You’ve researched and uncovered that THC could provide many medical benefits. You’ve also established that this cannabis-derived compound contains mind-altering properties and may be effective at getting you high. Now, your next instinct is to order a high-quality THC product so you can enjoy the compound’s therapeutic and psychoactive properties simultaneously.
However, when it comes to cannabis products, people often wonder how much THC to consume. As you shall find, underdosing THC is nearly as detrimental as overdosing the substance.
Or if you want to know how much THC is in a joint to get you high? Continue reading this article as it attempts to answer that question conclusively.
Table of Contents
1. Why Should You Regulate Your THC Intake?
As we’ve already indicated, underdosing tetrahydrocannabinol could be nearly as detrimental as overdosing the compound. The most significant danger with underdosing THC is that the compound may not deliver the intended therapeutic or psychoactive effects. On the other hand, overdosing on THC could predispose you to some adverse effects.
Excess marijuana consumption can induce hallucinations, bloodshot eyes, irritability, and elevated heart rate. Besides, weed has a better safety profile than most commonly abused substances. That said, it’s still important to moderate your tetrahydrocannabinol intake. But exactly how much THC is considered the right amount?
2. Understanding THC Bioavailability
The best way to determine the right tetrahydrocannabinol amounts to consume is to begin by understanding what makes up THC bioavailability. Bioavailability is a term for the proportionate bioactive effects a substance or drug has on the body. In simpler terms, the bioavailability of a product refers to the percentage of the compound that enters your bloodstream relative to the total quantity administered.
It’s important to note that any substance or drug consumed doesn’t impact you 100%. That’s because your body cannot absorb all the active compounds in any given substance.
Another crucial point to note is that the bioavailability of THC doesn’t depend on the total amount of the compound consumed. Instead, it mainly comes down to your body’s ability to absorb the substance into the bloodstream. And as you’re about to find out, numerous other factors determine THC’s overall absorption rate.
3. Factors Affecting THC’s Bioavailability
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Potency
Potency is also known as strength or concentration. It simply refers to the total quantity of THC in a product, expressed as a percentage or fraction of the entire product composition. Tetrahydrocannabinol potency, as with that of other cannabinoids, is usually measured in milligrams (mg). And when it comes to THC, strength and dosage are inversely proportional. The higher the concentration, the lower the doses should be.
Now, it’s important to pay keen attention when measuring tetrahydrocannabinol strength in a cannabis supplement. Don’t just focus on the numerical values assigned to THC in the product. Instead, pay more attention to the percentage of the compound in the entire product.
For instance, let’s assume that product A contains 20 mg of THC in a 100 milliliter (ml) bottle, while product B has 50 mg of THC in a 1000 ml bottle. At first glance, it would appear that the second product is more potent since 50 is intuitively more significant than 20.
But if you express the THC concentrations in both supplements as a percentage of the entire product composition, you’d realize that A has a THC potency of 0.2mg/ml while B has a THC potency of 0.05mg/ml. Therefore, there’s more THC in one milliliter of A than in a similar B volume. Consequently, you’d need fewer doses of product A than B.
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Age And Body Mass
Tetrahydrocannabinol absorbs more effectively into the bloodstream of children than adults. That’s mainly because children tend to have smaller bodies than older cannabis users. Therefore, THC pills travels a considerably shorter distance from the delivery site to the bloodstream, so less of the compound is lost in the process.
A higher absorption rate should translate to lower serving amounts, which explains why a child or small-bodied cannabis user would probably do with 5 mg of THC, whereas an adult or user with a larger body mass would require 50 mg.
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Delivery Method
There are several ways to consume tetrahydrocannabinol. You can smoke dried cannabis buds, vape THC e-juices, or administer THC tinctures sublingually. You may also consider THC edibles like gummies or THC tropicals like ointments.
While all these delivery methods get tetrahydrocannabinol into your system, the specific method you choose could affect the compound’s absorption rate and, ultimately, the serving amounts.
THC edibles and topicals have the lowest bioavailability. That’s because such products take longer to kick in, which means that a significant amount of the THC in them is lost before entering the bloodstream. Therefore, you may need to consume proportionately higher THC doses in edibles and topicals than you would in THC joints, e-juices, and oral tinctures.
Summary
There’s no standard rule for determining the right amount of tetrahydrocannabinol to take, be it in a joint, vape oil, tincture, edible, or topical. That’s because numerous factors determine THC’s bioavailability. The conventional wisdom is to begin with, lower doses and then work your way up gradually. Also, consult your physician before using THC or any other cannabis product.
