This is not intended as advice, medical, legal or otherwise, and is to be used solely for educational purposes. See Program Agreement for further disclaimers and release of liability.
Dear People,
Countless numbers of people have found enormous pain relief, safely, using cannabis. We hear about others who have successfully healed their cancers. To my and the entire industry’s knowledge, no one has ever died from using just cannabis. They might have had a terrible, not-soon-forgotten emergency room experience. But they haven’t died. Before the 1920’s-30’s, it was regularly prescribed in small amounts for pain and nervous disorders by family physicians. In the 30’s it became demonized by the Rockefellers and the nascent pharmaceutical industry, eventually making cannabis so illegal and propagandized as evil, people were jailed for the rest of their lifetimes just for having the tiniest amount in their possession. However, it must be used responsibly and with mindful purpose. Some cancers it might aggravate instead of heal. Some people have allergic reactions of various types using cannabis.
So, you see all the disclaimers scattered around my cannabis topics. I hear you. Many are in so much pain, are desperate for relief, and have been around the medical establishments’ merry-go-round so many times that the disclaimers no longer matter. But here on this site, please know that in any of my cannabis topics as you review them and might start doubting again, hold your despair at bay a bit. I want to let you know that even if cannabis also ends up being not for you, this site is loaded with tons of alternatives that so many others have successfully used to reduce their pains WITHOUT any cannabis at all, or with just the slightest amount one time a day. I so encourage you to continue to explore the rest. Perhaps you too will be one of those truly free from all the drugs! Please give yourself a chance.
Cannabis THC Dosing
This section will help in setting up your tolerance break days off, conditioning your body against side effects (which the tolerance break days off will affect) and finding your optimal dose amount (the smallest amount of medicine needed for optimal pain reduction).
Some heads-up notes are here at the beginning.
Do begin with the Getting Started with Cannabis article first.
In this article middle section are the basic instructions for dosing.
And the last 3rd of this article has several more important notes about dosing.
This information here will be using either an inhaled [ONLY if you have zero respiratory or lung conditions] or an ingested dose.
Transdermal patches will be discussed in another section.
BEFORE YOU BEGIN: Realize that cannabis in all forms interacts uniquely with each of us and interacts with other medications we might be taking.
Cannabis can enhance the effects of some meds and reduce the effects of others and it’s not black or white.
In addition, because cannabis has been illegal federally for so long as well as that it’s a threat to the Big Pharma meds, interactions between cannabis and every other medication is sketchy at best.
With that said, BEFORE YOU BEGIN, check here for any medications you might be taking against cannabis. Just enter “cannabis” into the site’s cross reaction box and then any other medicine you are taking.
You can then decide if you want to go forward. You can check with your doctor but if they are not a cannabis specialist doctor they won’t know what to tell you.
AND SOME Pharma MEDS must be SLOWLY reduced if you want to take something instead. Please be aware to not just stop some med you are taking in order to try cannabis. Talk to your doctor.
Conversely, if you start taking cannabis and it works for you and you consume it regularly, do check any future meds against it and KNOW– cannabis medicine can stay in the body for several weeks after your last dose. No one knows the half life or where it is for each individual.
So if you decide to just stop cannabis and then take a Pharma med, cannabis might STILL be INTERACTING with the new med even though you have stopped taking cannabis to use the new med.
When using your cannabis medicine, do not drive, operate vehicles or equipment or take the medicine when needing to give full attention to what you are doing until you are at the dose you need without feeling any effects except pain reduction and you know your sensations after taking it.
And, with commercial tinctures or butters, even with homemade medicines, medicines meant to be ingested, still ALWAYS TEST first ON THE SKIN for 2-3 days on a patch of skin like inside the elbow or the wrist with a small amount. If your area begins to show red anytime, you could be allergic to something in it and will need to then monitor your ingestion too.
Some people, me for one, are highly allergic to any type cannabis product applied to the skin. This is whether or not the product is homemade with few ingredients, commercial salves, or “really good ingredients” products. We can ingest the medicine just fine but not use any on the skin.
If this allergic reaction product is an ingestible, then either stop and don’t ingest it, or ingest only a tiny amount to start and self monitor.
Besides normal cannabis initial side effects (which usually are euphoria/psychoactive, dizziness, sedating) people can have an allergenic reaction to the cannabis or the other ingredients mixed in.
If you are having side effects that are NOT a little initial euphoria or dizziness, sleepiness or alert when intended (some cannabis is energizing), then STOP.
People can try again on another day or try a different type cannabis, but if people have rashes, headache, nausea, diarrhea, (and they have not been consuming so they are not having withdrawal symptoms) those generally are allergenic responses not initial “your body will soon adjust” side effects. Then don’t use that particular medicine even if it’s homemade.
Most people find the optimal time to take the doses until their bodies are euphoria side-effect free are in the evening one or two hours before sleep.
Using cannabis for medicine is a completely unique, individual experiment regarding method of consumption, how much to use and the timing of its use for symptom relief.
When just beginning, or needing to start again, a good idea is using the CHART idea provided and take notes!
Some people take very small doses every 2-4 hours during the day.
Some people like to take just one dose a couple hours before sleep.
Keep in mind that according to cannabis and pain management specialist physician, Dr. David Bearman, MD, about 20 mg of THC has the analgesic properties of about 60 mg of codeine which is in the Tylenol #4.
For people using The RECIPE for the dosing, 20 mg would be a little more than 1/2 a teaspoon (which is a very LARGE amount).
DO NOT take that large a dose getting started. It might take some people a few weeks to build up to that amount, otherwise they could have more side effects than just being high. Some people might NEVER be able to consume that much per day without side effects.
Remember everyone is an individual and every single body will react and respond differently to cannabis in any form.
GO SLOW. GO LOW.
Whether 20 mg is taken as one dose in the evening after getting used to it (if even needing that large a dose), or split up into tiny doses during the day, the body needs to build up a little tolerance to having abundant cannabis in the system.
In addition, consuming cannabis in an oil based tincture or coconut oil base “butter”, in whatever THC concentration, might not work with some people’s digestive tract/gut. Hardly any of the THC medicine AT ALL might end up as medicine in the body if the body can’t digest it out of the oils in the first place.
Professionals say any oil based medicines doses therefore, of whatever quantity need to be held in the mouth about 5 minutes and then swallowed, allowing some of the medicine to by-pass the gut.
Or the medicine needs to be applied as a transdermal patch or INHALED instead.
Let’s begin:
So GO SLOW and GO LOW
First thing is to find two consecutive days per week to abstain from taking any of the cannabis medicine. People use an alternative method of pain relief on those days off. Daily use of aspirin and Peat’s carrot salad can help immensely during the days off.
If this break from taking cannabis is not taken, most people start experiencing “tolerance” and needing higher and higher doses to get their pain relief, more than their initial experiments. This “needing more” can then be re-set, but it often means now taking off 2-4 weeks of abstaining from any cannabis at all to get back to square one with tolerance.
Most of the unpleasant side effects happen when too much THC is consumed at one time.
When someone has not used THC cannabis ever or for a long time, it can take 2-3 weeks of consistent, LOW doses to get over feeling “dizzy”, or “euphoric” after taking even small doses.
Some people never get over these sensations. It’s an experiment.
Most people find that a good dose for someone is the smallest dose used that after a couple weeks or so of using it, and even after stopping using it for one or 2 days and then starting again, the person no longer feels high or dizzy.
And this tolerance will “hold” then beyond the two days off every week. Most people find that once their cannabinoid tolerance level is wisely set for a few weeks, their dose can be consistent with no side effects even with the day coming back from their two-day-off-a-week break.
They should however notice pain reduction. And depending on the size dose, they should no longer feel too sleepy during their active dose but only relaxed, unless it’s near usual sleep time.
The Recipe noted in this section can only be made homemade, it won’t be found in the shops. The way it’s made has been found to help most people with an entouraged-effect product of a good balance between THC-rich and CBD-rich plant materials. In the small doses most people use and often together with the rest of the holistic recommendations on this site, this helps most people experience enough pain reduction to make a difference in their lives without getting them high.
How most people are taking the dose:
Either using a medical-grade type dry plant vaporizer inhaler or a trial joint to puff, or the coconut oil RECIPE to ingest:
Most newbies start with only 2 mg THC per dose as they are getting used to it.
With the Recipe as instructed to be made, 2 mg is about a couple-grains-of-rice-sized or HALF a 1/8th teaspoon spice-spoon (1/16th of a teaspoon).
Alternately, since homemade cannabis medicine cannot be lab exact per dose, 1/16th of a teaspoon is about the size of a woman’s little finger nail by HALF. Just a dab off a tiny spatula or handle of a small spoon is one dose to start.
And if inhaling, maybe only one, weak-inhale puff.
Most people USE ONLY ONE initial puff or 1/16th teaspoon DOSE PER DAY (before sleep) getting started.
Even if they still feel all their pain.
When dosing with the coconut oil recipe, people HOLD THE DOSE FOR A COUPLE MINUTES OR MORE UNDER THE TONGUE BEFORE SWALLOWING.
After ONE DOSE of 2 mg THC the FIRST DAY, people wait 24 HOURS BEFORE TAKING another dose. All should make a note of how they feel and chart any effects.
Most use only ONE PUFF –OR- 1/16th teaspoon per day until they do not feel dizzy or other side effects after taking it. This could take a few days in a row of “only one dose”.
Now, if people do still feel pain after that one dose, many add another bit to their one dose after a few days.
After a few days and no longer feeling dizzy taking the small dose, AND IF PEOPLE STILL HAVE PAIN, then most add a 2nd puff or a total of 1/8th teaspoon taken as one dose each day until after taking that much they no longer feel any effects except pain relief. This could take a few days.
If the pain level of someone is reduced to where they can function, people generally consider this is the daily dose for now.
This starting with a small amount and adding a tiny bit more in every subsequent dose is called titrating up/down.
A good idea is to always note the symptoms and any side effects or allergenic responses.
Most people are successful at the pain reduction they need at 1/8th to 1/4th teaspoon of the Recipe coconut oil or just a couple or three of puffs per day.
But if not:
Many then try, after one 1/8th teaspoon dose per day at a time is successful, adding another 1/8th teaspoon amount but adding it as a second dose 2-3 hours prior to the night time dose per day, for several days (1/4th teaspoon total a day taken as two doses).
After a few days, if the pain is still thought to be too great, people add a 3rd daily dose a few hours before again.
People successfully repeat this by adding another small dose every 2-3 hours before the last one for a few days(3/8th teaspoons total taken in three 1/8thth teaspoon doses for the day).
And add another 1/8th teaspoon dose starting in the morning and every two or 3 hours after, until they are taking all 4 of 1/8th teaspoons (a 1/2 teaspoon total for the day) 20 mg total doses but spread out throughout the day, and successfully have maximum pain relief while still being clear headed.
Again, this is maybe 1/2 teaspoon total for the day (but spread out throughout the day a little at a time) which many consider about 20 mg when following the Recipe.
Or people stop with any amount they’ve reached if the pain is handled.
People don’t need to, and shouldn’t take, more than needed for the relief.
Good practice is to begin to be aware of your body and check in with yourself to see how you feel. Always be careful driving, operating equipment or watching small children etc. at the beginning until all the doses can be taken while still feeling alert and in charge.
Most find it best to take only the LEAST amount needed for pain relief.
Also, know that some people’s pain is so great, cannabis alone will not give 100% relief, and they experiment with more doses.
It’s a juggling act then between feeling a bit high and feeling pain relief.
However, even if all the pain isn’t gone by using only small amounts, most people still feel the other positive effects of using it of “no longer noticing how much it hurts” as a success.
Keep in mind high doses (even several 1/8th teaspoons spread out) can keep most people “high” as they use it for quite a number of weeks, and becoming tolerant is a bigger risk.
Some people think it’s ok to take bigger doses if needed. Most then start being able to tolerate the bigger doses without feeling too high or will start to adjust to how they handle being alert—but each person then reaches that “too much” point and then needs to have to take a 2-4 week “tolerance break” to re-set themselves to being able to use less with the same effect.
Most people find taking one or two days off per week from taking it can really help keep their tolerance levels in check, even when taking higher doses.
Here are some additional NOTES:
Because the experiment phase to “dial it up” and “get it just right” with cannabis marijuana (THC) use can take weeks, then change again here and there as our bodies change and events happen to us, most people find their optimal and long lasting success by instead using cannabis TOGETHER with the very holistic, combined techniques presented throughout The Daily MICROdose.
When a person seeks and uses clean real foods, clean water, clean air, few supplements and is able to organize their mindset, then using cannabis becomes a small component of the whole. Using all the techniques together gives one a very high chance for finding lasting and optimal success of pain symptom reduction, along with the reduction of cannabis side effects.
By the way, many newbies find the same sensations when they are getting used to consuming CBD-only cannabis/hemp-based flower too!
Most have also found a great help with these initial side effects and that supports long term symptom reduction too, is to always consider dosing with whole plant cannabis (as inhaling the flower bud or with full spectrum products) that utilizes all the cannabinoids, not just THC.
This is the “entourage effect” mentioned earlier. When all the natural cannabinoids are in the medicine (and there are over 400 different constituents along with the cannabinoids), most experience the main cannabinoids seeming to have a more successful healing and pain reducing effect with the least side effects.
As well, and because the majority of marijuana plants today are hybrid grown to contain max THC and very little CBD, more people are successful with cannabis medicine for the consumer that either has some CBD added back into the product or a whole plant CBD-rich inhaled or ingested dose is taken in addition to the THC doses.
The RECIPE for making what many consider optimal medicine shows how to easily create the best medicine to handle these symptoms.
To state this again, most people start with low doses, maybe 2-3 mg only of THC in the dose, taken 2 hours before night sleep to begin to “get used to it” and then over time take more doses during the day, 2-4 hours apart of so.
Many people realize a great reduction in their symptoms with ONLY THIS SMALL AMOUNT even going forward.
However, most people with severe acute or chronic pain on a scale of 8-10 or more, need about 20-30 mg TCH (Delta 9 THC) of a full cannabis plant solution (not pure THC) per day, split up into about 4 doses of approx. 5-8 mg per dose. Some people need higher doses; some will need much lower doses.
Unless you live in a long-time-legal state with well stocked cannabis dispensaries, most people will not be able to purchase “exact dose” medicine and they will need to use a homemade coconut oil Recipe, use a transdermal patch or inhale it by either smoking a cannabis “cigarette”/joint or DRY vaporizing it in a medical grade type vaporizing device (vaporizing as the most professionally recommended way to inhale cannabis medicine).
You generally do NOT want to regularly inhale combusted smoke like in joints or in most of the cheap dry plant vaporizers.
And ANYONE with ANY respiratory or lung condition at all should NOT inhale cannabis in any form.
That said, most people find enormous relief even doing “the best they can” with doses.
Most people who can safely inhale find smoking or inhaling dry vapor is the fastest pain relief (seconds to a very few minutes) and the shortest lasting relief (maybe an hour or two).
A purchased or hand rolled “joint” or pre-roll is usually 1 gram of flower and has about 150 mg or more THC in it, based on a 15% THC flower profile.
However, only a small amount of this much THC will actually be consumed into the body when smoking since a lot of the THC goes up with the flame. However, smoking the plant is the LEAST effective way of determining the size of a dose. Everyone, every body, every joint, every pre-roll, every strain and combo of strains is different and every smoking session will be a new experiment.
People must USE GREAT CAUTION WHEN SMOKING until they are experienced and have set some body tolerance level of the cannabinoids. People can overdose cannabis taking too large an inhale, or too many puffs, especially when new, just like with the dangers of using cannabis edibles. It can be very difficult and unexacting to dose medicine these ways. See Getting Started with Cannabis.
DO NOT smoke or inhale a whole 1 gram joint in one session!
As a note, smoking cannabis cigarettes (joints, pre-rolls) can be harsh since unless these are self-rolled with high quality flower bud, the manufacturers tend to use the less desirable parts of the plant to roll into the pre-made joints.
Rolling papers can be purchased from a tobacco shop and people can roll their own joints. Most cannabis smokers find a better experience buying high quality organic paper rolling papers, and buying the highest quality, premium and freshest cannabis flower if they’re going to be making joints and smoking them on a regular basis. These can be papers can be found online or together with the high quality cannabis flower from a variety of legal dispensary sellers.
Those who live in California can look for premium, high quality marijuana flower that often comes from the Humboldt County growing areas. Ask about it at your California higher-end dispensaries.
And look up an online video to see how to roll a joint if you don’t already know how. Many of the cannabis dispensary employees can also show you.
With a small gram scale (there is a short video to watch at the link showing how to weigh out cannabis plant on the scale), one gram of plant can be weighed out to make into one cannabis one-gram joint cigarette.
Most people are more successful when they MICRODOSE the chosen method by taking only one puff on the joint or by putting a very small amount (half of a finger-nail or less amount) of plant in a dry vaporizer or small “pot pipe” (purchased from a local tobacco shop, about $10….) and taking only one to 2 gentle inhale puffs per dose (snuff out the chamber or the joint so the plant materials are not wasted burning in between puffs microdosing).
Some people think a puff, depending on the strength of someone’s inhale draw, the type of cannabis used and holding it in the lungs for a bit, could be about 2-5 mg.
Better, and more controllable, is to make yourself a recipe of coconut oil-based solution (do not use MCT, people are beginning to get fatty liver symptoms from ingesting too much MCT from their Keto diets and medicines).
Most people experience an oil based solution of a dose (coconut oil butter) taking 20 minutes to a couple of hours to have effect but it could then also last 3-4 hours or more. It takes longer to take effect because even when holding the solution under the tongue for a few minutes before swallowing, to get a sublingual effect, it is still going through the digestive track.
Results are VERY individual when ingesting, either way.
Using coconut oil infused cannabis as the medicine, even though dosing in tiny quantities, is considered an edible. Timing to relief could take a lot longer than 20 minutes, sometimes an hour or two, but once a person knows how long it takes to take effect, they can space the doses accordingly.
And a wise Quote from Dr. David Bearman, MD and cannabis and pain management specialist:
“From the 19th- 20th century, cannabis was the 3rd most common ingredient in patent medicines and over the counter and prescription medication after alcohol and opium. Cannabis really was a first choice 120 years ago. It was in a lot of nostroms that were used to treat pain.
Go online and look at some of the old medical bottles, what’s in there and what they were manufactured or advertised for and it was for treatment of pain. Take a look at Remington’s 1927 textbook of pharmacy (I have one because it belonged to my father who was a pharmacist) and it says the two most common reasons for recommending or prescribing cannabis is as an analgesic and as an anti-anxiety. No reason not to use cannabis as a first line.
Be careful when using during the day if it makes one less sharp in thinking, or needing to drive in unimpaired fashion, so you might instead take the doses when you are at home at supper or bedtime….it’s useful as an everyday medicine.
About 20 mg of THC has the analgesic properties of about 60 mg of codeine which is in the Tylenol #4, but including cannabis in a normal daily regimen of health and wellness can find it to be beneficial, depending on what doses one is using (and you can’t just jump into this, one size does not fit all), so start on a weekend for example when not needing to drive so you get some idea of what dose is for you, what side effects you might feel and if you want to use medical cannabis for your medical problems, large or small.
You can actually use relatively small doses of 2.5 to 5 mg of THC and CBD that can give you relief from anxiety and relief from some of the muscle spasm and that will not give you any euphoria.”
(And note the same use in these photos below from my own copy of Remington’s from 1907…the same reasons for using it):
See the images I took from an antique medical library book I acquired, Remington’s Practice of Pharmacy circa 1907 (Many iterations later, this textbook is still in use in medical schools today, updated to reflect Big Pharma). This is the same textbook but 20 years earlier as the one Dr. Bearman’s Dad used.
The tincture is specified to be extracted with alcohol solvent and used as an anodyne [pain reliever] and nervous stimulant [depression, anxiety]. And the dose given varies depending on how the preparation is made and the use.
Note the dose size specified:
The dose in 1907 varied with how it was made [calculated as an alcohol extract with the plant material of 115 years ago with very weak THC levels, the dose was perhaps (my interpretation) 2-4 mg THC per dose in small doses PRESCRIBED]. The dose as one grain (0.065 gm) was of the dry plant, about 5 mg perhaps, if their plants back then had 9-10% THC in them. Or less if the plants had less THC.
