Part II in a short seriesToo High is when you are begging your significant other, while at dinner with friends on New Year’s Eve, to tell you how long the effects of the piece of cannabutter cake you ate are going to last and the abject horror that grips you when you have apparently lost your ability to understand the English language. It is when your friends drag you into the bathroom and tell you to splash some water on your face and stop talking because you have not made a lick of sense in over an hour. And then the paranoia kicks in and you begin to believe that the whole evening – the cake, the restaurant, the holiday plans – are all part of elaborate plan to embarrass you publicly … And then your extremities begin to tingle. Too High is not a pleasant place to be.
It can happen while smoking flower; edibles can bring it to another level entirely. Cconcentrates? Please just be careful with the concentrates until you have used them enough to have your sea legs under you before graduating from “baby dab” to “glob.” Fortunately for us (because we all encounter, at a minimum, the ’Noids every once in a while), the sometimes overpowering psychotropic effects of THC are generally short-lived and can be lessened with some commonly available remedies and a few simple changes in behavior.
Most of the tragedy that is Too High can be avoided with some planning and information-gathering before consuming your cannabis. Ask a few questions, whether it be of your friends who may be furnishing it, or of the budtender who is selling it to you, or of the internet (if that is the only available option), about the characteristics of what you are about to put into your system. Is it a sativa? Good information to know because these strains are more likely to cause a racy, anxious high than most indicas. What is the THC content? If the answer is over 15 percent and you are not experienced enough to know your tolerance level or if you have not smoked in a period of more than a year or so, please, for the love of Peter, Paul, and Mary, only take one hit. What is a dab? If you have to ask this question, you had better clear your afternoon and evening schedules because you are about to be very, very, very high. How much of this edible should I eat? Half or less – that is the only acceptable answer to this question for those people who do not eat them regularly. If it has not kicked in after an hour, wait another hour. Trust me on this one.
If you do go ’round that bend and find yourself upside down under a street sign which seems to read “Too High,” fear not, we have ways of dealing with this situation:
1. CBD, in smoked or spray formOne of the downsides (I guess) of the breeding revolution of the past generation is the loss of cannabis’ natural THC-to-CBD ratio to the drastic favor of THC. CBD acts to balance out the sometimes-overwhelming effects of its chemical cousin.
2. Black peppercornsThese, like cannabis, contain terpenes. The beta-carophyllene found in this common culinary spice can put a pin in the hot air balloon that is Too High and bring you back to earth.
3. Regular old food and drinkTHC can cause a drop in blood sugar that may leave you feeling disoriented with an incredibly dry mouth that may leave you feeling plain old bad; too much sugar or caffeine might exacerbate the situation, so you are best off eating and drinking things that would not make you feel crappier on an average day.
4. The Hippie TrifectaNature, music, and pets. These things help, they really do.
5. BreatheSages across the ages, from the ancient yogis to Wim Hof know what’s up.
I hope you never find yourself Too High, DGO, but if you do, I hope the above list helps you out.
Christopher Gallagher lives with his wife and their four dogs and two horses. Life is pretty darn good. Contact him at [email protected].
