Health Canada‘s 10 mg limit per package for edibles will be creating many limitations. Medical cannabis patients, at the very least, should be granted other options. Like individually portioned edibles, but not individually packaged.
In fact, this should be a model for all edibles. Although, a further solution exists.
Reading through the Cannabis Act many months ago, my gut wrenched several times. Reading the proposal for this “10mg per discreet unit, ” when comparing with the limitations given to cannabis oils, concerned and confused me.
Cannabis Tolerance
Being allowed to buy a 200 mg solid chocolate bar might be hard to argue in favour of, despite this dose being necessary for heavy users. Health Canada, as well as Canada’s Department of Justice, through the science society they use for validating roadside law, officially recognizes tolerance.
Alcohol tolerance is also recognized, albeit in a drastically different biological function because your body’s detoxification of alcohol can become more efficient over time.
Cannabis has a more peaceful story as receptors become less sensitive and less naturally active, leading to what is known as an endocannabinoid deficiency. This is seen in regular changes amongst individuals, as well as disease such as a migraine, ADHD, and more severely in early-onset Huntington’s disease.
The Edibles Threshold
The threshold dose of oral THC is 10 MG, which was evaluated in populations with no tolerance for cannabis. A threshold is the lowest possible dose to give any actual effect.
So if there’s no 200 mg chocolate bars, how do we get properly dosed edibles?!
Solutions For Now
Well, grow your own weed and have it lab tested is my recommendation.
Alternatively, you can use oils, which are activated and dosed. These are cannabis mixed with MCT oil, or other cooking oils. Easy to add to many dishes for cooking and baking. Grey stores are diminishing, which carry oils from craft producers. Making these products with care and love. Whereas big sale LPs mill down trim to nearly the consistency of flour before extracting a crude cannabis oil they have processed until pure enough for sale.
For easy to consume and medicate with remedies, we will have to wait to waste a ton of packaging. Which recyclable, eco-friendly, hemp-based solutions should be fought for.
Solutions to Fight For
Alternatively, for non-medicinal persons, a mg/g of THC/edible ratio should be used, much like oils mg/mls ratio. Maybe a 10 gram ‘confectionery, ’ also known as candy when the feds aren’t watching, should not be sold at 80 mg a piece. A pack of eight 10 mg candies at 10-15 grams each, is not unreasonable. Perhaps a rule of exponential dose depletion as overall weight increases could be further negotiated. As in, a 10 gram package contains 10 mg, but a 100 gram package contains a maximum of 50 mg THC in portioned pieces, no more than 10 mg each.
Please? Our Innocent Herb
I know this sounds complex, although simple solutions seem to be either consumer unjust or socially impractical. This demands tactile solutions, which are reasonable for cannabis specifically. Overdosing on cannabis just means consuming too much and becoming incredibly paranoid. A small chance your brain will be lacking blood too excessively, although this is never to a dangerous degree with weed. Alcohol is an infamous murderer, poisoning you after over-consumption. These restrictions on cannabis are excessive. Be creative and speak up. Despite a long list of bad mistakes, Health Canada’s failures are simply from lack of funding and inexperience.
Unlike the Department of Justice, they do listen to us through all of the federal demands.
Featured image courtesy of Strategy Online.
Sources
Heustis, M. (2007, August 1). Human Cannabinoid Pharmacokinetics. PMCID: PMC2689518
Barrus, D., Capogrossi, K., Cates, S., Gourdet, C., Peiper, N., Novak, S., Lefever, T. and Wiley, J. (2016). Tasty THC: Promises and Challenges of Cannabis Edibles PMCID: PMC5260817
Health Canada. (2018). Information for Health Care Professionals: Cannabis (marihuana, marijuana) and the cannabinoids.
Canadian Society of Forensic Science; Drugs and Driving Committee (DDC). (2017). Report on Drug Per Se Limits.