So you decided to take an edible. You take a small piece and wait an hour, but nothing happens. You choose to eat a little more, but you still don't feel anything. How long do edibles take to kick in? Are your edibles not working or is it something you're doing wrong? There are several reasons you could be having this unfortunate experience. Fortunately, we're here to help you understand why and what to do about it.

The Difference Between Smoking and Edibles

Yes, edibles and smoking both involve THC, and both get you high, but there are a lot of differences between an edible high and a smoking high. When you consume cannabis, the 400+ chemical compounds, including cannabinoids and terpenes, enter your body and disperse throughout your bloodstream. From there, the compounds interact with your endocannabinoid system to produce changes that result in the high associated with weed, along with many medicinal benefits. There are two significant differences throughout this process depending on whether you consumed your weed via smoking or ingesting edibles.

How Fast the Cannabis Hits Your Bloodstream

When you smoke, all the various compounds within cannabis are inhaled into your lungs and enter your bloodstream almost immediately, meaning that you could feel the high within a matter of seconds (especially if you're taking multiple hits). When you eat edibles, everything has to be processed via your digestive system. Stomach acids must first break down the edible, and then the cannabinoids are absorbed and metabolized by the liver and into the bloodstream. Gummies can sometimes take upward of 1-2 hours before they kick in, ultimately depending on how much you take and your body's unique chemistry.

The Type of High

Once you begin to feel the effects of cannabis, you'll notice differences between smoking and edibles. Smoking kicks in a lot faster, but the high will likely only last a few hours, depending on how much you smoke. You'll also probably notice that smoking provides more of a head high that's more intense for a shorter period. On the other hand, edibles take longer to hit, but more cannabinoids are actually absorbed by your body in the long run, meaning the high lasts longer (up to 4-6 hours) and can often be more intense. Additionally, edibles provide more of a full-body, relaxing high because of how the cannabinoids are absorbed.

How to Feel High Faster On Edibles

Sometimes you want a weed edibles high without having to wait as long. Fortunately, you can try a few tricks that might provide you with a slightly faster high when eating THC edibles. They're not guaranteed to give a quicker high, but they might be worth a shot.

Workout Beforehand

When you work out, your body begins to metabolize quicker. However, this is only truly effective if you make working out a habit - your body will have to metabolize faster to keep up with the extra energy you're burning. After your body breaks down the cannabis in your stomach, it is absorbed into the liver and metabolized before hitting the bloodstream. The faster your liver can metabolize the cannabinoids, the faster they will hit your bloodstream.

Drink Caffeine

For all the reasons indicated above, with working out, metabolism may play a key role in getting edibles to work quicker. Because of this, caffeine might offer a slight boost to your edible reaction time since recent studies have shown that caffeine helps raise your body's metabolism.

Drink Your Edibles

There is an increasingly thriving market for drinkable marijuana - and yes, these are also considered edibles. The good thing about THC-seltzers and other liquid concentrates is that liquids pass through your digestive tract a lot faster than solid foods. Because of this, drinking your edibles could cut out some time it usually takes before the THC hits your bloodstream.

Buy Fast-Acting Edibles

This is less of a trick and more of a suggestion. If you want to feel a high quicker on edibles, you may want to look into fast-acting edibles. They won't last quite as long, but they are supposed to hit anywhere between 15-45 minutes instead of 1-2 hours (depending on the brand).

Why You Might Not Be Getting High On Edibles

What if an edible doesn't work after you've tried the tricks listed above? If you're stuck wondering, "Why don't I feel anything after eating an edible," there's a chance it could be because of one of the reasons below.

You Have a Very High THC Tolerance

If you smoke a lot of weed, or even if you eat a lot of edibles, your tolerance will build. So, if this is the case, you've got two options: try a higher dose or take a break from weed and let your tolerance reset.

Your Body Metabolizes THC Too Quickly

Everyone has a different metabolic rate, meaning everyone will feel the same amount of weed at different times in different ways. If your body metabolizes too quickly, you may not feel the effects for long or even feel them at all. Much like tolerance, the solution here may be to try upping your dosage or give smoking or cannabis oils a try.

The Cannabis Wasn't Properly Decarboxylated

This is much more likely to be the case if you're eating homemade edibles. For cannabis to have an effect as an edible, it must be decarboxylated first, which is adding heat to activate the cannabinoids before baking. Eating raw cannabis that hasn't been decarboxylated won't get you high at all.

You Haven't Eaten Enough

While it might sound counterintuitive (drinking alcohol on an empty stomach gets you drunk faster), an empty stomach might be the issue. THC is absorbed into lipids within the body - if you haven't eaten, there's less fat for the THC to bind with, meaning you don't feel the high as much.

Do you have any tips or tricks when it comes to getting high faster with edibles? Do edibles simply not work for you? Let us know about your infused edibles experiences in the comments below!

SQDC - Pointe-Claire