Edible Marijuana More Dangerous Than Smoking

Posted by azdrugrehabctr on June 15, 2014 under Addiction Trends | Comments are off for this article

Since marijuana became legal in Colorado, shops all over the state began selling the drug in an edible form. Users can go into any marijuana shop and purchased pot brownies, cupcakes, candy and even salsa to experience a more powerful, long lasting high than when marijuana is smoked. This can be extremely dangerous because users are not able to control the amount of marijuana they are ingesting. The high is intense and lasts for a long time. Even those who have ingested marijuana for years are surprised by the intensity.

Because marijuana is now being dispensed legally, it is important to realize that the drug in an edible form is dangerous to people. They do not know how much they are getting, they have less of a chance of controlling themselves and the high can be scary, some people likening it a psychedelic.

The reason why marijuana is much more intense in food, rather than in a joint has to do with the way the body metabolized it. When someone smokes a joint it gets into the body faster, but also leaves the body faster. It gets deposited into the blood stream and produces a high. The high wears off faster than it would if you ate an item of food with marijuana in it. When you eat marijuana it goes right to the liver. Once it reaches the liver the THC gets altered and the person feels the effect of the drug. Due to the fact that the marijuana is now being metabolized by the liver, the person is feeling a much more intense high.

“In a nutshell, eaten cannabis gets metabolized by the liver, so delta-9 THC becomes 11-hydroxy-THC, which passes the blood-brain barrier more rapidly and has more of a psychedelic effect than standard THC. Smoked or vaporized cannabis bypasses the liver and doesn’t create the same 11-hydroxy-THC.” Understanding Marijuana author Mitch Earleywine, a professor of psychology at the State University of New York at Albany told The Daily Beast.

While some drug users may consider this a good thing, it actually makes the drug more dangerous for most people. Instead of feeling the desired effect of the drug, users are thrown into an intense experience that has been reported as very freighting. It is very difficult to predict the outcome when the marijuana is ingested in a food. Dealing with a marijuana addiction can be even harder when you are able to purchase items like food laced with the drug.