February 21, 2019 1 Comment

What is Microdosing?

As Cannabis consumption is becoming mainstream, many stoners are taking different approaches for their cannabis lifestyle, as opposed to their high school times. They are focusing on wellness, rather being impaired.

Many of them started to see the advantages of microdosing weed and how it allows them to go about their day, be productive, and operate normally. Still high, but the type of high is just enough to help them overcome the relief they're seeking.

Microdosing is basically consuming just the right amount of weed without getting "too high," which can be different from a person to another. Just enough to maintain your high throughout your day without pushing your tolerance.

If you get too baked then you did it wrong.

Related article: Marijuana for productivity - smoking weed and being productive - 5 Top Tips

Why Microdosing?

1. 1. Wellness, not impairment: People use Cannabis for different purposes. For Recreational purposes, which is mainly to get baked, have munchies, watch a movie, or even having sex, and it's indeed an experience enhancer. On the other hand, many other marijuana users, especially after legalization, consume the herb for the medicinal purposes, to relieve a physical pain or overcome their anxiety and focus more on the benefits rather the impairment that may come with being overly baked.
   2. Minimum time for t-breaks: As much as I enjoy getting high, I don't want to be high all day. Not because I don't like it, but because it'll make my tolerance sky high (no pun intended) in only few months and then I have to take a month or so t-break. And I really don't want to do that. It also can get a bit expensive. More about it below.
   3. Stay productive (read more about marijuana and productivity here)
   4. You will save lots of money.
   5. Preventing panic/anxiety attacks (read more about marijuana and anxiety here). Also microdosing can be effective for suppressing pain. The dose vs. response curve for cannabis is bimodal (involving two modes, two maxima). Microdosing targets the lower mode to avoid the high associated with larger dosages. Which can be beneficial for some, however not that much for others. You will have to try it out and judge by yourself.
   6. Finally, a more fulfilled life!

How to lower weed tolerance without break? 

The 9 Tips to control your cannabis tolerance and enhance your high

Let's not abuse the herb. I enjoy smoking weed everyday, it makes my life better in every sense (and makes people around me a lot more tolerable). I've been successfully able to control my tolerance using those 9 tips. In one year, I went from smoking one gram a day, to one gram a week. It's cheaper, helps me to stay productive, focused and positive, and I still enjoy it on daily bases.

It’s all about that discipline. I started the process to fight my high tolerance by lowering my weekly consumption last week, specifically on weekdays. I don't take my first hit till 730 pm. And that's it for the evening, the weekends however, I don't start smoking till after 2 or 3 pm.

Related article: Marijuana Tolerance, Withdrawal Symptoms, and 5 Tips to Take a T-Break

After taking my first t-break, I told myself never again! So I started looking to lower weed tolerance without quitting. I took different further steps to make sure not to take another t-break in my life again, and so far so good. Here are my suggestions of how to lower your weed tolerance without quitting:

1. Be mindful about why, when, and how much you smoke: Choose the right occasions where you need to smoke weed. Pay attention to your daily dose control, find the minimal amount you actually "need" as opposed to what you "want" and stick to it. I consider myself a recreational user more than medical (I still smoke weed for social anxiety and depression, though), my high dose days usually over the weekend when I hang out with people. On weekdays however, I just drop crumbs into the vape machine once every evening and vape it. THe upside is, I never take a tolerance break; the downside is, I can't get hammered as much as I like.

2. Track your consumption religiously: How much you're consuming a day and how long it takes till the high wears off and feel like taking another hit. Sometimes, though, it's hard to track how much you consume when you were sharing your weed with other people.

3. Setting boundaries: Don’t consume all day long. Get a full time job that you really enjoy sober, and not the type where you need to be stoned to go through it, otherwise, you’d be consuming much more, like I do on the weekends.

4. Use distraction: To distract yourself from the need to consume, dedicate at least one hour a day of exercising time. To be completely honest, I used to workout high on daily bases, and I loved it (check my 4 Reasons Why I Exercise While I'm High). I still do it occasionally, but I realized that I don't really need to be high while exercise, according to many studies, researchers found that our body already stores THC in fat, and when you exercise, the body tend to produce this small amount of cannabinoids.

Many stoners claim that their tolerance has not gone up as quickly due to their intense and regular workout schedule while drinking as much water as possible. This is because the THC is stored in your body fat and removing as much of that as possible can lead to a better high. These are only claims.

5. Cycle Strains: Change it up regularly. Trick your body by mixing up strains; Indica, sativa, high THC, high CBD, etc. It’s a lot easier if you were living in astate where this is permitted because you can buy small quantities and it’s always available to get more when needed. Usually I buy one gram at a time, and always a different stain than the one before.

6. Pace yourself: Don't smoke a whole joint at once, instead, blaze mini joints throughout the day, or hit the vape once or twice (depends on your tolerance), wait for few minutes to assess your high before you hit it again. Most of the time, you overestimate how much is required to stone you. Often we over medicate..

Related article: What is CBD? Is it legal? And does it get you high?

7. Use different methods of consumption: I usually try to stay away from the old traditional way of smoking weed, like bongs and bowls. Instead, I used a vaporizer, which I encourage you to try. It gives you a cleaner high without all the toxins from combustion (check my blog piece Vaporizer high vs. Smoking high), also you will have full control on the temperature which will also help your tolerance. Try smoking oil every once in a while, edibles, tinctures in drinks, baking, rosin chips, cooking, etc.

8. Meditate: Meditation may decrease your desire to habitually get high. It helps to concentrate and teaches you to live the moment. In case you decided to meditate while high, it also very helpful for your tolerance. It can enhance your high without the need to take another hit. The best type of meditation for this purpose is the breathing technique, which is basically will teach you how to breathe to maximize oxygen intake. Start filling your lungs from the bottom, fill your lungs to 100% capacity, hold for around 3 seconds, then slowly exhale. You can do it as long as you want.

9. Finally, Mango! We all have heard many myths about different methods stoners can use to lower their tolerance level and improve their high without taking a t-break.

Based on my personal observation, the only way that works for me so far is eating mango. Eat a mango (or two) 45 minutes before you smoke. Eating mangos could help especially if you don’t have much myrcene in your diet. Myrcene is a terpene that is believed to help the THC to interact with the Cannabinoid receptors in your brain faster, but I haven't found into any scientific studies prove that nor otherwise. All this is based on my and other stoners' personal experience. 

There's only one proven scientific method; consuming more Omega-3. The online magazine, Civilized, has reported that researchers found that a lack of Omega-3 fats in a person's body lowers the medical effects of cannabis. Without Omega-3 fats, the receptors in a person's brain that absorb the compounds (cannabinoids such as THC and CBD) in cannabis won’t function properly, therefore, a person won't receive the full effects from marijuana.

Related article: 17 science-based benefits of Omega-3 fatty acids.

Although American diet is not high on Omega-3 (mainly Omega-6 fat),you can still get Omega-3 from many sources such as fish oil, flax seeds, ground up hemp seeds and more. Even if you weren't a Cannabis user and you don't care about your marijuana tolerance, which you probably not, increasing your Omega-3 intake is still a great idea to improve overall brain health.

Conclusion: don't abuse the herb

If you enjoy smoking weed and you don't want to quit, why would you abuse it and pin it on your "medical condition." It's like enjoying a vegeburger, and you decided to have it three times a day, 7 days a week, because you have to eat 3 meals a day and you just can't resist a vegeburger.

Related article: 7 Tips to Break the 'Irresponsible Stoner' Stereotype

Here are my rules of thumb:

If you haven’t already abused the herb, then:

• You're not high all day long,.
• Weed doesn’t justify your shortcoming in social, intimate or professional life.
• You don’t feel that you can't "tolerate" your life sober.
• You feel that you still get high when you smoke weed.

Stay toasty my friends.

Editor's Note: This post was originally published in May 2018 and has been revamped and updated as needed for accuracy and comprehensiveness. 

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