This is Why Ingesting Cannabis is Better Than Smoking

If you talk to a cannabis consumer about their experiences, most, if not all,  will tell you cannabis changed their lives. The plant is amazing, and comes with so many benefits. Smoking a joint is usually what people think of when they think of consuming cannabis, but thankfully, that’s not the only way. The plant is versatile, and can be manufactured into so many different products. 

Ingesting cannabis edibles is a great alternative to smoking, and has been a popular form of consumption for decades. Gone are the days of unregulated pot brownies bought in the Rite-Aid parking lot, where you either got 1 trillion grams of cannabis and were intensely-high for 12 hours or 0.0002 grams in one serving, making you question if it was really just a brownie from the aforementioned Rite-Aid with no cannabis-infused goodness in sight. 

Yeah... There was no consistency. You relied on the word of your Rite-Aid dealer. But, those days are long gone and not only can you count on consistent labeling, it’s now required to label it! 

Why Ingesting Cannabis is Better Than Smoking

A lot of people have concerns when it comes to cannabis, and rightfully so. Here are some benefits to consuming cannabis-infused edibles over smoking:

 

1) Preventing potential lung damage

Experts are at a crossroads with the idea of cannabis smoke damaging our lungs. Simply put, the research is mixed, but there are studies that show smoking cannabis actually has a positive impact on the lungs and acts as a bronchodilator. 

Having said that, there is existing research showing a different idea, and displaying cannabis smoke’s irritation to the lungs. Regardless of the truth, some people just plain don’t want to smoke. Smoking anything can irritate anyone’s lungs, even just temporarily, which isn’t a fun feeling! Edibles don’t require contact with the lungs at all, and are digested just like other non-infused foods. 

 

2) Doesn’t smell, discrete, and portable 

Cannabis smells, okay? We all know that. And thank goodness it does, because smelly cannabis means powerful terpenes! Terpenes are responsible for giving cannabis it’s unique smell, and they have incredible benefits. You can find terpenes in other aromatic plants too, like lavender which is abundant in the terpene linalool! 

However, that doesn’t mean we all want to smell like Gorilla Glue #4 as we pick up our groceries. Edibles leave behind zero smell, except maybe a little chocolate aroma. Cannabis-infused edibles are also portable, unlike smoking. You can bring them with you wherever you go, so long as you keep them in a temperature-stable environment to avoid cannabinoid degradation in hot climates. 

Not to mention, edibles are absolutely delicious. Some people prefer smoking, and however you get your cannabinoids is your business. We just hope you get them. 

But here at Pantry, we prefer our cannabinoids covered in chocolate. 

 

3) Stops your frazzled sweet tooth

Times are stressful, and they have been for the last year. Emotional eating is a common response to stress, especially prolonged stress, COVID-related or not. Lightly-infused sweet edibles can curb your sweet tooth and chill you out. 

But don’t grab just any edible. Mindlessly eating food with poor ingredients will only make you feel worse. Pantry’s edibles only contain high-quality ingredients, so you don’t have to worry about what’s inside your snack. 

If you chow down on an edible loaded with sugar, it’s just going to make you crave more sugar and you’ll binge. Pantry’s treats are made with unrefined sugars like coconut, and don’t spike your blood sugar and eventually cause you to crash. Some of our edibles are also vegan and keto-friendly! 

Look, we think it’s pretty unrealistic to say no to sweets all the time. Everyone deserves a sweet treat now and again, but why eat something filled with junk if you don’t have to? You have cannabis-infused alternatives, so treat your body right and eat some chocolate. 

 

4) Lasts longer than smoking 

When you smoke high-THC cannabis, you feel it immediately. As soon as you breathe it in, the effects kick in and your cannabis experience begins. This also means the effects diminish a bit quicker than other consumption methods. 

Edibles are by far the longest-lasting method of consumption, and it’s because they are digested before activation. Unlike smoking, you won’t feel the effects right away. Cannabis edibles tend to peak around 2-3 hours, but many begin to notice the effects after roughly 30 minutes. The edible might remain active for 7-12 hours after consumption! The effects from smoking typically last between one to three hours. 

5) Easy to dose/microdose, unlike smoking 

Many people are wary of edibles. Haven’t we all experienced (or heard of) a pot brownie gone wrong? Nobody has ever fatally overdosed on cannabis, but bad experiences happen all the time and swear people off from cannabis. 

You didn’t know what was inside your edibles before the legal market expanded. There was no dosing, no label, and no guarantee of pretty much anything. Now, that’s not the case. Edibles are formulated by cannabis-educated chemists and experts, and the dosing is perfect every single time. Cannabis-infused edibles are made in commercial-grade kitchens required to pass traditional kitchen inspections, and each ingredient is carefully logged for future reference. There is so much data, you can even see where the cannabis plant in your batch was grown, the nutrients it received, and more. Of course, that data isn’t publicly available to consumers, but it’s all logged somewhere if something were to happen! 

And when it comes to smoking, you almost never know how much you’re consuming, unless it’s a pre-rolled joint. This makes dosing a tedious, if not impossible, task.

Cannabis-infused edibles are required to contain 10 grams of THC or less, the perfect amount to microdose your cannabis. Microdosing is ingesting cannabis in small amounts instead of large quantities. 

In Conclusion

It’s important that you have a discussion with a cannabis-educated physician before introducing edibles into your routine, and always start low and go slow before consuming more. We recommend waiting at least two hours before ingesting more cannabis.