How to get high: Tips on smoking, edibles, microdosing and more as recreational weed becomes legal in Illinois

Not long ago, there was nothing complicated about using marijuana.

We simply “smoked weed.” We “got high.”

The great majority of us barely knew a thing more about what we were doing.

We had a dealer — or knew someone who did — and smoked whatever marijuana was handed to us in a small plastic baggie. Sometimes things went phenomenally well (seeing “Magnolia” on the big screen). Sometimes they didn’t (questioning your entire existence as the world jerked into hyper awareness). Either way, that pint of ice cream probably tasted delicious.

But as Illinois will discover now that recreational marijuana sales have begun, there’s no longer such a thing as simply “getting high” — because there’s hardly just one sort of high anymore.

The birth of a legal cannabis industry has led to far more product variety and consumer knowledge, which in turn has led to far more nuanced experiences than the days of being beholden to a dealer — or whoever happened to be standing next to you at a Phish show.

[ Map: Here’s where to buy recreational marijuana in Illinois ]

Legal recreational marijuana presents a wonderland of options. There’s still plenty to smoke if you want it, but you can also vape cannabis, eat it, drink it, cook with it, drop some under your tongue, spray it into your mouth, pop it as a capsule, apply it as a patch or rub it in as a cream.

While cannabis will never be for everyone — just like alcohol isn’t for everyone — legalization has opened the pursuit to a far wider audience than the cliches of yesteryear. How do you get high in the era of legal cannabis? That depends on you.

Why?

The key question behind cannabis use is simple: Why?

Why are you using cannabis?

Do you plan to stay home and watch a movie? Go out and see a movie? Work on your novel? Go to a bar? A concert? Dinner with your extended family? Curb anxiety? Relieve physical pain? Emotional pain? Go for a hike? Have some relaxing fun?

“Don’t go in just thinking, ‘I just want to get high’ — you can do a lot more than that,” said Peyton Brennock, sales manager of national accounts for Cresco Labs, a Chicago-based cannabis grower and product manufacturer that operates five Sunnyside dispensaries in Illinois with five more in planning.

“We all deserve more than a blanket effect,” he said.

The beer industry thinks in terms of “occasions” — the beer you drink with dinner may be different than the beer you drink at a corner bar, which may be different from the beer you drink while playing poker with your buddies. Same goes for cannabis.

Nearly three-quarters of Americans who used cannabis in 2019 did so to relax at home — by far the most common reason for use, according to a survey by Chicago-based cannabis research firm Brightfield Group.

The most common marijuana occasions are home-based, according to the Brightfield Group survey: 55 percent of people said they used it to accomplish tasks at home (such as cooking or chores) and 47 percent said they used it to socialize with friends at home.

Among the biggest changes due to recreational legalization — which has happened in 11 states plus Washington, D.C. — is that cannabis is leaving the house, said Andy Seeger, Brightfield Group’s cannabis research manager. Popular occasions outside the home include outdoor activity (47 percent), before or after yoga (42 percent), concerts and music events (41 percent), before or after school (40 percent), at work (40 percent), after-work gatherings and family gatherings (both 30 percent) and going to a bar or nightclub (24 percent).

“We’ve hit critical mass,” Seeger said. “If you go to a concert and every demographic has a (vaping) cartridge and you wonder how this guy in the suburbs got access to it, then it’s really for everybody at this point.”

It’s also being used across age groups. The heaviest group of national users is people between 36 and 40 years old (21 percent), according to the Brightfield Group survey. But all age groups between 26 and 55 show at least 12 percent of people using cannabis. Even baby boomers — defined as those between 56 and 79 — are on the upswing: from 9.4 percent in 2018 to nearly 11 percent in 2019. (Brightfield calls a segment of them “boomerangs,” those circling back to cannabis after experimenting with it decades ago.)

Adult use among those 21 and older in newly legalized markets usually surges to somewhere between 20 and 30 percent, Seeger said. He expects Chicago to push closer to 30 percent, if not surpass it.

“We’re seeing a lot of newbies, but they’re going through the learning process — like craft beer,” Seeger said.

He said the budding cannabis industry has several parallels to beer — and that it’s little wonder the nation’s three largest beer companies (Anheuser-Busch, MolsonCoors and Constellation Brands) have all partnered with cannabis companies. But cannabis has one important advantage: “Cannabis goes across more of life.”

“Beer is 5 p.m. and on and we’re seeing cannabis usage throughout the day for various reasons,” Seeger said.

If you’ve been overwhelmed by wine or beer options, get ready for more of the same from a cannabis industry churning out higher quality products with better branding in a bid to connect with mainstream audiences yet to form brand loyalties. The key to navigating the options is exactly the same as in those wine and beer shops: ask advice.

“You’re going to be overwhelmed — there are tons of options,” Seeger said. “It’s OK to ask questions. Everyone at the store will know you have questions. And if they don’t like questions, go to a different dispensary.”

Smoking or edibles

Options are plentiful, but there are two basic avenues for getting high. For a quicker, sharper high — think bungee jumping — smoking or vaping are the way.

For a slower, more methodical high — think roller coaster, with a slow ascent before the thrills — try edibles.

Many old-school users swear by the old-school method of rolling a joint.

“I love the ritual,” Brennock said.

It’s also the go-to for many users after legalization. The biggest selling products in newly legal markets, according to Brightfield, are high-THC cannabis flower (also known as “bud”) and pre-rolled joints; they’re familiar avenues requiring nothing but a match, while the popularity of the high-THC content speaks to the fact that many people want to get, in the technical nomenclature, blown.

Smoking flower is something plenty of people try to avoid due to obvious health concerns about inhalation. That has made vaping — heating oil or flower to produce vapor rather than traditional smoke — a popular option. A second advantage to vaping: because it doesn’t produce smoke, it’s more discreet and transportable.

(A recent spate of illnesses and deaths linked to vaping is believed to be tied to black market cartridges tainted with vitamin E acetate; buying cartridges from dispensaries should be a far safer proposition, Seeger said. Still, plenty remains unknown about the long-term health effects of vaping.)

Though smokable cannabis is reliably a top seller, edibles tend to become increasingly popular in legal markets, Seeger said. The products have become more creative and have attracted the involvement of restaurateurs and chefs, including Mindy Segal, of popular Bucktown restaurant Mindy’s HotChocolate.

Way back in 2015 — an eternity in the world of legal cannabis — the James Beard award-winning pastry chef teamed up with Cresco Labs to launch Mindy’s Chef Led Artisanal Edibles. Products include gummies, fruit chews, hard candies and chocolates, all of which will be available at Cresco Labs’ Sunnyside dispensaries.

The gummies come with names and descriptions more likely to be found on cocktail menus, including Botanical White Grapefruit (“super juicy with an essence of gin botanicals”) and Glazed Clementine Orange (“zesty and thick with notes of kumquat, clementine and candied orange rind”). But that’s the point for Cresco Labs, whose motto emphasizes its mainstream plans: “We’re on a mission to normalize, professionalize and revolutionize cannabis.”

Ultimately, many dedicated cannabis users don’t judge between smoking and edibles; they cross genres — say, an edible in the morning, vaping during the day and a joint at night. (There are also options such as tinctures, cannabis beverages and breath sprays, which have an onset somewhere between smoking and eating. Creams and lotions are usually used for medicinal purposes and rarely, if ever, produce psychoactive effects.)

There is a crucial difference between smoking cannabis and eating it, however. THC is usually felt within minutes of smoking or vaping because it heads directly to the bloodstream (and then the brain). Edibles tend not to take effect for an hour or two because the THC must pass through the stomach. It is also a high that lasts much longer. That can lead to problems.

“It’s easy to take more than intended through oral administration because effects aren’t felt right away,” said Christie Fowler, assistant professor of neurobiology and behavior and a part of the Center for Cannabis Studies at the University of California, Irvine.

Colorado emergency rooms saw a 109 percent surge in visits from edible-eating tourists in the midst of panic attacks after recreational use was legalized in that state in 2014. Most of them are believed to have thought they didn’t eat enough cannabis, then overcompensated. For such reasons, the industry has developed an edibles slogan: “Start low, go slow.”

The industry is laboring in chemistry labs to make edibles react more quickly to prevent overdosing, Seeger said: “Everyone’s got a bad edibles story, but they’re doing their best to turn that around.”

Know your dose

Cannabis options aren’t limited to how they’re consumed. There’s also the cannabis itself.

In most dispensaries, much is made of two groups of strains: Sativa and Indica. Sativa is reputed to be the “upper” strain (best for that walk along the lakefront); Indica is the “downer” (staying home to watch a movie or head toward sleep).

However, parts of the industry are moving away from such shorthand, mostly because it isn’t useful — or even accurate. Fowler said the differences between the strains are more helpful for understanding the plants themselves and their lineages rather than their effects.

There likely is underlying difference, she said, but they’re mostly unknown: “There’s just no hard and fast understanding of what they are — only anecdotal,” she said.

Fowler also suspects much of the reputation for many kinds of cannabis is rooted in the placebo effect: If you’re told a certain type of cannabis will be relaxing and another is energizing, you’re more likely to experience them that way. Because cannabis is still criminalized under federal law, the ability to do research is limited, she said.

That said, most dispensaries will offer guidance on the effects you’re likely to feel.

Paul Lee, of Dispensary 33, an Uptown medical dispensary that will begin selling recreational cannabis at 6 a.m. Wednesday, said he can be given “a bud with no name and I can smell it and probably tell you what it’s going to feel like.” That’s possible, he said, due to the unique mix of cannabinoids and terpenes — the compounds that combine to create cannabis’ intoxicating effect — in different products.

There are two primary factors to consider when using cannabis.

One is dosage. Edible cannabis products are generally designed to be had in 10, 5, 2.5 (or 2) and 1 milligram increments. Ten and 5 milligram products are most popular, and generally elicit a noticeable buzz. But “microdosing” — taking 2.5 milligrams to 5 milligrams continually throughout the day — has gained popularity for its ability to blend into daily living; it’s more of a polish on the world than a deeply heady high. “Macrodosing” is also a niche — especially for medicinal and sleep needs — but, as if it needs to be said, tread carefully.

“We like to say, ‘Know your dose’ — everyone’s got their dose,” Lee said. “That’s the most important thing with a THC product no matter what it is.”

“Your dose” depends on a few factors, including your experience with cannabis and the effect you’re after. Finding it is significantly easier when smoking because effects are felt quickly. When it comes to edibles, Lee said, the best approach is to start with a recommended dose and not to exceed it: “Record how you feel; even if you feel nothing, it’s a lot of information.”

Eventually, he said, the goal is “reaching a level where it does what you want and every time.”

The other key is the THC to CBD ratio.

CBD, which has surged into the mainstream in recent years, is the nonpsychoactive compound in cannabis that is reputed to have a relaxing or calming effect. It is also believed to act as a crucial counterbalance to THC for those who want it. (Fowler noted this also is not scientifically proven.)

Some cannabis is deliberately THC-heavy and CBD-light; for instance Dispensary 33 sells a vaping cartridge called Lemon Cake that is nearly 89 percent THC with no CBD. Such a product will produce a sharply “heady” high in most users — very much a stoned effect.

But Dispensary 33 also sells a cartridge called Cherry Wu: 8 percent THC and 70 percent CBD. Such a high degree of CBD usually leads to what is called a “body high” — more calm than spacey.

Daywatch

Most people gravitate to a middle ground, Lee said. The optimal THC to CBD ratio is usually 1-to-1, and 10 milligrams of each account for his most popular products.

It’s a journey

Fowler, who studies cannabis in mice, said research shows that the drug can be incorporated into a healthy adult lifestyle.

The primary benefit, she said, is the relaxation component, and its ability to relieve anxiety. (Too much in newer users, however, can also create anxiety.) Also, Fowler said, cannabis can help with pain management and studies in older mice have “shown enhanced cognitive function.”

She notes, however, cannabis shouldn’t be used until the brain finishes developing at about the age of 25, nor by pregnant women or people prone to psychosis. Experts also warn that 1 in 10 marijuana users will become addicted. Also, like alcohol, marijuana shouldn’t be mixed with driving.

Ultimately, understanding how to get high “is not an algebraic equation,” said Brennock, of Cresco Labs.

“You know it when you feel it,” he said. “It’s putting yourself out there and trying new things.”