The different ways to consume Cannabis

People have used cannabis for thousands of years for both its fibers and its effects on our bodies. It has been a very versatile and useful product. In the past humans consumed it for its psychotropic and medicinal effects. As the composition of the plant has been deciphered, it has been observed that the component that produces the psychoactive effect is THC or tetrahydrocannabinol. The second component of which it is known more and that has generated a boom in the market of cannabis is the CBD or cannabidiol, why? Because many think that it is "the good marijuana" that "does not dope you", that is the one that produces the relaxing effect and thus many people use it for the pain. The concept that the CBD removes the pain is erroneous, the THC in addition to the psychoactive effect is the one that has more potential towards pain, and the CBD diminishes the pain for other reasons, for example: when we relaxed, we frequently cease to contract the muscles and this alleviates the pain. Whenever we consume cannabis products at a medical level, I recommend that they be of the whole plant, because all the components of the cannabis work more effectively together. 

On all this, I can write about it in the next article since it is quite extensive, today I am going to explain you the ways of administering cannabis.

There are several ways of administering cannabis:

• Airway/respiratory tract
• sublingually
• orally - digestive tract
• transdermal
• Vaginal
• rectal

Airway / Respiratory

The airway/respiratory tract is the most popular. The airway consists of inhaling the smoke, through which a rapid effect is achieved, between 2-10 minutes, and of short duration, 2-4 hours, at the therapeutic level, it helps to control more quickly if a sudden pain or any symptom of sudden occurrence appears. Consumption through the airway can be in various ways smoked or vaporized. As a health professional, I will never recommend you to smoke, however, if you decide to smoke I recommend you to protect your lips from burns since the abrasion on the lip during a prolonged period can cause the triggering of malignancy. In addition, if you can, I recommend you to filter the product as much as possible, In this case, you can use filters like the carbon filters of El Capitan thanks to its engineering and active carbon it can filter out the toxins that are generated in the combustion, also, the ceramic plugs isolate the heat and prevent us from burning.

If you want something cleaner and you are looking for the quick effect of cannabis, you can use vaporizers. You have to be careful with the quality, NOT ALL VAPORIZERS ARE GOOD! It is important that you pay attention to the characteristics, that they have the necessary certificates, I recommend that they have the CE, or European Conformity stamp, this will indicate you that they meet the standards to be marketed throughout Europe. Some vaporizers overheat and end up burning the product, the grace of these is that there is no combustion but the product is eliminating its components for us to consume depending on the temperature that we apply, drying the flower and staying brown. If our vaporizer ends up burning the product, for example, in the case of the grass: if it remains black, it means that the vaporizer is not working properly.

Sublingual - Oral - Digestive Tract

Sublingual administration is the most used application for cannabis drops consumption. The absorption through the oral mucosa is fast, it takes between 10 and 30 minutes and the effect is more prolonged than through the respiratory tract. In many occasions the base is oily so when applying the product under the tongue and spend a couple of minutes the remnant has to be swallowed and a part of the product is absorbed in the stomach. I do not recommend alcoholic bases for sublingual drops as they can irritate the oral mucosa and in the case of people with mucositis can be counterproductive and very painful. For oral - digestive absorption it takes between 20 minutes and one hour to take effect, the effects can last up to 6-8 hours. Nowadays we have a great number of products like candies, chocolates, syrups, oil capsules, infusions. It is important, if you are not used to it and you are not a big cannabis consumer, that you start with low doses and progress to not experience unwanted side effects. This means that if you take 10 mg of any of these products and you do not get the desired effect, the next time you take it you will need to take 20 mg until you get the desired effect.

Transdermal

Transdermal administration is the process of applying any cream, ointment, or oil to the skin. This method provides local relief for pain or discomfort. The oil from the cannabis seed is an oil that by itself has many vitamins, amino acids and omega 3-6. In addition, if you make a cream from the entire plant, you can achieve excellent benefits locally. As I have already told you, if you want to relieve pain, the most effective is THC; a cream with a high concentration of THC will be a very powerful cream against pain. The problem we have here in Spain is that it is not legal to have creams and products with more than 0.2% THC for sale. However, if you are a bit curious you can find a way to get it and even make it yourself.

Vaginal

Vaginal administration is not very well known and here in Europe there are no products marketed for vaginal use. I will explain it to you, vaginal administration can be used for menstrual pain, a kind of tampon/cream is applied which, just like when women have fungus, apply an antifungal cream, these are painkillers.

Rectal

Rectal administration is useful for people who are not able to use the oral or sublingual approach. Like tampons or vaginal suppositories, we do not have any products that are sold on the European market.

Some general recommendations include:

• Choose quality products.
• Know the source of the product.
• If you have a disease and want to use cannabis therapeutically, please consult with professionals who are trained and accredited.

In reference to the last point, we are a team integrated by doctors, nurses and experts in cannabis that from Green Nurse Health Care we follow up, work on the reduction of risks, advice, and support when a person decides to use cannabis to alleviate the symptoms of a disease. We have been working together for more than two years helping people in need.

Any Thoughts or comments on this? Let me know in the comments!

Article written by:

Jamila A. Manozzo Hernandez
@greennursehc

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