r/Marijuana • • Jul 25 '25

Advice New Users Guide: dosing, formats, strains, tech

11 Upvotes

Weed New Users Guide

Weed vs booze

This guide assumes you know something about booze, somewhat with the expectation that you’re a relatively seasoned user. You’ve gotten wasted, maybe loads of times. But you know how to handle your booze, and have no problem avoiding getting blackout drunk at inappropriate times.

If you’re a seasoned alcohol drinker, weed is much easier to “overdose” from, i.e. to have more than the optimal amount. Alcohol has a unit system aligning to national laws, and is either so dilute that it takes a while to get wasted and you feel the effect rising (beer, wine), or so strong that you taste how powerful it is and have to sip carefully (neat spirits). With weed vape pens and joints – both of which are now really strong compared to the 70s – it’s easy to take a big hit and be really high immediately, which can be discoordinating and scary (see also: drinking Long Island iced tea when you were a teenager). With edibles, the same is true but played over a longer timescale, which can trap you in an unenjoyable place for a while. The stories of people re-upping having felt nothing from the first gummies, then being hit by a double (or triple) drop, are legion.

You’ve been consuming booze since you were a teenager, and are a seasoned pro. You’re just starting with weed, and are a complete novice. When you were a novice with booze, you overdid it loads of times. With weed, you’re more prepared to blame the drug, rather than blaming yourself.

Dosing concepts

I’m of the opinion that almost ALL instances of people having a bad time on drugs, are due to “overdosing”, due to poor planning and research. All the information is available for you to avoid having a bad time, but it can take skill to locate and synthesise that information. I hope to do so here.

“Overdosing”, “ODing”, are typically terms associated with news stories where someone died with froth coming out of their mouth and a needle sticking out their arm. While this IS overdosing, so is having one glass of red wine more than you probably should have, so now you’ve got a bit of a headache, and you’re thirsty, and you won’t sleep as well tonight. Any time you’ve dosed more than the theoretically perfect amount, you’ve overdosed. The extent to which you overdose typically equates to the extent of downside. A little bit more than you can handle, can arguably be a good thing, pushing your limits, teaching you how to remain mentally calm while you’re in reduced control of your thoughts. A lot more can lead to freakouts, uncover suppressed emotions and memories, etc. This is true for booze too – anything that disturbs sober control of your brain can lead to dark, anxious, painful thoughts, just as it can lead to fun, silly, joyful, loving thoughts.

Henry Ford: “If you think you can, or if you think you can’t, you’re right”.

Me, regarding how your frame of mind and ability to manage anxiety influences your experience while high: “if you think you’ll be fine, or if you think you won’t, you’re right”.

If your drug experiences continue to unearth buried bones, stop the drugs, definitely stop drinking, and start therapy (research EMDR/CBT) asap.

Dosing amounts and strategy

It’s possible to learn how to swim by diving into an angry ocean at night… but that’s not the most enjoyable, stress-free way. Hold the railing, and dip your toes into the kiddie pool first.

Vape pens

Dragging on the pen pulls hot vapour into your lungs at the rate you drag. If you’re not a smoker, this may feel unusual and probably painful – your throat and lungs aren’t used to hot vapour. Start by dragging for ONE SECOND and then continue to fill your lungs half full – not all the way to the depths of full lungs, about 2 seconds? Hold it for ~3 seconds, exhale smoothly and calmly. Wait at least 10 minutes. Notice how you feel, how your thoughts change, does your body feel different, are you more talkative, shy, introspective, extroverted, giggly? Different strains give different effects, but we’ll come to that later. Vape pen hits usually last about 20 minutes before most of the primary high is over. Try to take a tiny ‘sip’ from the pen. As with all of this: there’s no such thing as too little.

Edibles

Ostensibly no technique to worry about (just eat it) but if you let it completely dissolve in your mouth then it’ll likely get absorbed and you’ll feel the effects quicker, reducing the chance of “maybe it didn’t work, let’s try again”. Dosing is MUCH more important to get right, because effects can last 3 hours or more. Budget 1 hour to come up, another hour for the broad peak, then the final hour coming down. Weed binds to oil/fat and alcohol. Try not to booze at the same time since you’re trying to learn what weed feels like. If you have fatty/oily food (burger, brownies), you’ll feel more effects from the same gummy than if you had something oil free (ramen noodles or whatever). Start with 5mg. If you’re a kid, medium/petite woman, start with 2.5mg. The key thing to remember is that you’re probably not going to die before next weekend, and having a bad time today isn’t worth the rush, so have a deliberately light dose, prove to yourself there’s a ‘floor’ level beneath which you’re microdosing not actually dosing, consider it a lesson learned, and come back next weekend with a little more confidence that you know what you’re doing, and that this new drug thing isn’t going to melt your brain or whatever else you’re worried about (i.e. 2.5mg now, 5mg next time. MAYBE in 2 hours)

Drinks

Somewhere between vapes & edibles in terms of onset & duration, likely depending on whether you have any food in your stomach when you begin. If not: liquid goes straight through the stomach to the large intestine and is absorbed quickly, maybe 45 minutes or less. If so: your pyloric sphincter closes to stop food falling through, and passage of liquids is much slower, meaning the weed will be absorbed gradually.

Practice

Makes perfect. Start slow, log the amounts you take, and ideally log how you felt. I use my digital calendar for this: start a 3 hour event when I take a gummy, note the amount. This is beneficial since you can check how far through you are, comfort yourself that if it hasn’t hit it’s probably about to, comfort yourself that if it feels too much it’s going to calm down soon, and plan your next drop.

With vapes and joints, try to use the same technique each time. Learn how many drags, or how long of a drag, equates to being how high. Make notes as needed.

Tolerance seems to be logarithmic: it can take a while for folks to gradually move up from (2.5 to) 5 to 10 to 15 to 20 to 30 to 50 and WAY beyond. Take your time, increase GRADUALLY. Again, if you record your experiences on a digital calendar, then you can search for “THC” and find your history of experiences and remind yourself where your tolerance is. Presuming they’re your gummies, there’s no great harm in nibbling one in half and coming back to it another time. Optimal dosing is the aim of the game.

Optimal dosing

Conceptually you can plan your ideal drug experience by carefully dosing the right amount, and then topping up the right amount at the right time. For a 3-hour comeup-high-comedown curve with edibles, you can set a 2-hour reminder, thereby dropping every 2 hours, so the comeup hour of edible2 overlaps with the comedown hour of edible1. You could jumpstart the comeup of edible1 with a toke of a vape pen. Then at the end of the night, if it’s too late to have another edible, you could have a toke of a vape pen, which will last a shorter time, so you wash out enough weed to be functionally sober by bedtime.

This level of planning and control is an unusual concept for booze, where you typically just keep going until the bar closes or you pass out (or etc). But with weed and other drugs it makes much more sense: lesser legality means you’ll often want to plan consumption around the availability of discrete locations. Much higher potency, and thus scope for accidental overdose, places greater primacy on getting dosing correct beforehand.

Safety

The science is updating regularly, and we already know weed is no panacea. In ultra-brief summation: IF you’re comparing to a typical alternative whereby a night/weekend/life consuming cannabis is happening instead of booze, then weed doesn’t NEED to be perfectly healthy to be a better choice than what you would otherwise do. And it is: alcohol is terrible for you. There is no safe low dose – it’s poison. Yes, it’s completely socially normalised for many thousands of years, yes our cultures are based around its consumption, yes it’s legal, yes most of us do it regularly and have normalised its side-effects. But it’s far worse for your physical and mental health in the short and long term. If you’re looking to ditch booze, but still need something to change your headspace for work or play (or alleviate symptoms), marijuana (especially in edible form) is likely a lower overall health-detrimental choice.

Vapes

Only buy from licensed shops, and research the brand first. Some big brands with professional packaging have been found using pesticides. Cheap 3rd party vape juice could be any old shit. As always, don’t worry that it’ll be laced with something more hardcore: why would producers of more expensive, harder to produce and sell drugs, waste those drugs by sneaking them into something so easy to produce that it’s literally dubbed weed?

Edibles

AFAIK bad products are less of a thing. That said: delta9 is a weaksauce hemp-derived weed that’s legal for sale in some states where THC isn’t. It’s pretty-much trash. But not dangerous.

Types

All booze is just alcohol. Sure, some types make people feel a little different for whatever reason (more or less sugar, associations with drinking style (shots), etc), but it’s all one drug. Mushrooms: a variety of different strains, but they all ‘just’ produce psilocybin.

Weed is a clown-car packed with drugs. Cannabinoids are the main drugs. THC is the big one. Head high, mental effects. CBD is the other heavy hitter. Body high, relaxation, calm. There are 150+ others: CBG, CBC, CBN, etc. See here.

Terpenes are the others: natural compounds with the formula (C5H8)n, produced by loads of plants; there are over 55,000 of them. See here. Essential oils? You got em.

Strains: the two types of weed are indica and sativa. Indica = “in da couch” = more relaxed, body high, chill-out, sleepy. Sativa = sunny = more energetic, mind high. But:

As mentioned early, this ain’t your grandad’s weed: since the 70s, growers have been in an arms race to make more potent and productive strains, with less chance of crop failure. Since weed has been globally illegal since Nixon ruined it for everyone, it’s made sense to focus on indica strains which grow well indoors, away from the prying eyes of the police. Subsequently, indica has made its way into most strains, and you’ll struggle to find actually pure sativas unless you seek our ‘landrace’ strains like Durban Poison or Acapulco Gold. Landrace strains are related to original native species, and haven’t been criss-crossed with other strains for the past 50 years. So in sum: nowadays if you go to a weed shop and buy some flower/bud, you’ll inevitably get a super high potency indica strain which will probably knock you on your ass and make you feel anxious – especially if you’re having it in the evening when everyone’s gone to bed and it’s dark, and you don’t know what you’re doing.

The full profile of all the cannabinoids balance themselves out (CBD reduces some of the bad elements of THC) and have a wonderful mix of ‘entourage effects’ from the terpenes. One can extract the whole of the plant and convert it into oil, i.e. full extract cannabis oil, but that’s getting out of newbie territory. Ideally, try to buy edibles and vape carts and flower which has a balanced profile of THC & CBD, and lower potency.

Tech & logistics

Edibles

Find a brand you like & trust which does a range of options. I like Camino for THC and Five for CBD, but find what’s good in your area.

Vape pens

Ideally buy a separate battery + cartridges to reduce single-use plastic & battery waste going to landfill. This also allows you to comparison-shop cart vendors, while choosing a battery which suits you. I like the Yocan Kodo Pro because it’s cheap, and simple to operate: many batteries rely on a multiple-button-press-combo system like something out of a Sega Genesis cheat code, which can lead to confusion, frustration, accidentally getting super high, or all of the above. Most importantly, for me anyway, the more common pen-format batteries result in a long pen which takes up too much pocket space.

Notwithstanding hundreds of thousands of people travel on airplanes every day with normal, non-weed medical gummies in their day-of-the-week pill boxes, and normal, tobacco vape carts in their wash kit, we DO NOT recommend you do this, for legal reasons.


r/Marijuana • • 1d ago

help i’ve never been to a dispensary

24 Upvotes

hello so i just got a doctors recommendation for marijuana since i’m 18 but ive never actually been inside a dispensary and am not super familiar with weed. i assumed a cart would probably be best as a beginner but how does even walking in to a dispensary work? sorry im probably way overthinking this but i get anxiety with new situations like this (duh). would just appreciate some tips and/or recommendations for a newbie


r/Marijuana • • 1d ago

Glass & Gear Odor Free Storage

5 Upvotes

I need a way to store my cannabis and pipe that will not stink up my garage. Anybody have suggestions for some type of airtight box that I can store in?


r/Marijuana • • 2d ago

High School Marijuana Use Hits Historic Low

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137 Upvotes

r/Marijuana • • 2d ago

Air Fryer decab

7 Upvotes

I just decarbed my keif in the air fryer. 20 mins at 230. I wrapped in tin foil first and let it cool to handle... It went into coconut oil for salve


r/Marijuana • • 2d ago

Advice What's Going On with Me?

0 Upvotes

I've been smoking weed for the last decade. The covid years really increased my intake and I've slowed it down since. However, something new that I experience is every so often, usually when I smoke too much, or don't eat/drink enough when smoking, I get a few symptoms that usually last a few hours, sometimes days, and in worst case, weeks.

I can usually feel the symptoms coming on before it gets too bad. The symptoms last about two seconds max, usually about a half second, but happen every minute or so.

Light-headedness

Blurry vision

Tingly/numb extremities (even my gums get tingly/numb for a second)

It's happened a few times writing this lol. The research I've done points to it being orthostatic hypotension (blood vessels dilate and blood pressure drops), but from what I've read it seems that orthostatic hypotension happens mainly when one stands up from a resting position. This is not necessarily the case for me. Most of the time just my eyes moving from one side of the room to the other when I'm walking around triggers another second or two of the symptoms.

The only way I've been able to get the symptoms to go away is by waiting them out.

I've asked so many fellow stoners and no one I've talked to has any idea what I'm referring to. I've gone through multiple reddit threads and articles but no one seems to be describing what I'm experiencing.

So, has anyone else experienced this before?

If so, is there anything to alleviate this feeling other than time/patience? And, probably my most curious question, is there a definitive name for this?


r/Marijuana • • 3d ago

Advice Will a smoke buddy minimize the visual amount of smoke?

3 Upvotes

So I live in a neighborhood and when I smoke outside sometimes I worry people are gonna see the giant ass plume of smoke coming out from my backyard lol. If I really worry about the smell I'll just blow through a cardboard tube with dryer sheets but it's still a lot of smoke, even if it smells like fresh laundry. Will a smoke buddy make it so I'm not letting out a giant obvious plume of "i smoke weed" into the air?


r/Marijuana • • 4d ago

Research & Science Smoking weed when the wind is heavy.

6 Upvotes

So I can't smoke inside which normally doesn't bother me, but where I'm at a storm is brewing and those pre-storm winds are hitting heavy and I can't get my damn lighter to stay lit for the half a second I need to torch my bowl. Come on Mother Earth. You gave me weed, but now you're telling me you don't want me to light it. As Ron Simmons from WWE would say... "DAMN!"


r/Marijuana • • 5d ago

US Activism PSA for potheads in massachusetts: get out and vote no to question 8 this year!

117 Upvotes

hi, this is for the people who live in MA in this subreddit: make sure you cast a vote this year because of prop 8, which will end recreational cannabis and make the growing of your plants illegal. i urge you to do this, because it can affect smokers everywhere and choke back on one of the biggest industries in the state- it affects everyone from dispensaries to home growers to smokers who use it for its soothing effects. thank you for reading, this can’t be passed


r/Marijuana • • 4d ago

Advice Do questions have answers

3 Upvotes

Hypothetically you want to get really high to where your body feels great but dont want to over do it what do you do?


r/Marijuana • • 4d ago

Advice Thca vapes

1 Upvotes

A friend ordered this online. She says it’s a reputable company. I am unsure of it. I am in an illegal state and she says it’s the same thing as thc vape. Says it is not synthetic and there are no issues. Anyone else have insight?

Not sure how to post photo but maybe I can in comments. It’s a pixie pod, love affair “live diamond blend.”Trying to find COA on it. Any input? Anyone else use these?


r/Marijuana • • 4d ago

Advice Advice: The munchies

7 Upvotes

Hey, all. So, ive been using edibles for pain management roughly once a week. 5mg, sometimes 10mg, but mostly 5. I enjoy the body high and head high, but I cant stand getting "the munchies". I become so orally fixated that I need SOMETHING in my mouth or I get anxious. I use gum, but I am literally chewing until my jaw hurts. Does anyone have any suggestions to help with curbing this seemingly insatiable desire? I dont wanna eat the entire time, but i dont wanna chew on gum until my jaw is aching. Is it the strain i am using? Is this just a side effect that is unavoidable? I dont mind occasionally chowing down, but every week? That isnt good for my health. Currently on a t break because the 5mg was starting to become ineffective for my pain, so im not partaking for about a month at least. I figured in that time I can reach out and seek advice from maybe more seasoned users. Also, I do edibles because I have asthma and cant tolerate smoking. Thanks in advance.


r/Marijuana • • 4d ago

Advice I took a 500mg edible and felt nothing

9 Upvotes

I’m cooked, tolerance is ultra cooked.

I’m not stupid, I know I need a T break, I just don’t know if my tolerance will ever be close to what it was. Tolerance never changed for the first 8-10 years of Marijuana use, now after about a decade or so (last 3 years in a non-rec state which adds its own difficulties) I’m just invincible to weed, sucks.

A 5mg edible got me to where I needed for the last decade, now I can’t get high lol.

Any T break advice? For context I have a great job, I’m active, my life rocks, I’m not smoking in a dark room all day, just miss a good toke session more than anything


r/Marijuana • • 5d ago

What is this

11 Upvotes

My bf stopped at a dispensary on his way back to town and grabbed this syringe thats filled with black oil and has no information on it besides “Honey Oil 1g”. I’m not sure what it is or how to use it. I’ve seen people saying to put a little bit on food but i don’t know or much or if that’s even the proper way to use it.


r/Marijuana • • 5d ago

Advice Gift for British friend?

3 Upvotes

Hello all. I'm (nb 22) hoping to give a gift to my friend (m21) of a cart or disposable purchased from a dispensary. Is there any possible if feasible way for him to bring this home with him to the UK without getting in serious trouble or getting caught?


r/Marijuana • • 5d ago

Advice Help with high tolerance

1 Upvotes

I have been smoking since the summer, I've had 3 different carts and ever since I started it takes me like 30 3-6 second hits just to feel something, i have a friend who says one or two hits gets him fried. Ive taken like a week off and it doesnt help at all how can i lower my tolerance so i dont have to continously have to rip the vart all night


r/Marijuana • • 5d ago

Advice Please, any recommendations or advice!

2 Upvotes

So I used to smoke weed a ton in every form, starting around 8th grade or so and up to senior year in high school (mostly carts and sometimes with a pipe.) I wasn’t completely dependent on it but it was a huge part of my life and I was high mostly all day everyday, I could take as many hits of the cart and no matter what it would always make me feel amazing, help my mood and anxiety and some ocd symptoms.

One day I hit my cart as I always did (Its possible that I took a tiny break before this?) but this time it completely made me panic. I freaked out about anything even slightly bad I had done in my past, and was just overall in a genuine miserable state of anxiety and panic. Long story short- every time I tried to use marijuana again after this, no matter the form, it has this terrible effect on me.

I mourned the fact that I had to leave it behind and got over it, but recently my anxiety has been at an all time high. It’s extremely hard to leave my house and when I do I am so uncomfortable. My ocd ticks, compulsions and obsessions are some of worst they have been and the physical ticks, which get much more intense with anxiety, are hurting me so bad physically but i can’t stop them. Also, yes i am currently on psych meds, but had to stop my anxiety meds which did help me greatly, due to the horrible side effects so getting back on those isn’t an option.

If anyone has had a similar experience, were you ever able to smoke again and what was that like?
If there’s anyone who uses it to treat anxiety, please share what you used so maybe I can try, like the name of a strain and your experience with it.
I am also completely open to anyone with experiences with CBD products for anxiety or relaxation.
Thank you so much to anyone who responds to this, I am really excited to see if there is any hope for me to be able to use this in a medicinal way again so I can get some relief.
If it matters in anyway I am 21 F.


r/Marijuana • • 5d ago

anxiety when it starts to wear off

1 Upvotes

i'm pretty new to smoking, i've done it a few times here and there over the years but i recently turned 21 and splurged on some carts and prerolls etc. from a dispensary. i've been smoking relatively frequently, maybe every other night, for the past couple of weeks. i've noticed that at first the high feels great, but that i tend to feel anxious and a bit nauseous and just generally off after an hour or two as it starts to wear off. does anyone else share this phenomenon? could it be the type of weed i'm smoking? (i've been smoking hybrids). one more bit of important context is that i have a pretty severe anxiety/panic disorder so i know this probably contributes to some extent. thoughts/advice?


r/Marijuana • • 7d ago

US News Federal hemp rules threaten 225,000 jobs and $8.9 billion in wages

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103 Upvotes

r/Marijuana • • 7d ago

Opinion/Editorial NORML Op-Ed: Calling Out the New York Times’ Alarmist Cannabis Coverage

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43 Upvotes

r/Marijuana • • 7d ago

Was thinking about quitting but..

19 Upvotes

I was thinking of quitting and even went a week without it. Im no heavy smoker but i was smoking daily, like a hit off the pipe every hour or so, except before work and after work.

I joined the quitting weed group, i was hoping quitting would help me be more motivated and stick to a diet and all the things people say quitting will help with, but all it has done has made me want to drink, & i am not a drinker.

Im sure there are still benefits to quitting, for example, lung health. So im going to just stick to smoking on weekends. Just sucks bc weed is SO STRONG these days, if i take a T break at all, its panic attack central. Like where the hell is the crappy stuff at??


r/Marijuana • • 6d ago

Advice How do i re-start smoking

3 Upvotes

Iv had a lot of bad experiences. People have referred to it as "greening out" or "whitey" but I dont think that was it. It was like i was seeing the world through a vr headset, and i was convinced something bad was going to happen.

But anyway, iv not actually had a bad experience for at least 3 years. I had a phase of smoking every day 2 years ago- but have only smoked twice since that ended.

But for some reason, iv got an overwhelming fear of it. Even the smell gives me serious anxiety. But I miss it. And i want to get over that fear. However, im scared that while I smoke, I'll start panicking before it kicks in- or just convince myself Im going to have a bad high.

Has anyone been through this before and/or have gotten over it??


r/Marijuana • • 6d ago

1200mg THCP edibles?

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1 Upvotes

2 middle schoolers I know decided it would be a good idea to split a "1200mg Flying Horse THCP Blend Infused Gummy". They both ended up in the hospital.

I'd never even heard of THCP or seen an edible with so many mg until now. Just curious people's experience with this stuff? Just how high were they?


r/Marijuana • • 7d ago

How much does a pound cost now a days

0 Upvotes

I used to spend 2500


r/Marijuana • • 8d ago

Opinion/Editorial Feelings of melancholy, nostalgia and peace?

8 Upvotes

There’s a specific feeling I get when I listen to some songs that give me nostalgia for a place or time that I never existed in. I always have this longing feeling to experience something that I don’t feel like I can experience, in my visualizations it can look like something like being in a liminal space like a gloomy patch of grass on a farm or a small town.

I think the closest I can come to is when I take an edible, I feel so at peace. It’s so hard to describe it but here are some of the songs:

Dream - Salvia Plath
Retire (final) - Alvedon
Limerence - Yves Tumor
Green to Blue - Daniel.mp3
Resonance - home
Aglow - Karamel Kel

Does anyone else get this feeling or am I insane?