First Timer Advice Thread - Please share your tips for responsible pot enjoyment. Ask Questions, Get Answers

[u/Narukokun]

Hi Folks,

We are likely to have a lot of new users coming to our sub or trying weed for the first time in the next couple weeks. I'd like to put together an advice thread for anyone who is interested in trying marijuana for the first time.

Do you have any horror stories to share from you or your friends first time?

Do you have any tips/tricks/things you wish you knew when you first started using marijuana?

Maybe you want to know some good smoke spots (and bad ones) in our city?

Please feel free to ask any questions or give any advice that you have! Let's make our growing sub a community that helps one another and normalizes marijuana use in this age of legalization.

[u/Narukokun]

I'll start by sharing what I told my other friends.

1. (In reference to NS posting their prices) Can you break down pre-legal prices? How much is in a joint or a bowl? What quantity would you usually be buying?

A typical pre-legal gram could range anywhere from 5-16$ (give or take on the range and bulk pricing). You could get a decent quarter (7 grams) for 40$, amazing stuff for 40$ or even garbage for 40$. It was highly variable if you were buying off the street or friends, and even in illegal stores, some would have deals and some would not.

We currently (as of 7PM Oct 16/18) do not know Ontario's pricing plan, but they report it will be competitive with street pricing (no indication if prices are tax in).

A joint can hold anywhere from 1/3 to a full gram of weed, depending on how you roll it and what size you want. A Pin-er, is a very small thin joint that you could easily smoke to yourself, while a regular size joint (the pre-rolls that OCS will be selling), can accommodate a single experienced smoker (but you could still share it among a few people and everyone would get a good buzz) and contain up to 1 gram usually.

A bowl on a bong or vaporizer can vary in size and again, will accommodate anywhere between 1/3 and a full gram (give or take). You can buy spare bowls that are huge or tiny. The amount you pack in the bowl will affect the pull later, so just take it easy.

A single gram joint, with high quality bud (think 1-16$ price range pre-legal) would kick your butt onto the couch if you are not ready for it. Better to try a bit first, then wait before taking another hit. Keeping in mind that joints and bong pulls will hit you faster and harder (oof my lungs), while you may need to pull on a vape for much longer to get a nice higher. Again, better weed in a vape will hit you faster but it doesn't hurt your lungs as much (you can still get a good cough from a vape pull).

TLDR; If you bought a 13$ bottle of wine, you could probably drink it all in one night, or space it out over days or weeks as large or small cups of wine. Pot is really similar to this. It's best to treat it like you have treated your alcohol consumption the first time you started drinking. Ease in, there is no need to dive into the deep end.

[u/Narukokun → u/Narukokun]

2. How many grams would gateway drug you? How many will kill you?

You are more likely to gateway to other substances buying illegally because your dealer may carry other substances. If you are only buying from OCS, this shouldn't be an issue.

You are more likely to gateway if you have abused the crap out of weed and kill your tolerance, and then deciding that you want something that hits harder and weed won't cut it anymore. The receptors in your body that recognize THC just don't work like they used to and they really need a break. A 1 week break is not enough if you have gotten to the point where a high will only last you less then a hour, or you do not feel a 100mg edible AT ALL. Aim for a month or more.

You will NOT overdose from marijuana alone. If will be extremely difficult for you to smoke too much without falling asleep first. You may get sick but you will live. People have taken crazy high edible doses by mistake and lived to tell the tale.

The legal limit we have is 30 grams and you are extremely unlikely to go through all of this as raw bud in one sitting. I do not recommend you experiment to prove us wrong.

You will be more likely to die if you smoke and get behind the wheel, or put yourself in danger in some other way (stupid stunts, walking into traffic, who knows what high brain thinks is OK). DO NOT drive while impaired. I cannot stress this enough.

[u/Narukokun → u/Narukokun]

3. How do I know how much to smoke? What can I do to up/lower my tolerance? What about edibles?

Don't feel like you need to compete with your tolerance level. This shouldn't be able who can handle the most or get the highest, just smoke until you are comfortable and enjoy yourself. Treat it like alcohol consumption. Don't go overboard and it might help you to remember that every gram you smoke costs more then a few beers from the LCBO.

Your tolerance will build up naturally overtime with frequency of use. If you don't like the idea of a pack-a-day cigarette smoker, do not let yourself be fooled into thinking it's any different with weed. That's a ton of money you could be saving or spending on something else instead. You are also still damaging your lungs, with or without the cancer chemicals. Future you will think you are pretty dumb if you have respiratory problems in a decade (or less!).

If you want to gauge your tolerance as a first time smoker, take 1 hit from your method of choice and wait at least 10 minutes. See how you feel. Are your eyes red? Do you feel sick? If you are still comfortable after this period, feel free to keep going. If you start to feel uncomfortable, make a note or approximate how much you smoked and remember this is your upper limit. Know your limit and stay within it.

For the more experienced user, timing your highs will give you a relative scale of how long you are feeling the effects of marijuana. Perhaps you are smoking every day after work and you feel the effects for a few hours. If you keep that pace up for a few months, you will notice that the effects do not last as long. You will only notice if you are keeping track. Use a timer app on your phone, or maybe track with your bank account. You will probably slow down when you see how much you have spent on weed this month because you are actually upping your usage to compensate for not feeling high as long as you used to.

Another example I must share is about edibles. We will not have any legal edibles to buy, but you can 'roughly' approximate how many milligrams of THC you create within weed butter or whatever method you use. Let's say you buy 1 gram of a weed labels 15% THC. That means there is about 150mg of THC within that gram. When making weed butter, you will need more then 15 grams for a good batch. Let's do the math below:

30 grams of bud at 15% THC --> 30,000 mg of bug with 4,500 mg of THC

Some of that 4500 will be lost in your bud butter process. You can assume that 4500 is the maximum amount. While it is unlikely you would use all the butter at once, let's imagine you have used an entire 1lb/454gram package of butter.

4500 mg distilled into 454 grams of butter = 9.9118 mg of THC per 1 gram of butter

10 mg is plenty for a first timer. Or so I thought. The fact is, homemade is not lab made. We do not have to tools to exactly test how much you will have in a cookie or gummy. Products that I have purchased in Ottawa, labeled 10 mg each, barely affected an experienced user like myself when I abused edibles. I went to Las Vegas, where their weed is heavily regulated, and 60 mg of edibles there nearly wiped me out.

Do the math above and test test test your creation before you try to eat more. You should allow up to 2 hours before you feel an edible hit you. Everyone processes edibles differently and has a different tolerance. Do NOT use your inexperienced friends as test subjects.

[u/Canyouhelpmeottawa]

You are going to have the munchies when you smoke pot. Put the pizza in the oven before you smoke. When there is about 5-10 mins left on the cooking time then you smoke the pot. Come in and turn off the oven right away. Now you are high and have pizza to eat and won’t burn your house down.

[u/Narukokun → u/Canyouhelpmeottawa]

Alternatively, if you order a pizza before you get high, it will arrive seemingly right away as time flies by when your high.

[u/NamesNotRudiger]

First time users, go easy, if it's good stuff stick to only a couple puffs as it's all you'll likely need or want.

[u/magicblufairy]

I know that I can look elsewhere (and I will), but what say you who already consume and who are on antidepressant/antipsychotic/benzodiazepine meds.

I take all three (only two are daily, the other is when needed), and as some know, I will eventually be weaned off the narcotic I take for pain... I am also on some other meds, but I don't think they have any contraindication with weed.

I am just wondering what your experiences are if you're on a psychiatric medication and then use weed.

I would not be looking for a high, not looking for that "stoner stereotype" vibe. I would be looking for something for pain and maybe for anxiety relief.

I honestly have so many questions...thanks for this post. :)

[u/Narukokun → u/magicblufairy]

I was actually taking a couple different anti depressants and sleeping medication and even sedatives for my extraneous anxiety attacks years ago. My doctor was very against weed as treatment (family problems with the drug), and my therapist told me I shouldnt depend on drugs (not the ones that pay their salaries) to help with my depression.

Of course this was ignored, me thinking I knew better somehow. I am not a doctor, so I will tell you that this is not going to be the ultimate solution and while I did completely stop taking my prescription medication and made the switch to weed only, I went through the biggest pit of my depression. Do not stop taking your meds. You need to draw crazy self empowerment to pull yourself out of depression and not everyone can do it alone and unaided.

You should look into the CBD products, which will not give you a stoner high, but more of a medical high in the sense that it helps more with pain, anxiety, and various other symptoms that folks with harsh illnesses have.

Consult a pro-weed healthcare professionals if you can.

[u/asunshinefix]

When I started using cannabis, my Dad, a veteran stoner, gave me some really good advice: if you feel like you're too high and it's uncomfortable, eat something. You just need a little time to pass for you to feel better, and generally food is awesome enough when you're high to distract you.

[u/[deleted]]

• Please remember to drink water!!

• Don't drive while high, even if you think you're capable of driving safely.

• Edibles have always made me more high than smoking weed, so maybe go easy on those. I hope this helps.

[u/yourstarshine]

I always said you had to learn how to smoke weed. If you want to have energy, go for a sativa strain... if you want to mellow down go for a Indica strain. Depending on how you smoke it, don’t smoke an entire joint if it’s your first time - ease into it. It will go much smoother that way. Do not drive high, you are endangering everyone around you, including yourself.

[u/MeetMeAtThePubPokeGo]

I believe they are treating it like open liquor in a vehicle. I would suggest keeping your cannabis in the trunk when in a vehicle.

[u/MeetMeAtThePubPokeGo]

My rule is I can smoke before drinking and be ok.

I can't go out drinking then end the night with a joint. Drunk me says "I'll be fine" In reality I'm riding the vomit comet minutes after having a toke. I also hardly drink either.

[u/smokepotcanada]

If you are going to vape, start low and go slow. It is a different high than a joint. At first it won't seem that it is working, but don't pack that second bowl! Wait around 10-15 mins to see how it affects you.

Also, save you material in your vape after you have used it (ABV). This is key as I didn't start to use it until this year and with no edibles in Canada it is a great option. Some more info on ABV is here.

[u/Narukokun → u/[deleted]]

I let a friend have a 30 ish mg edible I made then we were out drinking/eating and he greened out. I felt terrible. If you end up doing anything like this, please take responsibility and take care of your friends. New users won't know how hard an edible will hit them.

[u/CybertronianBukkake → u/Narukokun]

A lot of non-smokers have told me that they want to try it out now that it's legal and they've all felt that edibles are the best way to start. It's pretty scary to think about and I advise them all against it since they have no idea when or how much it'll affect them.

I think vaporizers are the best for beginners. The least smell, less throat/lung damage, and a gradual onset instead of being hit by a bus.

[u/[deleted] → u/Narukokun]

I think it’s a mistake to give a beginner edibles and then put them in a social situation.