Hey gang,

Hope everyone’s had a wonderful 2025!

Smart Cannabis Use is powering down its vape and putting its buds in an air-tight jar for long-term storage.

For almost a decade now, I’ve had the habit of starting each year with a 1-4 month break from all substances. I believe this not only helps keep my relationship with weed healthy, but it actually also makes me appreciate it more when I do return to it.

But for 2026, I’ve decided to go a step further and make it a completely substance-free year: no alcohol, cannabis, or psychedelics.*

My reasons:

• A friend went substance free and highly recommended it.

• As a mindfulness enthusiast, I want to see how my practice develops without any mind-modulating substances.

• Smart Cannabis Use is all about experiments, and this is also just an experiment to see what changes, if anything, when I experience all four seasons and annual activities and festivities completely sober. What other sources of pleasure, insight, and meaning will I find?

To be clear, at this point, it’s only for a year, and it doesn’t mean I’m quitting forever. But it might also mean that – I’m keeping an open mind. I’ll be sure to update you in any case.

So, long story short: Smart Cannabis Use is going on hiatus for a year. I wish you all a very happy New Year and a responsible, life-enriching relationship with cannabis 🌿🎆

Enjoy responsibly,

G.G.

*I’ve deemed morning coffee to still be ok ☕️ My sphincter insists.

Besides sharing responsible-use experiments and strategies, a big reason why I started Smart Cannabis Use was that I really enjoy meditating while high.

I mean, I enjoy most things while high, so maybe this isn’t that remarkable, BUT I also feel that high meditation has allowed me to glimpse planes that were still quite far away in sober meditation practice.

In 2023, I wanted to share this experience with others and thought that creating “Come-Up Meditations” – specifically for the come-up part of the high – would be the perfect vehicle for this. After two years, I’ve only created four (and curated a bunch of other high-friendly ones).* I’ve also written a bunch of posts, but it does kinda seem like I just don’t have the hustle grindset to thrive in this fast-paced information environment 🤷🏻

BUT I am very happy that I myself continue to get value out of the content: I listen to the very first come-up meditation almost every time I get high and truly feel it helps me get more out of the experience 🚀

Lately though, some parts in it have begun to irk me, for example some pacing issues, breaths, and unnecessary phrases.

So I present a new and improved version of Come-Up Meditation #1: Feeling High and the Pointing Experiment. At seven minutes long, it’s a full minute shorter than before.

In it, you’ll be guiding your attention to the experience of being high. You’ll also be performing a famous experiment devised by British philosopher Douglas Harding, which reveals something surprising about our consciousness.

I hope you give it a chance. My only proof for its value is that I personally keep coming back to it – I legit think it improves my high and makes me more mindful of my use 😎🧘🏻

Remember: you don’t need to get high for this meditation. But if you do, for the best results, please start the meditation early in your high. Ideally as soon as you begin to feel the effects.

Enjoy 🎧

-G.G.

* For various reasons^†, I’ve found myself with limited time for the site, and creating the audio meditations is quite time-consuming. (Plus Elevenlabs axed this great British voice actor who’d licensed his voice, and I just haven’t found anyone as good. Though TBF I also haven’t looked 🤷🏻) The upshot is that I’ve posted little in general, but even fewer meditations.

† Reasons include: Responsible use experiments leading me to consume less, so the site is on my mind less. Other (paying and non-paying) projects taking precedence. Lack of discipline. Inability to commit. Existential angst.

Haven’t posted anything for ages (sorry!), but I’m now so excited about something that I’m jumping back in the saddle! 🤠

I’ve always been amazed at the power of really small doses of cannabis (see below).

It’s not just that they seem to pack more of a punch than the amount would suggest, but also they hit different. A small dose seems to give disproportionately more of the good (euphoria, energy, creativity, empathy), and less of the bad (munchies, stupor, goldfish memory, paranoia).

Previously, I have called these microdoses. I was wrong.

A true microdose is supposed to be subliminal.

I knew that from microdosing acid. And I also knew that people microdose cannabis and report benefits. But somehow I never felt the urge to explore these subliminal cannabis doses and had just lazily labeled my matchstick-head sized crumbs as “microdoses,” even though they got me noticeably high.

That is, until I stumbled upon this quote in some old notes of mine (from a Leafly article)

“Sulak has also noticed that the use of lower doses can actually lead to increased sensitivity to cannabis over time, thus underscoring the importance of staying at low levels for the first few days of microdosing. While this is merely observational, Sulak notes that tests on animals suggest that low-level doses of THC can result in an upregulation of the endocannabinoid system (for endocannabinoid production as well as expression of its receptors).”

Now this was interesting. Everyone knows that after a break, your first high will hit the hardest. But the more you consume, the more your tolerance goes up. You get desensitized and need larger doses. So to resensitize (and for other good reasons) we

But Sulak’s comment suggests that actually, for resensitization, consuming a true microdose might be more effective than full abstinence.

This is called a biphasic response: low doses and high doses can have opposite effects.

Sounds wild, so I wanted to try it for a few weeks. A little experiment.

To control the dose, I used the levers of inhalation time and cannabis amount: I filled up my Xmax V3 vape chamber about a quarter of the way to the top, without tamping. (The amount is roughly equivalent to a small kernel of corn.) I then heated it to 203 °C, and when ready took a drag of 5–7 seconds. I did this three to four times a day during weekdays, starting after my morning shit and meditation (not concurrent), and ending about three hours before bedtime.

For me, this dose is just on the cusp of being liminal. Like I can feel something’s different right after the hit, but I wouldn’t say I’m high.

But the real kicker is what comes after microdosing. Whether I abstained from Mon–Fri or microdosed Mon–Fri, the difference in Saturday’s session was astounding.

On Saturday, I only vaped a matchstick-sized crumb (what I would’ve previously called a “microdose”) for the length of a session on my the Xmax, so four minutes in total.

I was skeptical and expected, maybe, at most, something like this:

[concentrates intensely, then starts nodding and smiling]
“By jove, I think it really does feel better!”

But it was actually like this:

[shocked expression, rushes to check how much cannabis was in vape]
“What?! This… This can’t be right.”

I shit you not, the latter happened multiple times. I just couldn’t believe how high I felt.

Now, I am aware that actual scientific backing here is sparse and unreliable, because it has been studied on rats, and I am not a rat. (Well, I did snitch on Jimmy Two Shoes, but you know what I mean.) So it’s entirely possible that what I’m experiencing is just a placebo effect.

But holy shit – if this is a placebo effect, it is one I am glad to have!

I’d compare the “perceived” resensitization effect of microdosing for four days to something similar to a six-month t-break!

Even better, this resensitization allows me to get high from very small doses when I’m not microdosing, so I find myself getting the more favorable mix of pros to cons I mentioned earlier: more euphoria, openness, empathy; less paranoia, grogginess, distraction.

True microdosing has been such a game-changer for me, and the fact that it’s so unintuitive just blows my mind.

I will continue with this experiment a little bit longer and then, as with all experiments, take a t-break to reassess objectively. But the immediate effects of microdosing seem like a very good tool to have in one’s cannabis belt.

Let me know if you’ve tried this and what your experiences were like!

Happy highs!

-G.G.

Here’s a piece of audio that, I believe, is a strong contender for the “most words of wisdom and insight per minute” award 🏆

A New Year’s message from Sam Harris.

In it, he talks about what constitutes a good life, as well as the role that consciousness, thoughts, and meditation play in it. All highly thought-provoking – and relevant for smart cannabis users too 🧘🏻🌿

Enjoy, and have a wonderful start to 2025.

-G.G.

P.S. As I like to do at the beginning of each year, I’m starting a multi-month t-break to clear my system and reflect on my cannabis use with a sober mind (see link to details about this practice below). If you’re considering doing the same, I wish you success and – should you choose to return – an eventual pleasant reunion with this wonderful plant 💪🏻 💚

Smart Cannabis Use is for informational purposes only. You need to be aware of and abide by the laws in your area. Please also be aware that cannabis is not suitable for everyone, such as minors or those with certain mental health conditions. You are responsible for your own choices and actions.

For a change, I’d like to talk about something that I occasionally enjoy together with cannabis, namely psychedelics 🍄

LSD, shrooms, or ketamine can already be incredible on their own, and in my experience, pairing them with weed can often shape the trip in interesting ways. What’s more, some of the guided thought exercises I want to share next year seem to work best specifically when on a combination of weed and a psychedelics.

As with cannabis, I believe psychedelics hold the potential for profound self-reflection, beautiful healing, and powerful mental experiences. I’ve spent hours blissfully falling through myself, experiencing deep spiritual and philosophical truths, and immersed in profound love for everything in the universe – including myself 💚

Though as with weed, there are of course caveats: it’s not a free lunch, and from addiction to psychoses to HPPD to bad trips, there are also risks involved. So it’s wise to respect these substances and proceed mindfully.

For me, this means preparing for trips as well as I can. I believe this not only helps avoid bad trips but also allows me to make the most of the experience. Much like my self-imposed Rules for Cannabis Use, these are always evolving, and I adjust them after each trip.

✅ Trip Preparation ✅

Location 🛏️

The notion of “set and setting” is well established for a reason: the trip is going to be A LOT nicer if I feel comfortable and at ease. I almost always trip solo in my own home, and barring small doses and a very safe-feeling festival or natural environment, I could not imagine doing it elsewhere. At most I might pop out for a walk in the forest nearby.

Excursions 🌲

Going out into nature can be a wonderful thing when I’m tripping. What is not wonderful however, is running into the president of the housing co-op and trying to emulate normal human behavior while their face morphs into an octopus.

So what I like to do is always have my headphones on as I leave the house. This way I can credibly gesture that I’m on a call with someone and can’t talk. I also like to wear sunglasses, because I think the pupils are the most obvious external sign of tripping.

Finally, I prefer to ride my bike to the edge of the forest that I frequent on my trips rather than walking there. This is because people are less likely to chat to me, but also because I also find it challenging – or at least mentally taxing – to try to walk normally, whereas riding my bike feels easy. 🚴🏼‍♂️

Dosing ⚖️

My acid trips can last for 12-14 hours, and even shroom trips for 6-8, so that is a long time to suffer if I overdo it with the dose.

I’m a psychonaut, so I do want to gradually venture north in terms of dosage , but I like to do this cautiously and incrementally. If my previous maximum is 300 mcg of acid, the next trip would then be no more than 350.

And I treat every new batch as a new drug, meaning I first try it out with a low dose to test its potency. Especially with shrooms I’ve found that their effect can really vary a lot: from some batches I can take four grams and barely feel anything, whereas from others one gram can send me to the moon.

And mixing several psychedelics of course brings its own complexity to this, so I like to do any new combinations with low doses.

Additionally, I always read up on whatever method of consumption I’m using, because it can also affect the potency.

Mental preparation 🧘🏻

For at least a week before, I double-down on my meditation practice with extra-long sessions. This is analogous to training a muscle before I know I’ll need it.

For one, this helps me make the most of the trip: if I seem to be getting lost in my own thought loops, I can “let go” and kind of surface again, allowing the trip to carry me once more.

I also consider it a safety precaution: I’ve been lucky enough to never have had a bad trip, and I believe part of it is thanks to my meditation practice. If my mind goes to a dark/distressing place, I find that I can make peace with the emotions there more easily if I’ve meditated. I usually like to just see where the trip takes me and accept even the difficult spots, but I do sometimes also “eject” from a thought loop if I find I’m not ready to go deeper. Here too, having meditated helps.

Food 🍓🥭🥜

On the morning of the trip, I like to eat a big bowl of something healthy, like muesli. I also have a smaller cup of coffee than usual. This is because coffee seems to worsen the nausea of the come-up. On the other hand, I also don’t want to deal with a caffeine-withdrawal induced headache. Then, about an hour after breakfast, I’ll consume the psychedelic. After this, I’ll typically not be hungry at all for around six hours, and then all of a sudden I’ll be ravenous. But not for just any food – at this point I will essentially be a fruit bat, craving fruits, berries and nuts. So I make sure to stock up on these beforehand.

Intention 📈

Many people advocate for setting an intention for a trip, i.e. defining what one is hoping to get out of it, or at least a general topic area to work in. I also believe this can be useful.

But in my experience, I mustn’t overdo it either. Otherwise, I may experience a kind of mental clenching, like I’m “supposed to be” tripping in some particular way, and this can stifle the trip. I’d say my best trips have been the ones that have had plenty of room to breathe and go where they needed to.

So what I might do, for example, is put my intention up on a wall somewhere, where I will occasionally see it, but otherwise I won’t try to actively “think my way to it”. And sometimes I won’t define an intention at all, preferring instead to explore the trip curiously, with an open mind, letting my mind work on what it needs to work on.

Trip notes 📝

Many of the insights I have during trips are not quite as Earth-shattering in the cold harsh light of day as they were when I was tripping balls 😅

However, psychedelics do put me in an altered stated of mind, and this can result in genuinely new perspectives and big-picture realizations that actually impact my life for the better. But I’m not going to remember any of them unless I capture them somehow.

That’s why I invested in a digital dictaphone. I keep it on me at all times so I can effortlessly record my thoughts and experiences during the trip without having to scribble anything down or look at my phone. Then, the next day, I transcribe the file in Descript and pick out the still relevant seeming points.

Equipment 🎤

• I ensure my headphones and dry-herb vape are fully charged.

• I have saline nasal spray in case I plan to snort ketamine

• I keep a bottle of water on me at all times to stay hydrated

• I put my phone into silent mode. Especially when tripping, I realize what a negative effect this little glowing rectangle has on my mental state, and I don’t want to allow that shit into my trip 😡

Weed 🌿

I try to avoid weed for at least a week before tripping. Not because I’ve noticed an effect per se, but because I like to ensure my brain gets good REM sleep before the trip.

During the trip, typically I won’t hit my DHV until after the come-up is over and I’ve reached the plateau. This is so that I can gauge the effect of one substance before adding in another – a good practice, I believe. But other than that, I do like to hit it liberally. I try to stick to low-to-medium doses though, because if I get very high, it tends to overpower some of the effects of the psychedelics.

If I feel the trip has produced some very positive energy, I will usually forego weed the next day and for a while afterwards too. This is so that I have time to for this outcome to take root, before I go seeking anything new.

Letting go 😌

I believe all these preparations enhance the quality of my trips. However, the tricky bit is doing them all meticulously beforehand… and then letting go as the trip begins, allowing it to take its own shape without consciously steering it too much.

Post-trip ☕️

The next day, I jot down any learnings like “Buy raspberries beforehand” or “Keep phone of silent,” into my Trip Preparation notes, which I’ll then review before the next trip.

If I’ve taken acid, even very early in the morning, I’m unlikely to sleep well – it’s just too energizing. So I try not to book anything for the day after the trip where I would need to be at my absolute sharpest and can’t admit that I was tripping 😎

-And that’s how I prepare!

Happy tripping 🤗

-G.G.

Smart Cannabis Use is for informational purposes only. You need to be aware of and abide by the laws in your area. Please also be aware that cannabis is not suitable for everyone, such as minors or those with certain mental health conditions. You are responsible for your own choices and actions.

Earlier this year, after a long t-break, I reevaluated what kind of relationship I want with cannabis. I know that getting high is addictive, so I can’t just go by my gut. And doing it too often not only robs it of pleasure but also doesn’t serve my life goals in the long run. That’s why I need a moderation system.

And by system, I mean a Set of Rules for cannabis use. I’ve previously posted about the set that I’d built for myself over the years, and as many people validly pointed out, the rules had grown rather extensive and complicated. This feedback gave me the impulse to start from scratch and explore what other, simpler systems, could emerge. And I’m glad I did.

I started from the basic thesis that in my experience, the most taxing part of moderating weed use is, well, the actual moderating. As in, knowing that it would be possible to get high but still having to actively control and optimize my use. There’s something about the possibility of getting high that makes my brain want to constantly play chess against itself.

To simplify, I’ll differentiate between three main weed usage patterns here:

• T-break – I abstain completely.

• Controlled use – I get high occasionally, but moderate my use so as to not overdo it.

• Laissez-faire – I get high as much as I want, as often as I want, without feeling guilty.

If my goal is to minimize moderation, then it’s clear that I need to minimize the time I spend in the “Controlled use” pattern. After all, that’s the only one that actually requires moderation:

• When I’m on a T-break, I don’t need to moderate because the answer is a clear “No weed.”

• When I’m getting high to my heart’s content, I also don’t need to moderate, because I’m off the leash. (I mean, I still want to avoid green-outs and get my must-dos done, but otherwise… it’s a bacchanalia).

So I need to consciously split my time into patterns #1 and #3.

To this idea, I added an earlier constraint that I don’t want to be high more than ten percent of my life. (This number totally depends on each person’s unique situation  – different strokes. I could imagine that it will undulate for me too over the years.)

For me, this means that if I spend 36.5 days a year as stoned as I want but abstain for the remainder, then I’ve hit my ten percent goal and basically eliminated the need to moderate my consumption.

However, there’s another dimension to this problem: knock-on effects. After spending a day high, I’ll have a foggy brain for a day, or even two. (These effects are due to e.g. altered sleep patterns that take a while to stabilize again.)

To avoid the time spent in this fog, I reasoned that it would make sense to cluster my weed days so that I’d get less of this post-weed fogginess. (The duration doesn’t seem to scale linearly in relation to the days consumed before.)

What I opted for was that each month, I have three days in a row of Caligulaesque free-for-all cannabis consumption, and then abstain completely for all the remaining days. I did this for 3 months and must say, it worked rather well.

Knowing that I could get as high as I wanted, without feeling guilty or second-guessing my use, made those three days very enjoyable. And productive too: each month I allocated one of the three days to professional projects (I sometimes find a high perspective useful there). Another day I devoted mostly to being outdoors, hiking, biking, swimming, etc. These are fun activities sober, but I tend to derive a childlike enjoyment from them while high.

However, I still found it a bit tiresome to have to start a t-break every single month. After all, the beginning is usually the hard part, and this method translates into 12 T-break beginnings in a year.

So in the summer, I decided to make the split even more extreme: I took a 3-month T-break, and then at the end of August, let myself get high for nine days in a two-week period. I loved it.

The sober summer was enjoyable, active, memorable – maybe even a top 5 all-time summer. Giving up weed felt relatively easy, and I think it’s because I didn’t have to moderate – I was abstaining completely. Plus I knew there was something extra special coming up afterwards.

Then, in early autumn, I cleared my schedule (more or less), and for nine days in a two-week period, I let myself hit the DHV as much as I wanted. Again, some of those high days I wanted to invest into work topics, some into hiking, and some into exercise. But some just went into guilt-free chilling, music, and meditation. 😎

Obviously, this was great. And when it was over, I didn’t even really mind going on a T-break again – I’d gotten my fill of being high (at least for the time being).

In summary, I’m cautiously optimistic about this direction. There are drawbacks too, of course, such as the tolerance increase during the intense usage, and the lack of freedom to just get high occasionally to, say, get a new perspective on a work project or relax. Still, I think the system has potential for me. I’m sure it will continue to evolve through experimentation, but for now, I’m updating my Rules for Cannabis Use to these simpler commandments:

• Rule #1: I may engage in three back-to-back calendar days per month of guilt-free, high-as-you-like cannabis consumption. Otherwise, complete abstention.

• Rule #2: When possible with regard to work and holiday schedules, I cluster the days into even longer stretches of sobriety and use.

  • E.g. A T-break all summer long, followed by 9 days of highness ( 👑).

• Rule #3: I always do the day’s meditation sober.

  • This helps get more out of the high.

• Rule #4: Social situations.

  • If someone offers me weed in a social situation, I can choose to indulge, but this is deducted from the next period of use so that the total number of high days in a year does not exceed 36.5.

(Updated stack of rules can always be found here)

As a final note: I know that frequent, long T-breaks may not be the right way for everyone. For whatever reason, they seem to work for me, especially if I “make them into a thing” by adding other quasi-Stoic elements, like early morning wake-ups, workouts, meditation, abstaining from alcohol, etc. 🤷‍♂️ That said, we’re all different in how this plant affects us, and I’ve never been a heavy user for longer periods than a week, so you may be facing a very different ballgame than me. I wish you the best of luck in yours 💪🏻

Smart Cannabis Use is for informational purposes only. You need to be aware of and abide by the laws in your area. Please also be aware that cannabis is not suitable for everyone, such as minors or those with certain mental health conditions. You are responsible for your own choices and actions.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

Flying?

Invisibility?

Dexterity + 500 and an extra defensive roll?

While any of the above would doubtless come in handy, if you really stop to think about it, one of the most powerful life-enhancing superpowers imaginable would be the ability to control your mood on command: “What’s this? I’m feeling annoyed? I don’t want to feel annoyed, I’ll just be happy instead.” You could transform the nature of any experience you encounter.

And as luck would have it, this superpower is actually within our grasp. Sam Harris reminds us in this one-minute moment on the Waking Up app that there are ways to unlock feelings of joy and gratitude in any moment. (No account required.)

Enjoy!

-G. G.

Smart Cannabis Use is for informational purposes only. You need to be aware of and abide by the laws in your area. Please also be aware that cannabis is not suitable for everyone, such as minors or those with certain mental health conditions. You are responsible for your own choices and actions.

As the quote demonstrates, the idea of leveraging psychoactive drugs as a writing aid has some pretty big hitters as advocates.

No surprise then that this is also true of cannabis, used by many great writers as part of their creative process: Norman Mailer, William S. Burroughs, and Walter Benjamin, to name a few. And I think most tokers can grasp why – there’s something about the experience of being high that really seems to lend itself to creative endeavors like this.

I myself write books and newspaper columns, and I’ve experienced several benefits from being a little bit high during the writing process:

• In general, I’m in good sprits when high. This means that even a rather mundane writing task will seem more exciting and meaningful and therefore more motivating.

• When it comes to overcoming roadblocks and obstacles, I’m not frustrated by them, but rather resilient and curious.

• I’m also more creative and inventive, finding solutions and wordings that I wouldn’t otherwise. This also applies to humor, funny turns of phrase, etc.

• I’m less critical of my ideas. This means that instead of discarding suboptimal ones right away, I tend to explore and refine them a bit further to reach something more valuable.

• I’m more quality-oriented, meaning I’m inclined to rewrite and edit and look for the perfect sentence until I’m truly happy with it.

Over the years, I’ve landed on and refined a writing process that seems to work for me, whether sober or high.

My writing process

I use a six-step process, and I’ve found that cannabis can be useful in five of them:

1. Ideating topics.

2. Ideating content for the chosen topic.

3. Structuring the ideas.

4. Writing the first draft.

5. Editing.

6. Quality control (sober).

1. Ideating topics

For me, this part of the process is usually an ongoing one: ideas come to me whenever, day or night, and I jot them down in one of the lists that I keep in Asana, such as “SCU post ideas,” “Column ideas,” “Sci-fi ideas,” etc. I do this both high and sober, but I’ve noticed that when high, the ideas tend to come more as a flood than a trickle.

What’s curious is that I can’t really force the ideas to come, but they tend to arise when I’m not consciously trying to ideate for a specific purpose. They emerge as unbidden flashes when I’m lost in thought, out for a walk, or otherwise distracted. The only nudge I sometimes give myself is reading something related to the topic area.

When the ideas do come, it’s important to capture all of them – they will come in handy when it’s time for step 2 of the writing process. And if some more details already come to mind, such as certain angles or opinions, or even specific sentences, I make sure to jot them down too.

2. Ideating content for the chosen topic

Whenever I need to write for a certain purpose, like say a newspaper column, I’ll start by reviewing my list of ideas. I’ll feel naturally drawn to some of them, whereas others will feel more like a chore. Being high tends to make me more curious, meaning more topics go in the former category.

I pick a topic that appeals to me and start ideating the points I want to make about: arguments, studies, examples, jokes, turns or phrase – whatever. And I write each individual content piece on a Post-It note.

The challenge is exerting a kind of relaxed control on this ideation process. Perhaps you’ve heard the sword fighting analogy that a sword is like a bird – squeeze too tight and you choke it, too loosely and it flies away? The same is true for ideating while high: if I try to constrain my mind to focus on a given topic, I’ll feel blocked and stressed and just arrive at the most obvious points.

So instead, I try to just connect with the feeling of being intrigued and curious about the topic area, exploring what thoughts and ideas arise naturally if I let my mind run with it. What really seems to work for me is that I imagine I’m explaining my thoughts on the topic to a friend, even speaking them out loud. Again, if I’m struggling to find my groove, reading something related to the topic can be a useful nudge.

3. Structuring the ideas

I put all the Post-Its that I’ve generated onto a blank wall, and start arranging them into a narrative. If possible, I like to start with a story, anecdote, or potentially an intriguing quote of some kind. This is meant to serve as a soft landing.

Next I order the Post-Its into a kind of storyboard, considering what points connect naturally to each other. The idea is to end up with something with no gaps in the narrative, otherwise the reader will be confused.

If I see any gaps, I then think about what kind of bridge I could use to lead the reader across them, or I rearrange to Post-Its to avoid the gap in the first place. If I’m high, I find this usually fairly easy.

4. Writing the first draft

Once the narrative structure is clear, I start writing with the structure as my guide. If I’m sober, I’ll typically bang out the first draft pretty quickly, but the result won’t be anywhere near publication-ready. If I’m a little bit high, I’ll be much more meticulous with the first draft. This means the process will take far longer, but I’ll end up with something pretty good already. If I’m working against a certain character limit, such as with a newspaper column, I allow myself to go a little bit over it at this point.

5. Editing

Whatever I write, I like to go through several rounds of editing. And this is the part of the writing process where, in my opinion, being high brings the most value: I have a heightened sense of when something reads “off” somehow, and I’m usually able to come up with more creative alternatives for how to express my ideas. The downside is that it’s entirely possible to spend an hour on a single paragraph, just searching for that perfect wording.

6. Quality control (sober)

One of the great benefits and drawbacks of being high is that all your insights and experiences tend seem more profound and suffused with meaning. Sometimes this perception may be warranted, but at others not, as browsing r/Highdeas can demonstrate:

(But no judgement – even these mundane insights can be a lot of fun 😎)

This tendency to see meaning and depth in everything is why you really shouldn’t publish anything before doing a sober round of quality control.

Not only might you notice that you misjudged the profundity of something, but typically you may also realize that you didn’t explain things quite as clearly as you intended. Or there may be a fragment of a sentence lying around somewhere as a result of some careless copy-pasting. In any case, sober QC is really the only way to go.

Conclusion

That’s my process, and for me at least, it’s very effective. I used it just the other day to bang out two newspaper columns, and I know based on my editor’s and readership’s feedback that they’re as good or even better than what I would’ve written sober 💪🏻

Please note that the writing use case is one of “less is more,” meaning that overdoing it with a big dose is likely to hurt – not help – your writing. So if you’re interested in using cannabis to enhance your writing, consider putting in the effort to find your minimum effective dose.

That said, I think it’s really important to not allow even small doses of weed to become a crutch for writing. This is why I’ll continue doing most of my writing sober.

Good luck in your writing endeavors!

-G. G.

Smart Cannabis Use is for informational purposes only. You need to be aware of and abide by the laws in your area. Please also be aware that cannabis is not suitable for everyone, such as minors or those with certain mental health conditions. You are responsible for your own choices and actions.

Lately, it’s been a bit quiet over here at Smart Cannabis Use, mainly due to some approaching deadlines in work and renovation projects 🧑🏻‍💻👷🏻 My apologies if you’ve been awaiting more content – the situation should improve in a few weeks time. In the meantime, I’ve been experimenting with a new responsible use system and am looking forward to posting about that once I have a little more data.

But for now, I want to share two moments from Waking Up, both of which score high on the “Whoah!”-metric.

The first is only 30 seconds, but it serves as a potent reminder of the fact that life is finite – for all of us.

The second moment is just over a minute long, and it underscores how there will be a last time for everything we do. And very likely, we won’t know when that last time comes ⌛️

It’s probably not possible or even desirable to keep this perspective in mind every moment of every day. But I do think it’s wise to not go too long without facing it, and doing so while high can make the realization all the more powerful.

As Mr. Keating says in Dead Poets Society: “Carpe diem, seize the day. Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.”

🎧 Here’s the first moment.

🎧 And here’s the second.

(You can access them without signing up.)

Enjoy 😎

-G. G.

Smart Cannabis Use is for informational purposes only. You need to be aware of and abide by the laws in your area. Please also be aware that cannabis is not suitable for everyone, such as minors or those with certain mental health conditions. You are responsible for your own choices and actions.

Hey gang,

4/20 approaches. (Is it too early to say that?)

I’m told it’s kind of a special one because this year’s date is, with this notation at least – 4/20/2024 – a palindrome. (You just know whoever figured that out was high at the time 🌿 🔁 🤯)

I hope all those who celebrate have the opportunity to plan something special for the day. This could be a simple after-work sesh to unwind, a more elaborate get-together with like-minded friends, or even just remembering that one really nice high you had back in the day 😎

The meditation I’m sharing today is part of the regular rotation on the Waking Up app, and when I heard it for the umpteenth time the other day, I thought to myself: “You know, I think this would be even more powerful if I were a little bit high.”

And it is. 🧠🌀

If you give Sam’s breathing method a chance – and keep at it for a while – I think you’ll find it’s actually a pretty accessible shortcut to experiencing your non-dual awareness firsthand.

Here you go 🧘🏻

Enjoy!

-G. G.

Smart Cannabis Use is for informational purposes only. You need to be aware of and abide by the laws in your area. Please also be aware that cannabis is not suitable for everyone, such as minors or those with certain mental health conditions. You are responsible for your own choices and actions.

Now that my t-break is over, I’m eager to get back to creating more come-up meditations 🧘🏻 I find that combining cannabis with short meditations and thought exercises can really make the whole high more positive and meaningful.

In this come-up meditation, we’ll be exploring the effect of cannabis on music and memory.

For me, one of the many pleasant aspects of being high is that it can heighten my appreciation of music.

Leafly has an article analyzing this phenomenon, according to which possible factors are how cannabis alters our perception of time, visual processing, and helps us be more focused on the present.

In my experience, you can find totally new aspects to music, even from songs you’ve heard dozens of times before while sober. Maybe a a cello riff here or a cowbell beat there that you never really noticed, but which contribute to the mix in a way that you now see as significant.

But in addition to music, I also like what cannabis does to my recall. Though it can be famously detrimental to short-term memory (“What am I doing with this tortilla and Nutella again?”), I’ve found that it can actually make long-term memories more vivid. It’s helped me unearth first-person perspective memories from decades ago, which is always a trip. The phenomenon is also referenced in this article on the benefits of music for the brain from Johns Hopkins.

These two effects are what we will be experimenting with now 😎

To prepare for this meditation, you’ll need access to music, for example through Spotify or Youtube. Just be sure to set it up so that you can keep listening to this meditation in the background, on the same device. Do not play the music yet.

Next, you’re going to pick three songs, ideally ones that you haven’t yet listened to while high, or at least not for a long time.

1. Think of the first piece of music you remember purchasing with your own money. If it’s an album, pick a song from it you listened to a lot, but haven’t heard for ages. Write down the name of the song somewhere.

2. Second, think of a song from our childhood or adolescence that served as the soundtrack for some emotionally significant time: a heart-wrenching crush, an endless summer, graduation celebration, or other momentous event. Perhaps something you listened to with a good friend or lover. Write down the name of this song too. 

3. Third, go to this page and open up the top hits list for the year you were 17 in. Glance through it and pick a song that you at least vaguely remember hearing a lot, but which you haven’t heard in ages. Not something you hated.

Finally, please use headphones or high-quality speakers, as listening to music on your phone’s or laptop’s speaker is less likely to produce the desired effect.

You don’t need to be high for this meditation, but if you wish to be, I suggest you consume only a small dose and start the meditation as soon as you begin to feel the effects. You’ll need to be able to remember simple instructions and stay more or less on task for a few minutes at a time, so maybe dose accordingly 😉

When you’re ready, you can start the meditation, minimize this window, and open your music service. But please don’t play the music until requested to do so 😎

Enjoy!

-G. G.

Smart Cannabis Use is for informational purposes only. You need to be aware of and abide by the laws in your area. Please also be aware that cannabis is not suitable for everyone, such as minors or those with certain mental health conditions. You are responsible for your own choices and actions.

Post-publishing edit: After a recent cold, I realized that I don’t want to count “medicinal use” toward this 10% goal. In my experience, being sick sucks, but being high and sick is pretty much as nice as just being high, so it’s kind of a no-brainer for me. As long as I’m only sick a few days a year, I’m giving myself permission to not worry about percentages then and just use cannabis “off the books” to treat the symptoms. 😇

My 8-week “t-break from everything” is now drawing to a close, so this is the perfect time to think about what kind of relationship I want with this wonderful plant. (See my post on t-breaks below.)

I’ve previously considered my cannabis use in terms of sessions per week or grams per month, and I think both of these perspectives can be useful. But I realized that there’s a simpler and more intuitive metric for quantifying my use:

Percentage of Life Spent High. In other words, how much of my life do I actually want to be high vs. sober?

This approach makes sense to me, because time is the one assuredly finite resource in life (cue sad violin), so we have every reason to be mindful about how we use it.

So I think a valid question for any long-term thinking cannabis user is: “On average, what proportion of my life do I want to spend high?”

There’s no right answer, of course. Some of us would happily choose to be high 100% of the time, while others would opt for perpetual sobriety. Most would probably find themselves somewhere in between.

And some might also say: “No, I don’t want to start kill the fun from this by overanalyzing it” or “I hate numbers.” And that’s fair enough too, I get that not everyone likes this particular lens.

But I do think the general gist of the question can be useful for keeping usage in check and getting the most out of cannabis.

What’s my number?

Thinking about my own percentage, where do I start?

Well, I know I have an instinctive hard ceiling at 50%. I know lots of folks can handle that or even higher levels of use, and they may need to do so to manage pain or other issues, but for me it’s a huge barrier. I simply wouldn’t want high-Grantham to be in charge of my life more than sober-Grantham. That guy is fun but should not be steering this ship.

And, I don’t know if it’s some old Reagan-era DARE propaganda still lodged in my brain or what, but I’d probably worry about anything even close to 50%.

What’s more, I love the feeling of being high. So much so that I don’t want to rob it of pleasure by making it too frequent an experience. Kinda how the first fistful of munchie-crisps I shove into my gullet is an amazing fanfare of taste, but the 20th is basically just chewing cardio.

At the same time, I believe this plant has enough life-enriching potential that for me personally, to leave it at something like 1% would not tap into its full potential. (Although doubtless this too would be very nice as a rare treat – maybe worth a try at some point.)

With these factors in mind, and also backed by a firm gut instinct, I’d guess the right percentage for me is something like 10%. In other words, I want to spend around 10% of my time high, and 90% sober, give or take a percentage point

I like this split. It has a kind of instant Pareto-appeal, and the high is firmly, clearly in the minority. (The DARE-celebrity spokesperson in me nods in approval.)

If I had to stratify if further, I’d say I want to spend around 1-2% of my time being really high, 3% medium high, and the rest just very lightly high. (See my post on finding your minimum effective dose below.)

But I don’t want to get bogged down with these nuances: what does 10% mean in real life?

Let’s look at hours awake first: there’s about 16*365 = 5840 awake hours in a year. So with the 10% cap, I can spend at most 584 awake hours high. That’s roughly 11 hours per week.

For me, a high from a single dry herb vape session lasts around 3 hours, and my ideal average week would look something like this:

• Friday: 3 hrs high. This is for an evening post-workout come-down and getting into the weekend mood.

• Saturday: 4 hrs. This is typically for some me-time, music, and meditation.

• Sunday: 3 hrs. Evening post-workout come-down again.

• Monday: 9 hrs. This is the window for any work and creative tasks where I want to get a high perspective. And it’s also part of my campaign to un-suck Mondays.

Obviously, that’s going to work every week, as there will be commitments that require sobriety. But if this were the average, that would bring me to [works abacus]… 19 hours high. That’s well above the 11 hours I need to reach my 10% goal 🤦🏻‍♂️

But wait! I also take regular T-breaks, currently ca. 90 days per year. This means there are more high hours to go around when I’m not on a break. Those annual 584 hours can be divided onto roughly 39 weeks, meaning an average of ca. 15 hours per week. Still not enough 🫤

So to get to my goal, I can either decrease my weekly average time high, or spend more time on t-breaks. Both options have their pros and cons, but I’m more drawn to extending my t-breaks, since they are pretty easy for me to maintain.

If I increase my annual t-break time to 150 days , it means I can spend a little over 19 hours per week high during other times – exactly in line with my 10% goal. Hurrah! 🥳

In practice, I think I’ll do two 2,5-month t-breaks per year. In addition, I always have shorter breaks here and there when traveling or during intense periods of work, as well as other sporadic blockers. The extra leeway from these should easily cover the intermittent minor bingeing on special occasions, bank holidays, being sick, etc.

This all means that I need to update my current rules for cannabis use, but the good news is I’ll get to 10% easily.

I feel pretty good about this. My gut says that at least for now, 10% sounds like a good ratio for me personally to maximize the benefits of cannabis while minimizing the negatives.

How about yourself? Have you thought about what your preferred percentage would be, and where are you in relation to it now?

Feel free to share your thoughts over on the SCU subreddit.

Last but not least: Oh crap, what about my sleep? Surely I need to quantify that too. Otherwise what am I even? Some kind of half-quantifier, measuring just one thing but not the other, like an animal?

In a future post, I’ll write about determining how much of my sleep I want to occur under the influence of cannabis.

Enjoy responsibly!

-G. G.

P.S. Like the Smart Cannabis Use site and newsletter? Please feel free to forward it to a fellow cannabis-enthusiast 😎

Smart Cannabis Use is for informational purposes only. You need to be aware of and abide by the laws in your area. Please also be aware that cannabis is not suitable for everyone, such as minors or those with certain mental health conditions. You are responsible for your own choices and actions.

One of the most incredible and often frustrating parts about the human experience is our tendency to get used to things. For example, when I look around me, I see countless items I once wanted or even yearned for: my laptop, phone, water bottle, stand-up desk and backpack, for example. And while I still vaguely remember the thrill of acquiring them, the truth is that I basically take most of them for granted.

And of course, this is a very human trait: we can’t stay overjoyed for long, but rather tend to just revert to our happiness set point. But unfortunately, this same tendency to take things for granted can also reach the truly important things in life: our health, loved ones, security, career, hobbies, and so forth. It’s as if we tacitly assume that they’ll be there forever for us to enjoy.

This is, of course, completely irrational. The fact of our mortality means that all of us are destined to lose everything and everyone we love. There will be last time you walk in the woods, eat pizza, spend time with someone you care about, or get high.

And though this thought may sound like a depressing one to dwell on, periodically reminding ourselves of it can actually help us appreciate and enjoy what we have now.

Today’s curated mediation aims to achieve just this. It’s called "The Last Time Meditation," part of the Stoic Path series by William B. Irvine in the Waking Up app.

🎧 Here it is. 🎧

(This and any other meditations I share are always accessible to anyone without signing up for Waking Up or any other meditation services.)

Enjoy!

-G. G.

Smart Cannabis Use is for informational purposes only. You need to be aware of and abide by the laws in your area. Please also be aware that cannabis is not suitable for everyone, such as minors or those with certain mental health conditions. You are responsible for your own choices and actions.

One of the most profound revelations I’ve gotten from meditation is that there is no “I” in the middle of experience. There is only experience, and this includes any sense of there being an “I” doing the experiencing.

But I’d venture that most people don’t start a meditation habit seeking such an insight – I certainly didn’t. Rather, many hope to attain some tangible life benefits: stressing less, sleeping better, having better relationships, and so forth. And the good news is that meditation can also do all of those things.

I believe one of the most useful things meditation can teach us is how to let feelings arise and pass away, without allowing them to hijack our entire experience. Too often we’re carried away by strong feelings like anger, fear, frustration, or even joy, resulting in decisions that aren’t in line with our best interests. Instead, we try our best to observe them as informative mental phenomena that will pass soon enough.

One of the simplest ways to grasp this transient nature of feelings is the “Be The Pond” meditation by Jamie from Cosmic Kids Yoga. It’s meant to teach children mindfulness, which means it’s very easy to follow, even when you’re a little bit high 😅

It may seem simplistic, but in my experience, most of the powerful insights derived from meditation are simple, and worth returning to time and again.

Enjoy 😎

-G. G.

Smart Cannabis Use is for informational purposes only. You need to be aware of and abide by the laws in your area. Please also be aware that cannabis is not suitable for everyone, such as minors or those with certain mental health conditions. You are responsible for your own choices and actions.

Greetings, smart cannabis users! 👋🏻

I’m now four weeks into my t-break, and for the past two I’ve felt fully “back to normal” in terms of sleep and dreams. The other day, I was home alone (KEVIN!), and I had the thought: “I could technically get high right now.” But the idea was completely devoid of any craving or desire. So at this point, the remaining four weeks of the t-break seem like they might be pretty smooth sailing (touch wood).

This week, I want to share one of my favorite meditations from Sam Harris. (Please note: this and any other meditations I share are always accessible to anyone without signing up for Waking Up or any other meditation services.)

In this meditation, we come face to face with one of the profound mysteries of the first-person experience: How do you actually move your body? How does the decision to do so arise, and how do you actually implement it?

The experiment Sam guides us through is simple, but it can be a fairly mind-blowing experience, especially if you’ve partaken in a bit of the devil’s lettuce beforehand 🌿

Here’s the meditation.

Enjoy! 😎

-G. G. 

Smart Cannabis Use is for informational purposes only. You need to be aware of and abide by the laws in your area. Please also be aware that cannabis is not suitable for everyone, such as minors or those with certain mental health conditions. You are responsible for your own choices and actions.

As I’ve perused cannabis-related subreddits, I’ve noticed that many of the experiences of negative effects from weed use and heavy addiction have one keyword in common: “carts.”

Here’s someone lamenting how dependent they’ve become on their carts:

Scary stuff.

Personally, my only two modes of consuming cannabis are a dry herb vape (DHV), and occasionally edibles. I have no experience with carts whatsoever, but the TL;DR is that they are glass tubes containing cannabis oil, which is vaporized so that you can inhale it. This makes it very convenient to take hits of cannabis here and there. My guess is that for many people, it’s a little too convenient.

I remember when an old colleague of mine wanted to quit smoking cigarettes, and as a first step, she got a nicotine vape. This turned out to be a bad idea. After a month, she said she was more addicted to nicotine than ever, because it was so easy to take a a hit off the vape whenever she felt like it. She didn’t even need to go to the trouble of getting up from her desk to go outside and smoke.

In general, I believe that having an addictive and immediately-satisfying substance at constant arm’s reach is not a good idea for our pleasure-oriented brains. Especially since the oil in carts can be incredibly potent: the THC content tends to be in the 70-90% range. Compare this to the maximum of 30% in some modern strains, or the 2%, which was the norm in the 60s and 80s, and you begin to get an inkling as to why negative effects, addiction-level, and tolerance look vastly different with carts.

Everyone’s situation is different, of course, but as a general rule, I would concur with the plug in the above reddit comment: steer away from any highly-concentrated weed forms, such as shatter or high-THC edibles. In my experience, home-made edibles and a dry herb vape are both fine and pleasant ways to enjoy cannabis, and far easier to moderate than something that basically could be out of Walter White’s lab. And even when using flower, I’d try steer away from the most potent strains.

If you’re already used to carts and wish to stop using them, from what I can tell, you’re probably in a for a rough time 😣 If it were me, I’d probably taper off gradually, using edibles with decreasing dosage until I was on a complete t-break. This is also something a reddit user described as having worked:

Then, once I was sober, I’d try maintain the t-break until I began to feel normal again, so anything from 30-360 days, depending on how heavy my use had been beforehand.

And only after that, I’d consider re-introducing weed into my life via a less potent medium, like a dry herb vape. This way, the DHV would hopefully feel like a pleasant, easy-to-sustain indulgence after a complete t-break, instead of a brutal step down from carts.

If you’re in this cart-jam, I wish you good luck 💪🏻

And if you’re not, maybe stay away from carts ⛔️

Enjoy responsibly.

-G.G.

P.S. After posting this, I asked on reddit if carts are actually working for anyone in the long term. Many said “no,” reaffirming the point that the convenience of carts means an inordinate amount of self-control is needed to keep usage at bay. Meanwhile, some said they had no choice but to use carts due to pain or other problems.

But a few people indicated they had found a balance with carts. Some key themes emerging from their comments are:

1. Carts should not be the primary modus of consuming cannabis, but rather just an extra treat occasionally, or when required for stealth reasons.

2. Very limited use, e.g. “Three hits on a Friday, that’s it.” Putting the cart away once the puffing is done.

3. Only buying carts from real dispensary (to avoid potentially dangerous additives), and avoiding the strongest ones. Carts with a mix of CBD and THC seemed to work for at least a few redditors.

Smart Cannabis Use is for informational purposes only. You need to be aware of and abide by the laws in your area. Please also be aware that cannabis is not suitable for everyone, such as minors or those with certain mental health conditions. You are responsible for your own choices and actions.

This is based on a mere 30-second reflection, but it can lead to something powerful:

First, listen to what Sam Harris says in this Moment from the Waking Up app.

Then, bring to mind a memory from earlier today. It could be from any situation: maybe you were walking somewhere, or talking to someone, for example. Just recall it as you experienced it, meaning from your first-person perspective.

And then compare it to your current experience. Realize that even this very recent memory is a mere pale shadow compared to your experience of the present moment. Why would you choose to dwell on this weak ghost, when this brilliant moment is here right now?

You can do this brief exercise repeatedly. I’ve found this quite an accessible method for arriving in and appreciating the present moment, both while high, but also as I go about my day.

Enjoy 😎

-G. G. 

Smart Cannabis Use is for informational purposes only. You need to be aware of and abide by the laws in your area. Please also be aware that cannabis is not suitable for everyone, such as minors or those with certain mental health conditions. You are responsible for your own choices and actions.

I’m a little over a week into my two-month “t-break from everything,” and so far I’m not missing cannabis. I’m still dreaming vividly all night, every night, but I’m not sure if this is my brain catching up on something it missed while I consumed cannabis, or if it’s simply because my 5:30 wake-ups leave me pleasantly exhausted in the evening, bringing about a deeper slumber sooner.

As part of my curated high meditations, this week I want to share a video meditation by Rupert Spira. In the video, titled “I Never Go Anywhere,” Spira describes the notion that from his perspective, he does not actually move through the world, but rather the world moves through his consciousness. This can be a fairly mind-blowing perspective to assume, especially with a little bit of help from our plant friend 😎 🌿

Watching the video in full-screen mode will give you a good idea of what he means, but to truly make it personally relevant, I recommend moving around or going for walk with his perspective in mind.

Enjoy!

-G. G.

P. S. If you enjoy Smart Cannabis Use content, please share it with a like-minded friend 🤝

Smart Cannabis Use is for informational purposes only. You need to be aware of and abide by the laws in your area. Please also be aware that cannabis is not suitable for everyone, such as minors or those with certain mental health conditions. You are responsible for your own choices and actions.

Welp, I’m officially on a 8-week t-break. And not just a regular t-break, but a full-blown, stoic-bootcamp-grit-my-teeth-and-show-myself-who’s-boss t-break.

What does that mean?

In addition to weed, I’m also cutting out alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, candy, and porn. (And acid and any other drugs too, obviously.) What’s more, I’m waking up at 5:30 each morning to get my exercise and meditation done before anyone else gets up.

And it feels… kinda great. I’ve done this same thing for a few years now, and somewhat counterintuitively, stacking all these tough changes together actually makes the endeavor easier compared to “just” taking a t-break from weed.

During these breaks I don’t really even crave weed, because it's just a small part of all the willpower-requiring things I’m facing. And though I’m usually a pretty comfort-oriented guy, here I’m somehow able to derive a kind of stoic satisfaction from subjecting myself to all of this and pushing through it 💪🏻

And of course, after the break, reintroducing each of those addictive elements back into my life one by one always feels really great 😎

Unfortunately, during my t-break, I won’t be able to create more Come-Up Meditations, since I can’t test them. And I believe that content intended for high consumption needs to be tested while high.

But not to worry – over the years I’ve found many fantastic meditations online that I love to listen to while high! So for the next few months, I’ll be “curating” these about once a week.

Today’s recommendation is from the brilliant Headless Way-series on the Waking Up-app. Based on the work of British philosopher and architect Douglas Harding, the Headless Way is an astonishingly accessible pathway to a direct experience of non duality. (In fact, the pointing experiment used in my very first Come-Up Meditation is based on the Headless Way.) Harding’s book “On Having No Head” is well worth a read – and very short.

Without further ado, here’s the meditation, titled ”The Single Eye.”

In it, Richard Lang guides us through some deceptively simple “experiments” that challenge our notions of what we are. It’s great to listen to while sober, but at least for me, being a little bit high definitely gives it an extra “WOW!”-factor 😎

Enjoy!

-G. G.

Smart Cannabis Use is for informational purposes only. You need to be aware of and abide by the laws in your area. Please also be aware that cannabis is not suitable for everyone, such as minors or those with certain mental health conditions. You are responsible for your own choices and actions.

I firmly believe that the effects of cannabis both in the moment and in your life in general are largely dependent on dosage. This makes dosage control a core Smart Cannabis Use strategy.

I’ve written before about purposefully defining the right dosage for each high.

And in a future post, I will write about how to be mindful of your cannabis dosage over time.

But both of these require a baseline of accurate cannabis dosing – a famously difficult task for many reasons:

First off, people’s sensitivity to cannabis varies wildly. I, for example, am much more sensitive than people I typically partake with, and can easily green out if I’m not careful.

Second, the plant itself contains countless psychoactive compounds, from THC to CDB to various terpenes, and each strain is different. This means is that 0,1 gram of cannabis from one batch can boast very different potency and effects than 0,1 grams from another.

Throw in the differences between hash, edibles, kief, oils, tinctures, mooncakes, etc, and comparing doses becomes truly challenging.

Some of this ambiguity we just need to live with, but that should not stop us from approaching dosing in a controlled manner. And I believe the first step in controlled dosing is finding your minimum effective dose (MED): the smallest possible dose where the effects of cannabis are still palpable.

Small doses energize

You may think that small doses like your MED produce less potent and enjoyable effects than large doses.

But at least for me, the difference between small and large doses is not so much quantitative as it is qualitative. When taken in very small doses, cannabis actually acts as a stimulant with a noticeable energizing effect. It is only as the dose increases that the effects become more sedative.

And this is one of the reasons why discovering your minimum effective dose is important: it unlocks entirely new use cases for cannabis, such as when you need to get things done without any brain fog.

Of course, I know the strain and form of cannabis also greatly affect the psychoactive impact profile. But at least with my trusty dry herb vape, I have seen the energizing effect of small doses consistently across different strains.

How small is small enough? Find your minimum effective dose.

I think most people would be surprised by how small their minimum effective dose is.

To find it, I recommend you start with a tolerance break. This way, you’ll be able to see gauge your true MED when you are most sensitive to the effects.

Next, prepare a dose so small that you are 100% positive that you will feel NOTHING AT ALL. The goal is to approach your MED from below, which is why you need to start as small as possible, especially since you may over-estimate how much weed you need.

For example, my own MED was much smaller than I anticipated. I use a Volcano vaporizer with a Filling Chamber Reducer, and my MED is just a few “grains” of cannabis on the bottom of the dosing capsule. The total volume of the herb is around that of a match head. But when I vape 2-3 bags of it, I can feel the effects prominently – as long as I pay attention.

So again, to find your MED, start with a dose where you are confident that you DEFINITELY won’t feel anything.

And as you’re consuming this first trial dose, give yourself a chance to perceive even subtle effects. Don’t distract your mind with anything else: screens, music, conversation, etc. A Come-up Meditation can be a handy way to encourage this focus.

Whatever you do, be sure to pay attention to any noticeable effects of the cannabis.

• If you feel something, take a break for 2-3 days, and then reduce the dose to a quarter of what you took before.

• If you really don’t feel anything, then the next day, increase the dose by 50%.

Continue in this manner until you’ve found the smallest possible dose where you feel the effects. This is your minimum effective dose.

Once you’ve discovered it, immediately prepare another MED, while the amount is fresh in your memory. Try to anchor a mental image of how much this dose is. You can also photograph it, or if you have a very accurate scale, you can use that to measure the exact fraction of a gram that constitutes your MED.

You may wish to repeat this process with every new batch of cannabis, so you’re always aware of the true MED for each one.

Once you know your MED, you have much more maneuverability in what kind of high you choose to have, with a range of clear-headed, energizing options now hopefully available. You’ll be in a good position to determine the right dosage for your chosen purpose, and also for various dosing progressions and strategies, which I will write about later.

Enjoy responsibly 😎

-G.G.

Smart Cannabis Use is for informational purposes only. You need to be aware of and abide by the laws in your area. Please also be aware that cannabis is not suitable for everyone, such as minors or those with certain mental health conditions. You are responsible for your own choices and actions.