How Long Does a Weed High Last & What are the Effects of Cannabis
- 1. Type of weed
- 2. Factors
- 3. How long do the effects last?
- 3. a. Smoking or vaping
- 3. b. Dabbing
- 3. c. Eating
- 3. d. Alcohol
- 4. Is there any way to end a high faster?
- 4. a. Take a nap
- 4. b. Try some cbd
- 4. c. Try some black pepper
- 4. d. Eat some pine nuts
- 4. e. Have some lemon peel
- 5. Extend it
- 6. First-timer tips
- 7. Precautions
- 8. Is cannabis legal?
- 9. Detection time frames
- 9. a. Urine test
- 9. b. Saliva test
- 9. c. Hair test
- 10. Is cannabis addictive?
- 11. Help
- 12. Faq
- 12. a. How long does it take to recover from weed?
- 12. b. How long do red eyes last from weed?
- 12. c. Why do i feel high after quitting weed?
- 12. d. How long can an edible high last?
- 12. e. How long do edibles last 80mg?
- 12. f. Why am i still high after eating edibles?
We've all been in a situation when a weed high ends too soon or stretches into eternity and messes up our plans or takes forever to kick in. In this article, we'll answer such questions as 'How long does a marijuana high last?' and give you a timeline of cannabis highs for different consumption methods, situations, and scenarios.
Type of Weed
The type of weed you consume probably plays the most important role in how strong and long-lasting your high will be. In cannabis, female plants produce much more THC and other cannabinoids than male plants. Among female plants, those with seeds are less potent than those without. (Female flowers without seeds are called sinsemilla.) Besides, roots have almost no THC, stems and branches contain only trace amounts of it, leaves are more potent and are often used for edibles or even smokes, and unseeded female buds are virtual THC depots choke-full of it.
Moreover, buds aren't even the most potent cannabis product. There are also different forms of concentrates – from traditional hashish to newer forms of extracts, such as shatter and wax, live resin, rosin, etc. Obviously, the more concentrated the product, the longer the high.
| Plant Matter | Concentrates | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Roots | 0% | Hash | 20-60% |
| Stems | 0.3% | Shatter | more than 60% |
| Fan Leaves | up to 1.5% | Wax | 40-80% |
| Trim Leaves | up to 15% | Live Resin | 65-95% |
| Buds | up to 35% | Rosin | 75-85% |
Factors
While the product itself is very important, a lot also depends on your individual reaction to it, and the most essential factors are:
- Your rate of metabolism. It's faster in men than women and also slows down with age.
- Your body mass and fat percentage. Cannabinoids are fat-soluble, so body fat serves as a sink for them while thin persons have no such buffer and feel the effects full force and for a long time.
- Your tolerance. The longer you've been a smoker, the less potent and long-lasting the high is from the same dosage.
- Unpredictable individual differences. People have different numbers of receptors that react to THC, and those are distributed in the brain differently. That's why the strength and length of the effects are largely unpredictable. You won't know for sure until you try.
How Long Do the Effects Last?
The duration of the effects largely depends on the method of consumption although don't forget about the factors we've discussed above.
Smoking or Vaping
These are two of the fastest ways of getting high. The THC in the smoke or vapor gets into your bloodstream through the lungs and is felt within minutes. Some strains act almost instantly, others (referred to as 'creepers') may take up to 10 minutes to kick in. The high may last anywhere from 1 to 3 hours and then tapers off. Novices who have consumed too much marijuana can feel the effects for up to 8 hours. There may be some lingering aftereffects, such as relaxation and a good mood.
Dabbing
In principle, dabbing is no different from smoking or vaping, but the smoke that a dabber inhales is much more concentrated so the onset is usually immediate. The potency also contributes to a longer-lasting high.
Eating
When you consume cannabis orally, you may feel initial lightheadedness in the first few minutes as a small amount of THC gets absorbed by blood vessels in your mouth. Then, these feelings will be gone completely and till the moment the real effects kick in – within 30 minutes to an hour and a half, sometimes even more than 2 hours. The absorption rates depend on whether you've taken edibles on an empty stomach or with a lot of rich food. The same factors determine if the effects will last long or not. This can be anywhere from 4-5 to 24 hours.
Alcohol
Alcohol is an almost perfect solvent for cannabinoids. A little of them first gets absorbed in your mouth, and then the rest is sucked up in the stomach. The timeline of the high is more or less the same as for edibles, maybe a bit shorter.
Is There Any Way to End a High Faster?
Frankly, you can't do anything to make weed effects end faster because there's no detox chemical that can quickly degrade THC or remove it from our body or detach it from receptors in our brain. Even emergency room doctors have nothing at their disposal. So, you'll need to ride the high out. But does it need to be a bad trip? Well, not necessarily as there're a few ways to take the edge off things.
Take a Nap
If you're overwhelmed and disoriented and the effects go on and on (or so it seems), just lie down and try to fall asleep. You'll wake up refreshed and with replenished energy levels. Staying awake, on the other hand, would be a fight against racing thoughts and waves of panic, and it'll exhaust you.
Try Some CBD
Though they come from the same plant, THC and CBD have totally different effects. In some ways, they are each other's opposites. People have long found out that smoking a strain of weed rich in both substances creates a mellow and calm experience. So, if you have smoked some buds with little or no CBD and the effects are too much and the comedown is like a distant dream, have some CBD oil to take the edge off things.
Try Some Black Pepper
The next three pieces of advice are based on the fact that cannabinoids aren't the only class of active substances in the cannabis plant. The other class is terpenes – volatile aromatic compounds that make weed so fragrant (or funky – depending on your personal taste). Terpenes aren't unique to cannabis – most other plants have them too – and they exert subtler but noticeable effects on your mood. For example caryophyllene in peppercorns is like a chill pill for when your high is too strong and long-lasting or causes a fit of paranoia. So, chew some peppercorns to smooth out the peak or hasten the comedown.
Eat Some Pine Nuts
Pinene is another important terpene that can modify your experience with weed. Research says it makes the brain more alert – a nice quality for when you're spaced out and can't find your way back to Earth. If your particular strain is poor in pinene, you can get some by eating pine nuts (if you aren't allergic, of course).
Have Some Lemon Peel
Lemon peel is rich in limonene, and this terp is anxiolytic. Take the anxiety out of your high and it probably won't seem so long to you, right? You may even wish it lasted longer. So, steep some lemon peel in warm water and drink it. Even sniffing fresh lemons may help.
Extend It
Another group of smokers that asks the question, 'How long does a high last?', are those who get a weak batch of buds, feel cheated, and want to know if it's normal for the high to peter out so quickly. The next thing they want to know is how to make the high last longer.
Well, this brings us back to terpenes as there is one particular terp called myrcene that may be responsible for a heavier and longer-lasting stone. You may try if it works for you by eating mangos next time you smoke your cannabis. Mangos are famous for their high myrcene content.
While the advice above is highly controversial, there's a method that's working 100%. It's edibles. Edibles take their sweet time to kick in, but they also stay in the system for longer. You can also make the high more powerful, turning even fan leaves that hardly anyone smokes into a potent cannabutter or steeping them in coconut oil.
First-Timer Tips
It's newbie smokers who suffer the most from too-potent or too-long effects, so take some precautions if you want to make your first time with weed special.
- don't mix cannabis with alcohol and other mind-altering stuff,
- go low and slow and stick to less potent strains for your first experiments,
- start with a toke or two and wait for the effects to peak before deciding if you want more,
- with edibles, wait full 2 hours before the next dose,
- choose a day off so that you have time to ride the high out,
- use weed in safe, familiar surroundings and with people you know and trust,
- have drinks and snacks at hand,
- if you start panicking, remember: no one has ever died from weed.
Precautions
While cannabis is remarkably safe to use compared with most other legal and illegal psychoactive substances, it isn't totally risk-free. The biggest risk comes, of course, from its being forbidden in many countries, and the penalties can be very severe. We'd also strongly advise you against driving while intoxicated and engaging in other high-risk activities such as skiing, diving, etc.
Besides, there are potentially dangerous short-term changes and long-term health effects (usually manifesting after several decades of consumption).
Short-term:
- faster heart rate,
- mental fog and confusion,
- parched mouth and throat (you can choke on food),
- anxiety and paranoia.
Long-term:
- chronic coughing and bronchitis,
- lower IQ and memory deficits,
- addiction and withdrawal symptoms when you quit,
- unhealthy gums.
Is Cannabis Legal?
The United Nations keeps cannabis on the list of controlled substances but not in its most strict part. This allows different countries to either ban cannabis outright (and many of them do) or allow its use for medical and research purposes. Many countries and US states have in fact allowed medical use of the substance and created working medical marijuana programs. Such countries as Germany even reimburse patients when they purchase their medicine legally. In others, such as the UK and Australia, the regulations are murky, so patients need to check their legal footing or they risk penalties.
A few countries, such as Canada and Uruguay, have gone one step further and allowed the recreational use of cannabis, and so did 15+ US states. Germany plans to follow suit. Legal experts say this runs afoul of UN treaties, but the trend is clear – more and more countries will legalize adult use and the UN will probably have to change its laws. Proposals to relax the status of cannabis internationally have already been made, but they were blocked by countries like China and Russia.
The bottom line is: the legality of cannabis depends on where you live, so be sure to check local laws.
Detection Time Frames
'How long does a weed high last?' isn't the only important question. Another one is for how long can you detect the metabolites of THC and other cannabinoids in your system after you have stopped using. The answer depends on whether you have used cannabis just one time or are a habitual smoker as cannabinoids tend to accumulate in your body.
Urine Test
Urine tests are the gold standard of testing for marijuana and are employed by everyone – from emergency room doctors to parole officers. Even after a single use, weed is detectable for 3 days. This number increases to 7 days if you smoke buds regularly, e.g. 3-4 times a day. Heavy daily users may need up to 30 days before they're clean enough to pass a drug test. Besides, your body fat plays a role too because THC is fat-soluble. So, the more body fat, the longer the detection times. Also, THC seems to metabolize a bit more slowly in women.
Saliva Test
Convenient for roadside testing, saliva tests can tell that you've been using for up to 24 hours. Sometimes, a bit more. The frequency of use doesn't matter as much here as in urine tests.
Hair Test
This one is the most tricky to pass as your hair keeps the record of your partying for up to 90 days. They say hair contains traces of THC because it comes from your skin oil. Of course, a hair test carries a substantial risk of false positives because who's to say what happened – you smoking a joint or just being in one room with a smoker?
Is Cannabis Addictive?
Like any mood-altering recreational substance, cannabis has the potential for abuse and addiction. Attempts have been made to compare it with other popular 'poisons', and weed ended up somewhere in the middle of the list – below both alcohol and cigarettes. So, it isn't especially addictive.
Of course, some people are more likely to develop an addiction. Those who are uncomfortable about their life and themselves or have some psychiatric condition are more vulnerable than others. If you're predisposed, you're more likely to get hooked if you smoke daily and also if you start young.
Addiction means reaching a point where your habit starts to interfere with your normal social functioning: when you spend too much time and effort procuring and using your drug, miss out on your work and studies, and neglect your family life. The government wants you to believe that one in eleven users gets addicted this way, but a lot of it comes down to marijuana's legality: in legal states where you just can walk into a rec shop and buy some bud for a reasonable price, a smoker (even a heavy one) would be hardly distinguishable from any other law-abiding citizen.
Help
Some marijuana smokers WILL get addicted, and it's a sad fact of life. You can live with this addiction for decades, but one day you may decide to just quit, for whatever reason. Stopping 'cold turkey' isn't dangerous but can be very unpleasant as you may experience cravings and may have trouble falling asleep and staying asleep. Insomnia will take a toll on other aspects of your life and may be accompanied by:
- Irritability,
- Mood swings,
- Poor appetite,
- Digestive problems.
Often, these symptoms will be strong enough to make you relapse. If you feel like you can't beat addiction on your own, seek outside help.
FAQ
How long does it take to recover from weed?
If you have smoked or vaped cannabis, the effects will be over within 1-4 hours. If you're a beginner and have overdosed, you may need up to 8 hours to sober up completely. When cannabis is ingested with food, the high may last anywhere from 4 to 24 hours.
How long do red eyes last from weed?
Red eyes from smoking weed don't last more than the high itself, so your eyes will probably look normal in 1 to 3 hours. A little longer in the case of overconsumption. If you've taken your marijuana orally, both the high and the side effects of red eyes may last significantly longer – up to 24 hours in the most extreme cases.
Why do I feel high after quitting weed?
It's something known as a ghost high or phantom high. You may feel some symptoms of being stoned or all of them at once. The reasons are unclear. It may be a chance activation of circuits in your brain in a pattern that's so familiar to you after all those highs you've experienced. Or maybe it's because there are still a lot of THC metabolites left in your body fat for weeks after you have quit smoking. After a while, these flashbacks will vanish.
How long can an edible high last?
The effects of edibles kick in within two hours or sooner and last for several hours – from 3-4 to 24 hours. The duration depends on the amount you have consumed (longer), how full your stomach was (longer), and how fat the accompanying food was (shorter but more intense).
How long do edibles last 80mg?
The standard recommended dosage for novices is 5mg, so 80mg is way too much. Heavy users can take 10 times this amount, up to 1000mg, in fact. For them, 80mg will be a very mild and short-lived high. Beginners, on the other hand, will feel disoriented, groggy, and miserable for 6-9 hours although the effects may not be completely over for up to 24 hours.
Why am I still high after eating edibles?
Edibles take time to absorb in your stomach and intestines and don't get sucked up all at once. Rather, your gut becomes a constant source of more and more THC coming into your bloodstream. It's the same as lighting up and taking a toke every now and then. This will be over only when the edibles either get completely absorbed or leave your system.
