Hello readers, I’m interrupting your regular programming featuring the accomplished Joshua Lee to bring you an important message: I like cookies! I didn’t say it was a prolific or vital message, I said important—and cookies (and all baked goods) are important to me. Moreover, I tried my first cannabis cookie from PurLife last week and I just had to tell someone about it. It’s no secret that I love PurLife—their customer service is excellent (I was given a free Lavender salve made by one of the budtenders, that I applied to a terrible sunburn earned at the Weekly Alibi’s annual Hempfest, it was more relieving than aloe and smelled absolutely delicious), their products are reasonably priced, they have a rewards system (gotta love the promise of free flower) and they’re conveniently located in Midtown.On this visit, I grabbed a peanut butter cookie (THC: 100mg/cookie) and added it to my snack list for the coming evening. I’m always very nervous when trying new edibles, so that night I made sure to break the cookie in half, then in half again, then again, and then one more time for good measure … If you’ve never had too much of a cannabis edible, keep it that way—you’ll learn why shortly. That night I was fine. The following night is a different story: I was feeling confident because: 1) I handled the previous night so well, and 2) my smoking tolerance has gone up noticeably in the last year, so I naively equated that to being able to handle edibles (wrong). That’s false because THC is absorbed differently via these two very common methods. Everyone knows that an edible high is more “hallucinogenic” than a smoked high—and that’s because your liver metabolizes the THC differently. It’s changed to 11-Hydroxy-THC (aka Hydroxy-THC or 11-OH-THC) which makes it easier to cross the blood-brain barrier—hence the hallucinogenic qualities.Another noticeable difference to smoking is that edibles can take much longer, which is where I made another mistake. It can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours—I had half of a quarter, waited an hour, then had the other half. As Bailey Rahn of Leafly noted, “The Golden Rule of edibles: start small and be patient.”The cookie itself was fine—it had a creamy peanut butter taste combined with the grain of sugar, plus the enormous earthy taste (but no smell) of cannabis—plain peanut butter is better, to be honest. I had kept it in the fridge out of habit (I always throw the chocolates I get in there as soon as I get home) but it would have been tastier and easier to eat if kept at room temperature. The first night it took about an hour and a half for me to feel the tingle of a body high which lasted till I went to bed. But the next when I was too ambitious I felt the THC after a little over an hour and a half. The high started similarly to the night before—a soft tingle of relaxation across my body but it continued to create the beginnings of a hallucinogenic haze so I laid down, turned on “The Office,” muttered every-so-often about, “This is real life, man,” and enjoyed the night. After an hour and a half of feeling the initial effects, (it felt like several hours to me), I was still feeling the buzz, so I decided to pack up and go to bed.Another stark difference between edibles and smoking is that it’s a healthier alternative to smoking. While a cookie does contain things that aren’t great for you (sugar), smoking is definitely not ideal for the lungs. It also lasts much longer, so the healing effects are longer lasting, as well—especially for chronic pain. For my PTSD, I think it would have been beneficial to start out with some edibles (lower doses than this particular item) because they are longer lasting and my rage was pretty extreme back then.The next day I woke up feeling tired, but I noticed my appetite was lower than it normally is—so I just had coffee and fruit, then set out to the office. I recommend this type of edible to anyone with extreme PTSD reactions—I think it would have been the perfect thing for me when I was starting my medical journey to stop my overwhelming anger. Sure, it takes a bit, but it’s powerfully calming—and tasty!
PurLife3821 Menaul NE, Ste F9800 Montgomery, Ste 9(505) 433-2672Hours: Mon-Fri 10am-6pm, Sat-Sun 10am-4pmFirst-time Freebies: Yes