A Redditor’s Guide to Healthy Weed Consumption Part II

reddit guide to healthy cannabis consumption

Last week we tackled the first part of this Redditor’s Guide to Healthy Smoking. Today we’re going to be continuing with the analysis.

If you want to read my take on the first part of this guide, you can click here to access it. For those who’s here for part II, let’s get right into it – there’s still a lot to cover.

Create a Toker’s Schedule

For committed, longtime users I recommend smoking in cycles based on your tolerance: start out taking as little as possible, fight to keep your tolerance as low as possible even though it will inevitably rise, and once it get's too high take a break that is as long as necessary to restore your brain's equilibrium. Eg: 6 months on 45 days off

This isn’t a bad practice in general. We tend to become cyclical in our consumption and habits. By taking a break or “fasting from an activity”, you allow the body to reset itself. You remove any artificial (or external) cannabinoids and check how you operate with ‘nothing but yourself’.

This is important to not only keep your tolerance levels lower, but also to see where cannabis is providing you with assistance. You never know what you’re missing until it’s gone and since you’ve been artificially supplying your body with additional cannabinoids – see what happens when it’s not there is a way of gauging the system.

I personally do a full on detox every 3-4 months.

Check your Tolerance Levels

less is more (so much more)- keeping tolerance low allows you to appreciate the nuances between strains, reduce the severity of withdrawal, and allows you to use for longer periods of time. Protect your tolerance. Your skin will look better, you'll feel better, I really believe in this strongly because it helped me so much

This is a subjective point of view in my opinion. You can still see the nuances in amongst strains because despite having a built up resistance to THC, every seasoned grower/toker should know that the effect of cannabis also has a lot to do with terpenes and other minor cannabinoids.

Thereby, each strain’s “little nuances” can be felt irrespective of your tolerance to THC. Of course, the benefit of keeping your tolerance levels low is quite extensive.

You need less to get high
This saves you money in the long run
You enjoy the high a bit more

When smoking weed becomes a chore, it’s time for a detox.

Also, withdrawal is subjective – there’s times I smoke like a hippie and quit “cold turkey” with little to no side-effects. However, this is me – other people might experience this in a different way.

Ultimately, listen to your body.

CBD is essential

CBD is essential if you want to use long term and remain healthy, especially mentally. When I use for too long wihtout cbd I start getting more anxious, I enjoy weed less, and I feel like I never get a break from the spacey/psychedelic side of weed. When you add CBD into the equation (I add it in about 2-3x a week) you can mitigate that racey/anxiety inducing edge of thc, and use for longer/healthier. If I use more cbd than that it kind of takes the euphoria away from the weed high

I haven’t felt “anxious” with weed in a long time. It doesn’t happen to me. However, my wife sometimes can get a bit anxious when smoking a potent strain.

Once again, every organism is unique and thus we need to know our own bodies above the suggestions of an internet post. Nonetheless, I do agree that adding in CBD into your diet can help with a lot of stuff. I use THC and CBD in different ways.

If you’re an anxious person by nature, incorporating CBD may help mitigate the problems – however, if you’re not doing other natural stress relief techniques such as meditation, yoga or Breathwork – no matter the amount of CBD you take, you’re not going to deal with the root cause.

CBD for withdrawal

CBD is also a great tool for withdrawl, it doesn't take all the symptoms away, but it relieves many. Taking something to help with the sleep loss on nights 2-5 can prevent unnecessary discomfort, but it's always a risk when you add another substance in right when you're most vulnerable

While it’s true that CBD will help you with your withdrawal symptoms, for me it defeats the purpose of the purge. When I’m resetting my body – I’m doing it completely.

Of course, if you’re only doing T-Breaks, then using CBD to help calm the nerves is a stellar idea. It even helps with withdrawal from smoking tobacco and alcohol. CBD has plenty of other benefits and as mentioned in the previous point – should be part of your diet.

However, if you’re going to take a break from cannabis – take a complete break from it to gauge your endocannabinoid system, to see what it needs more or less of.

Smoking too much makes you an asshole?

something i've noticed in myself and many others is that using too much for too long (without breaks) reduces your ability to empathize with others, makes you lose touch with normal social cues, and makes you get angry easier. It can be hard to notice yourself slipping into this state, and I've damaged relationships in the past when this happened

Here I wholeheartedly disagree with the Redditor.

If you become less empathetic because of cannabis smoking – then you’ve got some serious issues. Of course, if you’re trying to numb yourself because life is intolerable, you’re probably going to be somewhat “cuntish” by nature.

However, I have seen the opposite happen in my 20+ years of smoking, people tend to become more empathetic and are more tolerant about other people’s needs. But once again, this is highly subjective. I wouldn’t even have included this point in my list unless I was including highly subjective points.

Switch Strains

if you have access to variety, I recommend always rotating in new strains, and not just because this allows you to get ripped every time. As we all know the beauty of weed is it's chemical diversity, and the enormous spectrum of emotional experiences it can provide. More than that, I feel healthier when I get to smoke a variety of strains vs 1 or 2

As mentioned, since there is a cannabinoid profile that differs from strain to strain – this should be standard knowledge.

The Benefits of Long Breaks

long breaks are necessary, I've never regretted taking one, and once all those suppressed reward systems in your brain wake up again you will feel overwhelmed with the beauty of the world, and the miracle of life. This is such an underrated aspect of using cannabis: having that radical perspective shift. After going through this process a couple times you will probably start to look forward to long breaks, because they are like a drug in themselves

I think that tolerance breaks should be a minimum of 21-days.

Use weed to your advantage

use the effects of weed to your advantage wherever possible: smoke to fall asleep at the same time consistently (this alone will give you a massive boost in health IME), use the munchies to wolf down healthier foods, use weed to motivate you to exercise, etc

Weed’s got benefits, so use them to your advantage. It can help you sleep, help you with your appetite, it helps you recover quicker. If there’s benefits and you’re not using it – you’re not doing it right!

What about Dabs?

Concentrates are awesome, they should be celebrated just like flower, but they are stronger, and can be a little more addictive, doesn't mean you cant use them just like flower. Doesn't mean you should look at them any differently than flower (we dont demonize booze juts because it's stronger than beer, after all). Dabbing allows you to saturate all of those hungry receptors at once, which is simply more addictive- this is true with all substances, doesn't mean dabbing is evil

Dabbing means you get to consume less for more, so if you’re following the spirit of this guide, you too would be fine!

Cannabis makes it harder to make memories?

weed makes it harder to create memories, store info, etc. Yes, you can be a super functional stoner and perform well, but memories are the substance of life and intelligence, and if you deprive yourself of the ability to store new memories for long enough it will hurt you. this is another reason I believe in being 100% off or on: give yourself the chance to make crystal clear memories

Once again, this is subjective. There’s no real scientific basis in this and could affect some, but in most cases – this should not be a problem. I’ve been smoking for the better part of 20 years and I can still vividly remember many things.

This is because I actually do work on improving my memory. Additionally, cannabinoids like CBD and THC induce neurogenesis, meaning it can help repair broken neurons.

Getting proper sleep is more beneficial to storing memories than “not smoking”.

The Sticky Bottom Line

All in all, the guide is good – most people would do well following this guide. However, from the perspective of a well-seasoned stoner, following your own gut instinct is usually the best bet.