Wondering how to properly measure and calculate the THC dosage of your marijuana edibles?
If you’ve got a few good marijuana recipes and need a way to calculate the THC dosage per serving then you’ve come to the right place. First, it’s important to know a strong sense of precaution is a good thing when cooking with cannabis. One thing you don’t want to do is make edibles that are way too strong.
OK let’s get cooking. In order to accurately determine the THC dosage per serving you first have to research and identify the percentage of THC in the strain you will be cooking with. On average, most strains have generally have 10% + THC. Strains that have 15-20% THC are above average, and those with 21% + and over are considered very strong. If you are having a hard time finding online plant breeding information or cannabis lab tests for the strain you are using, for the sake of this article we will use a strain that has a 10% THC content.
Now for the fun stuff, let’s break down our THC potency levels using a little math, don’t worry it’s not that bad. For every 1 gram of cannabis flower it has 1,000mg of dry weight. So that means if a strain has on average 10% THC, we can divide 1,000mg by 10% and we get 100mg. So for cooking or baking cannabis at home, it’s safe to assume that a gram of cannabis contains at least 100mg of THC assuming the strain being used has a 10% THC content.
Using the above measurement formula, we can do the math accordingly to find out exactly how much THC is in each serving size. To do this take the amount of ground marijuana, (lets say 14 grams), convert it to milligrams of THC (1400mg THC), and then divide it by the recipe yield (say 90 cookies) to determine a per-serving dose of THC.
1400mg divided by 90 cookies = 15.5mg of THC per serving size.
So what if we want to reduce the potency? Using the same formula from above we know that seven grams of ground marijuana will equal 700mg THC, provided that the cannabis strain has 10% THC content.
700mg divided by the recipe yield, (again 90 cookies) = 7.7mg of THC per cookie.
To help put the above dosage levels into proper perspective, a safe beginners starting dosage of THC is generally recommended to be 5mg per serving (however some states like Colorado have mandated per serving sizes for marijuana infused edibles to be 10mg of THC, so be sure to check local regulations). We suggest taking the time to find your own individual tolerance level for a happy balance.
Some Helpful Marijuana Edible Tips:
- The duration of the effects that are felt last for much longer when eating cannabis as compared to smoking it.
- If you eat cannabis with fatty and protein rich foods, the effects may last longer in the body as the THC will be stored in the fat.
- If you eat cannabis in sugary and or a candy form, the effects may not last for as long.
- After eating an edible, we recommend waiting at least an hour hour. If you don’t feel the effects quite enough, don’t consume another marijuana edible, rather eat something fatty in order to increase the effects of the marijuana.
- If you feel like you have eaten too much, it is recommend to drink something that is high in sugar, like orange juice for example, to help raise your blood sugar levels which will help reduce the duration and effects.
Now that you know how to properly calculate the THC dosage and potency in your marijuana recipes it’s time to get cooking. For some inspiration check out our guide on creating the best cannabutter on the planet as well as our super chocolate chunk marijuana brownie recipe.