How Long Does a Marijuana High Last?

How Long Does a Marijuana High Last?

Published on 4/2/22

Take a puff of really good bud and you may find that the next five minutes seem to be an eternity. Cannabis is famous for being a depressant, meaning that it slows down your brain and body processes: unlike stimulants like caffeine, the primary effects of THC are not to accelerate your body's functions. However, when it comes to the duration of cannabis and how long does being high lasts, it can drastically change according to many different factors. It's important to know just how long you will take to get high, then to come down, especially if you've made plans to drive or work or visit your partner's family. As with so many other scientific inquiries into marijuana, we still don't have enough data to make full conclusions, but there are many facts about how long does a weed high last. Factors that will affect the duration include whether you've smoked before, whether you've recently eaten, your own metabolism, and of course the quality of the sticky icky you've got on hand. When thinking about how long weed lasts, choose your type of delivery carefully so that you enjoy the process and don't find yourself wishing you could take back that last toke or gummy.

Traditional Bud

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Pack a good bowl of bud and you will feel the results fairly quickly, whether that means feeling hungry or just feeling baked. Smoking is the most common way to enjoy marijuana, for several reasons: it's fairly easy, it requires only a few accessories, and it kicks in relatively quickly. Take a deep puff from a joint or a bong and you should be feeling it within just a minute or two. Your high usually peaks within ten to fifteen minutes. The reason why smoking cannabis is an efficient choice is that it goes straight into your bloodstream: the smoke you inhale is quickly processed by your lungs, sent to your heart, and circulated through your body. How long does one bowl stay in your system? Usually about two to three hours.

Edibles

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Gummies, brownies, and cookies are popular because they taste great, but they also are excellent when you want to slow down your high. Eating an edible before you drive to a movie theater, for example, isn't anywhere near a risk unless your stomach is totally empty because it might take an hour or more for it to kick in. Digestion is one of the slowest processes in the human body, which is why you can't always be sure which meal gave you a stomachache. Once edibles kick in, however, they typically last longer, because your body doesn't metabolize them all at once the same way it does with a bowl or bong hit. The question of how long does weed high last for edibles can vary drastically, because a denser edible like a brownie will last longer in your stomach than a THC soda, meaning it may be five or even six hours of fun. Eating a lot of edibles doesn't necessarily make you higher for this reason, which is why some stoners use edibles to be higher for a longer time and do not need to perform maintenance.

Concentrates

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Want to blow the roof off your typical smoking session? Upgrade to concentrates (also known as wax or shatter) and you'll feel like you did all the way back when the first time you sparked up. The question of how high are you, and how fast it takes you to get high, is simple when it comes to concentrates: very. This vapor is instantly absorbed into the bloodstream, requiring not much more than a few moments before the very high levels of THC get into your system. It also leaves your system slightly faster than normal smoking, although you may not notice it simply because you've blasted so much good stuff that it overwhelms your senses. The high effects are so strong that they persevere throughout the day, and perhaps even into the next day if you dab right before you go to bed.

Tinctures

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For those who use cannabis tinctures, the question of how long does a marijuana high last is uniform: instantly. That's because tinctures deliver the chemicals of cannabis oil to your system right away when placed under the tongue or on the skin. This is why tinctures are so popular among medical cannabis users since whenever you need relief for aching joints or sore muscles or mood issues, you can use a tincture to deliver treatment right away. Tinctures give you the most precise high, furthermore, since you can measure out the exact dosage, and will stay in your system for one to three hours. 

What's the longest or shortest high you've ever had? Do you have any funny stories about a joint or bowl that lasted much longer than it should have? Let us know in the comments below!

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