Cannabis: A Quick Guide

Raise your hand if you’ve ever found yourself sweating at a party because someone’s pulled out the weed. For a lot of people, cannabis is a really scary thing. Not just anyone can look swaggery smoking a joint, or stay calm and collected when it hits.

Let’s be real: College ruined cannabis for a lot of us. And to this day, the sight of a joint is little more than an embarrassing reminder of all the times we got too paranoid, or straight up greened out.

As cannabis makes its way into the mainstream—as a medical as well as recreational tool—the little plant is getting a second chance. And non-cannabis users deserve to hear the truth about how it’s changed, along with the forms to ingest it to yield the best results.

These days, a lot of cannabis users aren’t trying to get high at all. There are people who use it for managing stress, for pain, and for sleep, while others use it much like someone might use a glass of red at the end of the day.

You can consume cannabis in all kinds of ways, at all levels of potency, to all sorts of effects. So whether you’ve decided to start with CBD or flower, congrats to you, we’re glad you could join us. 

Be sure to test out multiple forms to determine how each works for you. And while they may not all be your cup of tea, trust us: There’s something for everyone. Here at Miss Grass, we sell federally legal hemp derived products, because the law is the law. But we love and condone this plant in its full potential too.

A quick guide to the different forms of ingesting cannabis —

Topicals 

With the presence of cannabinoid receptors on the skin, we now know that CBD based topicals like skin creams, rubs, oils, and salves can do great things for our skin and our bods, in general. For many users, full-spectrum cannabis topicals can help to manage muscle pain, protect skin against free radicals, manage acne, eczema, psoriasis and dry skin—all with their anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. 

Topicals tend to be non-psychoactive, meaning they won’t get you high, but they can provide real benefits like localized relief from pain and inflammation. Some brands like Foria even make a cannabis lubricant to increase sexual pleasure. If you have skin issues, body pain, or just a desire to lather yourself up in some great-smelling, good-feeling cannabis products, start here.

Vaporizers

Vapes are a very popular way to ingest cannabis of any kind, including CBD. And they’re growing in popularity everyday. The good news is that vapes tend to be one of the fastest acting modes of ingestion; you can normally feel the effects in as little as a minute. But the not so great news is that there are a lot of a questionable vaporizers on the market. And especially when you’re buying CBD vapes, which are largely unregulated, it’s important to know exactly what you’re putting in your body and that the oil hasn’t been cut with anything we know to be toxic. 

If you like the idea of carrying a little cannabis with you at all times, an oil vaporizer like Bloom Farms' CBD Mini or Beboe’s Calm CBD pen are good discreet options that don’t contain any questionable ingredients. These products come pre-loaded with a concentrated CBD oil cartridge, so there’s no fuss or muss. And it won’t leave you smelling of cannabis either. Expect a non-psychoactive, consistent, and repeatable experience.

Sublinguals or Tinctures

We recommend taking your tincture and leaving it under your tongue for about 30 seconds before swallowing. Because the sub-mucosal lining of the mouth is full of thinner and more delicate tissues, it can absorb cannabis more efficiently than if it were swallowed quickly and absorbed through the liver. Cannabis tinctures are among the most popular methods of oral ingestion because they are quick-acting and microdosing friendly, which means you can you control the experience drop-by-drop. 

Sublinguals can also be dosed via mints, gum, tablinguals, and oral strips. If you allow these to dissolve on schedule versus eating them quickly, they will do their business via your sublingual glands for an effect that’s felt in about 15 minutes. 

Edibles

Edibles go well beyond the proverbial pot brownie, to really include anything that makes it past your throat and into your stomach and bloodstream. And while edibles have a terrible reputation, they can actually be a great starting point for beginners on both the CBD and THC side because there are so many consistent, low-dose options. There are capsules, which are like taking vitamins or popping an Advil. 

There sweet treats like gummies or chocolate truffle full of CBD. Before diving in, remember that edibles can take anywhere from one to two hours to take effect. And the high from edibles is different—more of a body high than a head high. When starting with edibles, try 2.5 mg of THC or up to 20mg of CBD. And if you’re feeling especially enterprising, consider setting yourself up to make DIY edibles at home.

Smokeables 

Flower is what we call the actual cannabis bud in its unprocessed state and it’s what you grind up to roll into a joint or smoke from a pipe or bowl. Flower is a good option if you’ve smoked it before and want to get back in the habit, if you want some pain relief, or just want to get a little high just because. Even if you buy the same flower from the same dispensary and the same farmer, there’s no guarantee you’ll have the same experience each time you go back. 

Reach for more top shelf flower and ask your budtender (the person at the dispensary) for something with under 20 percent THC and the presence of CBD to counteract the psychoactivity, if possible. If rolling a joint is beyond your skill set, you can always buy a pre-rolled joint too.