Can’t Get High From Edibles? You’re Ediblocked – And Scientists Are Still Trying To Find Out Why
Your Genetics Hold The Key
For seasoned cannabis consumers, edibles are one of the best ways to get – and stay – really high.
Cannabis edibles have gained the reputation of being among the more potent forms to ingest THC, the psychoactive compounds in cannabis. That’s because when you consume THC through foods, such as edibles, the liver metabolizes it and converts it into a stronger form compared to just smoking it. In short, the THC from the edible as well as the metabolized form of THC from your liver results in a seriously intense high. As a bonus, it lasts much longer, too: the high from edibles can last anywhere from 6 to 8 hours, and sometimes even longer depending on the strength of your edible.
But did you know that some people can’t get high from edibles?
You read that right: a portion of the human population can easily get high smoking a joint, but don’t feel a thing when they eat space cakes. It’s much more common than you think, and it all has to do with how we’re physiologically wired.
We already know that weed affects people in different ways. While some people can easily get high with a toke or two, others require significantly much more weed in their system, and there are just those that don’t get high at all with potent cannabis products such as edibles!
In a 2021 interview with Al McDonald, a cannabis grower from Ontario, Canada, The Boston Globe sheds some light into this fascinating, albeit confusing, phenomenon. McDonald recalls the night several decades before when he was in his 20’s, when he shared a batch of potent weed-infused cookies with his friends. And while all his friends got high, he said he couldn’t feel anything. In an experiment, McDonald recounted how it wasn’t until he consumed around 700mg of THC that he finally begins to feel something – but that dose is extremely high no matter how you look at it, given that standard servings typically begin at 5mg.
The Globe spoke to a few other people who shared similar experiences with McDonald; they all had the same frustrating experience of total immunity despite consuming extremely potent cannabis products. And while it can be disappointing for recreational cannabis consumers to say the least, an immunity to edibles or other strong cannabis products will have a serious impact when it comes to medical marijuana dosing.
That said, scientists and doctors still need more research. “We’re only just now starting to understand the cannabinoid system,” explains Dr. Staci Gruber, McLean Hospital’s director for Marijuana Investigations for Neuroscientific Discovery Programs. Dr. Gruber as well as other investigators came up with a hypothesis to possibly explain the phenomenon: that individuals who possess a variation of a specific liver enzyme are actually “too efficient” at metabolizing THC when ingested, reports The Globe, and thus converts THC into an active metabolite, tossing its inactive waste form enters the brain or bloodstream.
Meet CYP2C9, the primary enzyme in humans that is responsible for converting dronabinol to THC, the primary active metabolite that gets you high. This gene enables THC to go through the three steps needed for it to metabolize in the body, allowing it to break down to give us the psychoactive effect. But there are people who are born with subtypes of this gene that actually make it challenging for the body to metabolize THC at all.
“It’s almost as if they’re skipping the intermediate step,” said Gruber.
Keep in mind, there are many other factors that also affect how THC is metabolized and processed in the human body. In the medical community, it has long been accepted and proven that fat metabolism, body fat in general, age, genetics, frequency of use, and body weight among others, strongly influence how long it takes us to get high.
The Role of Your Liver and Genetics
Genetics plays a much bigger role in how you respond when you consume marijuana – than you think. In fact, genetics has everything to do with how you are at this very moment, including how you metabolize drugs.
The human liver is made up of enzymes that are designed to help you metabolize drugs as well as other things you put into your body. When the liver metabolizes drugs, this results in metabolites that either become active, inactive, or toxic. A group of P-450 enzymes is responsible for the primary drug metabolism that occurs in the liver, and the P-450 enzymes also help metabolize cannabinoids found in marijuana. However, it’s also dependent on how CYP2C9 gene variants express themselves.
Conclusion
While it would be ideal in more ways than one to have a low tolerance to cannabis – especially when it comes to the financial or economic benefits, at this stage there’s still so much we don’t know about this phenomenon, and if there’s anything we can do to change our gene expression so that we can get high with much less THC.
In the meantime, you can continue on experimenting with other forms of marijuana. Perhaps smoking or consuming concentrates may be a better option for now if you can’t get high off edibles! Give it a shot and see if it works better for you.
We hope that there’s more research done on this front to help find solutions for the people who suffer from being ediblocked – especially for medical marijuana patients who need all the help they can get.
CAN'T GET HIGH FROM WEED, READ ON...
