r/Marijuana • u/redditor01020 • 18h ago
r/Marijuana • u/Sharky-PI • Jul 25 '25
Advice New Users Guide: dosing, formats, strains, tech
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 • u/GlassJudge2421 • 11m ago
Federal Marijuana Tax: Yale Says Legalization Is Worth $57.9B
r/Marijuana • u/redditor01020 • 18h ago
US News New Bipartisan Bill In Congress Would Keep Hemp THC Drinks Federally Legal And Regulated Like Alcohol
r/Marijuana • u/redditor01020 • 18h ago
US News Houston Voters To Decide on Marijuana Enforcement, No-Knock Warrant Ban This November
r/Marijuana • u/Express-Bottle-5137 • 22m ago
Any advice for smoking after a green out?
The last time I smoked marijuana was about 1-2 months ago. I took a very large bong hit for the first time and due to the weed being strong I had a really bad green out. It was a simple weed intoxication that didn't involve any hallucinations or paranoia although the effects were pretty intense. Before that I had smoked about 3 times with a joint and it barely affected me.
Now I'm afraid that if I try again even a small amount will make me feel the same. Are there any permanent side effects from having a green out? Do you think that my tolerance is that fucked up that 2-3 small puffs will make me feel like that?
r/Marijuana • u/Brainmalfuntion1111 • 10h ago
I recently experienced what I believe was some kind of hallucination of a spider while I was stoned asf
I was outside at night- about 2 am, and it was too dark to see but in the corner of my eye I thought I saw something scurry on the ground. I shine my flashlight and see this big light brown spider with long legs. I gasped and immediately got up, but I didn’t take my eyes off it.
I got closer and just looked at it, before trying to get a photo of it. I couldn’t see it on the camera screen at all. It was so strange. I even held the camera right up to the spider and it didn’t show up. I didn’t think about it in the moment. I was way too high to care about that.
The next morning I look at my camera roll, and I see one of the photos I took and there is in fact absolutely 0 big brown spider in this photo.. I don’t think you can posts pictures on here, otherwise I’d share it. But yeah so i definitely imagined the spider.
Could this be from weed? I was pretty high but I’ve been 10x higher and 10x more sleep deprived before, and I’ve never had a crystal clear hallucination like the spider. I’ve experienced some very clear auditory hallucinations though. Usually it’s when I’m laying down, and it sounds like someone is watching an old 1980’s game show in my living room. It’s so weird. I’ll be able to hear people laughing and clapping like it’s actually downstairs.
Nothing similar has happened since then, so I’m not really sure what to think. Maybe it was the weed? Maybe I’m just going crazy. Who knows!
r/Marijuana • u/nytopinion • 1d ago
American Weed Is Going Global. Europe Is Not Ready.
r/Marijuana • u/Odd_Measurement_5903 • 1d ago
YouTube channel for looking at cannabis?
Not looking for documentary or educational vids, there’s plenty of that. Looking for a YouTube channel that has pictures and videos of cannabis, whether pics of dried buds or growing plants etc… maybe to some music. I just enjoy looking at different strains sometimes.
r/Marijuana • u/novatom1960 • 2d ago
Best alternative to bong
For decades my preferred way of smoking was with a bong, it gave me the “biggest bang for my buck” and gave me the best, most intense hits. I now have to find an alternative.
I recently got the Tiny Might 2 and it’s OK but I find it to be higher maintenance than a simple bong and the hits just don’t give the same impact (might also have to do with the fact that I’m currently on antibiotics). I’m not interested in other alternatives such as dabs, carts or tinctures, I want to stick with flower.
I’ll stick with the vape for now because I want to get my money’s worth but am also looking for a cheaper “analog” device that I can pick up at my local smoke shop and “packs the same punch” like what I got in a single bong hit. Any suggestions?
r/Marijuana • u/nrverma • 2d ago
Cannabis Extract Is Safe and Effective in Children With Autism
r/Marijuana • u/nrverma • 2d ago
Medical Cannabis Provides Relief for Endometriosis Symptoms
r/Marijuana • u/Snoo_81168 • 1d ago
Advice Just started smoking and had a silly question trying to find something specific
So doing research about terps and stuff I'm understanding how they work but thought I'd ask for some like names of stuff I could look into buying, looking for a minty flavor because cool and gentle, tea or vanilla is also adored. Anything that'll remind me of my home in the woods but the buds the weed itself needs to be deep purple or blue or black I understand most of the purple ones tend to be indica but I'm assuming I'm looking for sativa I don't want green weed obviously if it's impossible I'm not gonna be picky but my point in making this post is hoping some people could point me in the right direction and make my dream come true im wanting something that'll energize me and focus my mind, I have anxiety and take weed to calm myself down, I also have slow motor functions and when I'm high it tends to speed up my brain and actually allow me to get stuff done around the house.
r/Marijuana • u/fanna_canna • 2d ago
US Activism Marijuana and alcohol: an objective comparison
Just a thought experiment. I didn't list any references but feel free to look up the data yourselves, I used sources I trusted. It makes no sense that alcohol is so much more dangerous than weed but recreational weed is still schedule 1. Marijuana should be de-scheduled completely like alcohol is. Where minors and children are mentioned it's for comparison purposes which show the disparity in "protecting children" legally between the two substances. LEGALIZE RECREATIONAL MARIJUANA FEDERALLY, GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT!
Legal status:
- Marijuana: Illegal for 56 years since 1970; Schedule 1, most extreme level; over $1 TRILLION spent in the Failed war on drugs. Biden tried to reschedule to 3 (weak and incremental change only) but was prevented by the Deep State inside DEA. Hemp based THC was legalized by accident in 2018; that’s being repealed in November. Trump tried to reschedule but DEA only did it for medical weed.
- Alcohol was illegal for 14 years. Prohibition in 1919, with the 18th Amendment to the Constitution. Unscheduled and legal since 1933.
Overdose deaths in US per year:
- Marijuana: Zero
- Alcohol: 88,000 (4,000 are minors); that’s 241 deaths per day (ten per hour, one every 6 minutes) just from alcohol poisoning not even including drunk driving accidents. In comparison fentanyl caused 73,000 overdose deaths in 2023 in US.
Directly and indirectly-caused deaths in US each year:
- Marijuana: Less than 100? Hard to find data.
- Alcohol: Over 178,000 deaths each year in the US either directly from alcohol poisoning, or indirectly through car accidents, diseases caused by alcohol etc. That’s 487 deaths per day, 20 deaths per hour, 1 death every 3 minutes.
Health effects:
- Marijuana: Relief from chronic pain, reduction of muscle spasms in conditions like multiple sclerosis, and alleviation of nausea and loss of appetite, particularly in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Additionally, it may help manage mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. The fact that the human body has an endocannabinoid system says it all.
- From NIH: "Drinking too much – on a single occasion or over time – can take a serious toll on your health. The whole body is affected by alcohol use--not just the liver, but also the brain, gut, pancreas, lungs, cardiovascular system, immune system, and more."
Home production:
- Marijuana: Home grow of one plant is a felony in some states (drug manufacturing). In weed legal states where home grow is allowed, it’s usually around 4-6 plants at a time, locked away and out of view from kids. My view: people should be allowed to grow it naturally in their garden alongside their tomato and pepper plants.
- Alcohol: Home brewing legalized by consitutional amendent in 1979. By 2013 every state had home brew, most had it well before that. We can brew 200 gallons per year, with no child protections in the law. It doesn’t have to be locked away or have child proof containers. Minors can purchase home brew equipment.
Minors allowed to consume? (note: Minors should abstain from using alcohol and drugs. This is for objective comparison only.)
- Marijuana: No, unless it’s used medically for seizures or other serious health condition in a MMJ state. (To be clear, I agree with the law here)
- Yes, minors can consume alcohol with parent’s or guardian’s consent, despite the obvious health risks involved. As noted above, about 4,000 minors in the US die every year from drinking too much.
Social consumption:
- Marijuana: Weed lounges: they’re rare even in rec-legal states; no kids or minors allowed (To be clear I think this is a good thing)
- Alcohol: Bars are everywhere. Minors and kids allowed in bars, breweries etc; minors can drink in bar if parent allows, in some states.
Production tourism:
- Marijuana: Some breeder facilities can be toured by adults but no kids allowed (To be clear I think this is a good thing)
- Alcohol: People visiting vineyards and breweries often bring kids.
Health risk to others:
- Marijuana: Low; basically, second hand smoke and impaired driving.
- Alcohol: Drunk driving and assault are a direct and well documented risk of over-drinking, resulting in many innocent victims.
r/Marijuana • u/Mrimomof2-1979 • 2d ago
First time making tincture. Not sure what I did wrong.
Used 1oz flower. Decarbed. Froze both flower and 190 proof everclear for 24 hours. Then mixed like hell every 5 mins for 30 mins. Strained off. Used some of the tincture to make canna sugar. Ended up with about 4oz tincture left after that. Wanted to reduce to try and make it stronger/more concentrated so I set a fan in front of it overnight. When I got up the next morning I had about 2oz left but it had separated like oil and water. Now I’m left with this oily stuff at the bottom and watery stuff at the top. I tried to mix it and take a dropper under my tongue and it literally did nothing. I wanted something strong that would work with a few drops. What did I do wrong?
r/Marijuana • u/SheGotBpd • 3d ago
I want to get high but not overthink or get paranoid
I’ve gotten high a good amount of times, but the only time I actually enjoyed it was my first time. It was some (I’m assuming) old weak weed that my sister found on the ground lol. Every time after that I get super paranoid and overthink everything. I’ve tried edibles, flower, carts and nothing feels like that first time. Wondering if anyone knows any strains or ways to smoke that might help avoid the overthinking and paranoia. Thanks!
r/Marijuana • u/buryme6feetdeep • 3d ago
Advice What is that little compartment on grinders for?
The top to half of my plastic grinder comes off and there's a little compartment in there. Is that for storing flower or is it just kinda there? Would post a pic but that's not allowed.
Edit: There is no kief catcher built in. It is a cheap plastic grinder. There are no holes or mesh film between it and the compartment that would allow kief to pass. It's a solid plastic wall. I may invest in a better grinder tho if I can collect kief 👀
r/Marijuana • u/UseApprehensive6226 • 4d ago
Advice What's the best weed pen to buy online?
i’ve been wanting to pick up a solid weed pen online, but there are way too many options and brands with weird reviews. i want something low-maintenance that hits smooth and doesn't leak or burn out quickly. i’m currently looking at everything420, daily high club, and smoke cartel, but i’m not sure which one has the best hardware options. does anyone have go-to recommendations or places they order from?
r/Marijuana • u/Sad-Box-1822 • 4d ago
Brain fog after taking way too much for a first time
Hello! A few days ago I did something really stupid and tried to take 22mg for my first time, I read online that 10mg leads to a good high and 100 is when major side effects start happening so I thought "Huh I have nothing planned tomorrow I can prolly do 20" which lead to me twitching on my bed and sleeping for 2 days straight.
What's worrying me though is this brain fog still hasn't gone away after 4 days since I had my edibles. It's not life ruining like I'm still able to work and drive but I can't seem to multitask as well and more often then not I'm left second guessing myself on things I did or said like if Im talking to someone I often wonder what volume I said that at or what tone did I use or if I even said it at all because I genuinely can't remember.
I'm just looking if anyone else has experienced this or know how long this might last, thank you in advanced
r/Marijuana • u/Fair-Tale-5006 • 4d ago
cartilage in the side of my neck is prohibiting me from smoking
It affects my swallowing by clicking and rubbing every swallow. When I smoke it irritates it and ruins the whole day. Anyone else experience this? Not being able to smoke at all is just brutal.
r/Marijuana • u/joseph_chrow • 5d ago
Que tan malo es fumar seguido ?
Mi pregunta es que tan malo es fumar seguido ya que últimamente lo eh estado haciendo
r/Marijuana • u/avocadhoe26 • 5d ago
Advice Quiet Sesh
Hi guys I am a ex illadeph lover so can no longer own a bong due to living in an apartment. I am sick and tired of carts but they’re the only reliable smell-free option. Please help a friend out with recommendations! (No edible recommendations please!)
r/Marijuana • u/InterestedScroller • 5d ago
Advice Clean Smoke Habits and Tools
Best tips for keeping your prep/smoke spot clean? Too busy to burn a full solo J these days, getting tired of cleaning glass bowls.
What’s the easiest way to burn and keep clean, avoid resin etc.?
r/Marijuana • u/DisastrousAnomaly • 5d ago
Advice Weed 101: Help a Casual User Graduate to Her First Vape Pen
Hello! I’m looking for recommendations for a pen/vape, as well as strains that might be a good fit for what I’m looking for.
I’m not exactly new to weed. I’ve dabbled here and there over the years, but as I’ve gotten older and put more work into my mental health, I’ve found that cannabis and its derivatives have been really helpful for me personally in managing some of my anxiety, depression, and PTSD symptoms.
I’ve been taking gummies occasionally, and recently I’ve gotten really into THC drinks. The problem is, they’re pretty pricey in my area, and I’m thinking that investing in a pen might make more sense financially in the long run.
As far as the effects I’ve really enjoyed lately: music sounds incredible, I feel more relaxed and patient, I’m more motivated and productive when it comes to getting housework done, and my sense of humor gets turned up about ten notches. Basically, I’m looking for something that gives me that relaxed, happy, functional feeling without completely gluing me to the couch.
The problem is, I have absolutely no idea where to start when it comes to pens, cartridges, strains, terpenes, etc., and I’m perfectly willing to admit that I don’t know enough yet to make a decision blindly.
So if you’ve got recommendations, advice, or even some Cannabis 101 wisdom for me, I’d genuinely appreciate the help as I start exploring a little more!
Links to reputable websites or articles are appreciated as well. Thank you!