With So Many Cannabis Edible Products Available - How to Select the Right Ones

Until recently, the canna-economy has centered on secretive deals. The dealer controlled the transaction in terms of product and price. But, as states have legalized purchase and possession, the canna-economy stands to change immensely.

Cannabis dispensaries have taken the transactions out of the dark into increasingly robust inventories and product choice. Without options, any retail economy will flatten and disintegrate. So, cannabis farmers create new strains. Vendors offer more variety in terms of equipment, fixtures, and display. And, suppliers develop and provide multiple choices in edibles.

The question remains, “With so many cannabis products available, how are you to select the right ones?”

What are the “right” ones?

“Right” is a moving target. It could refer to flavor, texture, strain, or effectiveness. So, what are the criteria? Well, the variety of forms serves your basic purpose.

• Brownies: Cookies, brownies, and other weed-based baked goods have been around for a long time, and recipes are multiplying. Using butter or extracts, baked goods may not be as exact as some of the previously mentioned items for dosage.
• Chocolates: Everyone goes for the cannabis-infused chocolates. You don’t need to smoke to get satisfaction from candy bars, bon-bons, truffles, and the like. If there’s a problem, it lies in their deliciousness. Users must consume at the right pace without gobbling down the chocolate treats or risk taking in too much.
• Consumption: Edibles are most attractive to those who do not or cannot smoke. In addition, some medical patients have a variety of swallowing problems. Edibles come as lozenges, hard candies, chewable jellies, jerkies, and more options to make consumption easy and effective.
• Diet Issues: Manufacturers have created edibles to meet a variety of dietary demands. If you need gluten-free, sugar-free, or low-calorie, you can find them. And, manufacturers are stepping up to label items fully and clearly with dosage, ingredients, and nutritional information.
• Juice: You can buy cannabis-infused soda, water, teas, and fruit juices. And, you can opt for sublingual tinctures for their convenience and discrete usage.
• Capsules: Simple marijuana pills take effect quickly. They store easily, and you can pop them as needed or desired.

What are the “good” ones?

You can look for some key factors when shopping for edibles. Josiah Hesse at The Cannabalist, says, “When buying marijuana flower at a dispensary, it’s not difficult to find something tailor-made for your needs: Sativas for energy and focus, indicas for pain relief and sleep, hybrids for something in between.” But, he also points out that edibles can be unpredictable.

Purpose: You should know what you want in terms of effect. You can be high and flying or couch-locked. You have something before bed or snack on something at work. You might want to soothe some pain or cultivate a steady buzz throughout the day. Or, you might choose for flavor or durability.

DIY: With butters, trim, kief, and other supplies easily purchased, you can make your own product. With the patience, research, and know-how, you have more control over small patches of cannabis-infused treats. With kitchen skills, you can make baked goods, candies, and oils.

Endorsement: Snoop Doog, Willie Nelson, Whoopi Goldberg, the Marley Family, and other celebrities have endorsed edibles. They don’t like to take risks with their investments. So, while they are not watching over the making and packaging daily, they demand oversight they can trust because their name and celebrity are at risk.

Trim: They make edibles from the spare trim and kief left from processing smoking weed. Unless the manufacturer brings focus to the process, the trim can include indica, sativa, and hybrids. Unless they divide the trim into its specific strains, your product is an unidentified mix.

So, if you are looking for THC psycho-activity or CBD relaxation, you don’t know what you’re going to get. Without standardized and clear labeling, you don’t know how much or what you are getting for your money. Without that info, you risk consuming too much, of experiencing effects that you didn’t want, and in making yourself sick.

They are not going to stop using trim, but you need the product designed for your taste and needs, the one packaged as such, the one labeled with seed-to-sale data.

Garbage in, Garbage Out: As long as they use trim, the customer stays ignorant of the quality. There’s nothing wrong with trim, but it comes in a range of quality depending on the flower providing the trim. If the process starts with poor quality, you will wind up with poor quality.

If they use low quality solvents and additives, the product will suffer, too. Top of the line ingredients and careful production produces Cadillac product. At the same time, the manufacturer will continue to use trim because it is cost effective. The customers can decide the market and direct manufacturers to satisfy the market.

Granting that the manufacturers will use trim with profit in mind, you cannot expect the same effects that you would get from smoking flower. Allowing the manufacturer’s rights to cost-effectiveness, full and clear labeling would help customers identify strain, strength, and quality.

Try it out: Edibles come in small quantities and reasonable prices, so you are smart to try a couple each trip to the dispensary. You don’t want to eat them up right away, but when you try a bit of this and a bit of that, you’ll figure out what is best for you. You know your brain and body best, so determine what product works right for you at what pace.

Shop hard and smart: Any cannabis dispensary will likely carry the same inventory week in and week out. They are not motivated to focus on edibles when their flowers are moving. So, develop a habit of shopping at several stores or pharmacies. Talk your needs over with your budtender, and test the product.

With so many cannabis edible products available, you will learn to select the right ones for you. But, one risk remains. Edibles effect you more slowly than smoking because your body processes it differently. If you consume the edible quickly, you may overdose. If you eat to satisfaction because they taste so darn good, you may overdose. And, that takes the fun out of the experience!