effects if
you eat too much.
A tincture preparation is actually a preparation using a liquid to pull the compounds out of
the plant. And you've probably seen a tincture in your health foods store for St. John's
wort or echinacea. It's simply a process of putting alcohol with the plant matter and
the alcohol extracts out the compounds from the plant and then you're able to ingest this
through a dropper or through a spray under your tongue.
And other people make, actually make topical oils. Which, for people who don't like the
side effects of dry mouth or sleepiness, people prefer just to put it right on the wounded
area. And this can be done by preparing something with cocoa cocoa butter or other items. And
there are actually several recipes for each of these preparations on our website, americansforsafeaccess.org.