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Introduction
Hello. It’s Dr. Chou here with the Medical Marijuana Clinic of Louisiana coming to you with our latest article and video on our official website CHOUMD.COM
As you are aware, Wellcana recently released two new tinctures: THC 600 and Balanced 300. They are essentially a double strength version of their initial products.
So I felt it would be a good idea today to give some Advanced Tips for taking a Medical Marijuana tincture.
No food or drink before or after the medical marijuana dose
Standard advice is not to take food or drink 15 minutes before or after the medical marijuana dose.
The reason for this is two fold.
One is that having food or drink can coat the mouth and esophagus and make absorption inconsistent, so the dose will not feel as strong or have the timing that you are used to.
The second is that food or drink after the dose (I know some people feel the need to wash away the strong flavor) can push the tincture into the stomach where it will be rapidly inactivated by stomach acids, which will again cause the dose to not feel as strong or have the timing you are accustomed to.
It may not be possible to alleviate all symptoms with the same dose
Take a case of a patient with multiple symptoms they are trying to alleviate, such as a patient with chronic pain and appetite issues.
While THC in general may be a good option for this patient, remember that THC operates on a biphasic profile, which means that some symptoms will show optimal improvement at lower doses, while others will show improvement at higher doses.
In my experience, patients who are looking for help with appetite often experience benefits with 5mg of THC, while chronic pain may not improve until dosages reach 10mg or 15mg of THC.
However, if you take a larger dose to help with your chronic pain, because of the biphasic nature of medical marijuana, the appetite benefits may go away.
Unfortunately that’s one of the trickiest things about working with medical marijuana.
Understand the timing issues with a tincture
Getting the timing down with a tincture is a little tricky.
Unlike inhalable forms of marijuana, which usually have an onset of action within a minute, the rough guidelines with a tincture is an onset of action in 1 hour, peak effect in 3 hours, and duration of 6 hours.
However, every patient is different, and it often takes a lot of practice and patience to get the timing down.
That’s why I strongly suggest patients keep a log of their treatment results, including dose, positive effects, side effects, and timing with particular attention to when the effects start, when they peak, and how long they last.
Know when to increase the dose and when to take it more often
Keep in mind that you should always discuss dosing changes with your doctor or pharmacist.
A lot of people get confused as to when they should increase their dose, and when they should take the dose more often.
In general, if you are not getting a strong enough effect, you should increase the dose. Due to the biphasic nature of THC, there may be rare occasions where you would actually decrease the dose. But in most instances, to get a stronger effect you would increase the dose.
However, what if you are getting a good effect but it’s not lasting long enough? In general, the length of effect is related to the route of administration, and not the dose. Increasing the dose will give you a stronger effect, but it won’t make the effect last longer.
In you want to increase the duration of the effect, you would need to change the route of administration to a longer lasting form, like an edible. If a tincture is your only option (like in Louisiana currently), the only solution would be to take the tincture more often.
Don’t mix up the dosing between the original and concentrated products
Now that there are multiple strengths of THC and Balanced products, be extra careful not to take the wrong dose.
Don’t keep the bottles out in the open. Keep the bottles in the box they come in.
Another reason to keep the boxes around is the label and instructions are on the box.
If you have been taking the original concentration of the tincture, and you are now switching to the more concentrated ones, remember that you will only need half the dose to have the same effects.
For example, if you were previous taking 1cc (or one dropper) of the original THC tincture, now you’ll only need to take 0.5cc (or half a dropper) of the THC 600 tincture.
Because most patients will end up taking half the dose than before, the calibrations on the dropper may no longer apply, so having a supply of 1cc syringes will be extremely helpful.
Summary
So that’s my Advanced Tips for taking a Medical Marijuana tincture. Please feel free to browse my other articles and videos on Medical Marijuana.
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