Featured, Marijuana News

Yes Virginia, You Can Overdose on Cannabis

no-deaths-marijuana

A while ago I started this article on the fact that one can overdo cannabis consumption in one sitting. Recently a friend of mine over consumed via dabbing which prompted me to finish. The friend in question spent half of the day consuming cannabis and the other half, vomiting, pleading to God, and thinking he was gonna die and you know what, the same thing happened to me. You know what else happened to me, I didn’t die.


There are many myths perpetrated by reefer madness, and just like any lie, there stems a truth. Amongst these lies is marijuana can hurt your biology, the truth is yes you can develop a condition known as hyperemesis, something that is still argued amongst activists but not doctors but still, no one has ever died from it. You can overdo it in other ways as well.

At the beginning of my marijuana consumption, I was never around mass amounts except to sell it, never for cooking, making oil, or capturing kief. So when I met a Washington cannaisseur, gardener, and pharmacist named Andy, he took me to the next level on my first visit to pick up an eighth.

First, we smoked the complementary joint that comes with buying house weed, not only is it fun to smoke, it shows that you are there just for the weed. While smoking I got cottonmouth which he said grab a drink and a cookie if I wanted, mind you everything in Andy’s fridge was medicated.

After about 45 minutes of smoking joints, bowls topped off with kief and edibles; it was time to go home.

My first inkling of trouble started 50 ft down the road as I was driving, my heart was racing, and thoughts were filled with fear which brought about a mild panic attack. I know the first thing many of you are thinking “Well, he shouldn’t be driving in the first place” and I’m not here to argue for or against, just that I do and for twenty plus years have had no accidents, which include driving across the nation in a company truck, “stoned”.

After I calmed myself down by reassuring myself that no one has died from a marijuana overdose, I made it home. Once again though, as I laid in bed, I became aware of by my rapid heart rate and reminded myself no one has ever died from marijuana. This lasted for about two hours, an uncomfortable feeling that I could not control, where the cure is just time and rest. Some say pepper and CBD also. The prior statement of “feeling that I could not control” a prohibitionist is going to say “A-Ha!”; but let me tell you about the time my friend in High School overdosed on alcohol and had to get his stomach pumped or those weekends when I drank too much and felt that I was in control, but the reality was the farthest from the truth.

One can overdo anything; if you take too much aspirin, it can kill you but not marijuana. This precautionary tale is a worse case scenario and not worth putting a person behind bars when fast food and sweets cause diabetes.

The Daily Dose

You can say I smoke for medical reasons, but I smoke cause it makes my day better by making my mind and body feel better, not for one particular ailment. One of the arguments on why marijuana is bad is it makes you lazy, or of lesser intelligence, I’m not even gonna address the latter since you made it this far in reading but as for the lazy part, let me tell you about my day.

When there’s work to be done (which is everyday because apparently, kids like to eat and electricity), I’m up reluctantly by 6 a.m. After a coffee, a bowl, some news, and writing, I start my day, usually by sevenish. I arrive at the day job around 9 or 10, pending on the bus and traffic, mind you while I’m riding the bus I’m doing things like writing this article.

For work I run a million dollar lab, to me, it is as cool as it sounds especially for the work I do in the lab, and that’s calibrated test equipment. Electrical test equipment ranging from DC to 50 GHz, if you’re an electrical engineer you just had a nerdgasm.

While at work and maintaining the customer’s needs, I’m also writing and trying to stay informed. For the past 20 years, I’ve worked in the electronics industry while maintaining an excellent work relationship and that has to say something for the daily cannabis consumer.

I smoke weed every day, not just cause it’s awesome but to also prove a point. When I don’t have cannabis in the morning I don’t feel desperate or sad, I have realistic options, but if there’s no coffee in the morning, I’m willing to turn trick, that’s what drugs do, make you feel desperate.

In order for a person to use cannabis for better health, one needs to be exposed to it. Self-titration cannot happen through a prescription but through trial and error of knowing how your body reacts to this wonderful plant. As the consumer becomes more aware of parts of the cannabis plant like cannabinoids and terpenes you can seek out repeat effects without overdoing it.

Warning Labels

Its a sad state of affairs when things with warning labels are legal and do more harm than cannabis. More legal things and the law have ruined lives than the actual plant itself. I throw out there in the nether that yes, some people are allergic to cannabis, some people have bad reactions, some people can even overdo it but all these reasons still not equate to putting one person behind bars, let alone the ones serving life sentences for pot becoming old men to die behind bars.

Credit: www.weednews.co

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