5 Helpful Tips for Dosing and Using Medical Cannabis

For patients who want to use cannabis but have no experience with its use, it can often be difficult to assess the appropriate dosage. We would like to give you some useful tips that can help you to use medical cannabis correctly. Basically, every patient has different needs and every disease requires its own medical understanding of the background and context.

1 Tip: Always use high-quality cannabis

The medicinal benefits of cannabis can only be effective, or only to the full extent, if the source material is also of high quality. For medicinal use, the most suitable cannabis is organically grown, produced without chemical additives and pesticides. Not all buds and not every cannabis product is the same, the quality can vary considerably and so can the medicinal benefits.

The dried flowers must also be free of mould and other pathogens. If you don't have the opportunity to test your marijuana in a lab, you should grow in the cleanest conditions possible, adhering to the parameters in a well air-conditioned grow room. This way, you have the best protection against mould.

In addition, care should of course also be taken during the further processing of the cannabis that no additional ingredients or chemicals can get into or remain in the hashish or the extract. For extracts, harmless and non-toxic solvents should always be preferred over others. If you can't be sure exactly how an extract was made and don't trust the source, it may be better to stay away from the product. If you produce extracts and flowers yourself, you know exactly how they were made and which substances are contained and, above all, which are not.

2nd tip: Keep all utensils clean

Especially patients who use cannabis medicinally should always make sure that all utensils, smoking devices, storage vessels, etc. are clean and cleaned regularly. Cat hair, bread crumbs, dust and other contaminants have no place in medicinal cannabis products. Hashish and cannabis extracts should always be prepared in a clean environment to avoid contamination. Oils and extracts may only be filled into clean and preferably sterilised containers. Only cleaned and sterilised tools are used for processing. Vessels and bottles that are filled with oil or creams must be free of drops and water residues.

3. tip choose a harmless form of consumption

Smoking cannabis is very popular but not the healthiest way to use marijuana. VaporizerWhen used correctly at the right temperature, the active ingredients vaporise without burning. The combustion process always produces harmful substances and materials that can irritate the lungs and bronchial tubes. With vaporisation, this can be avoided. Convection vaporizers such as Firefly / Firefly2, Extreme Q 4.0, Arizer and Volcano are much less likely to burn plant material and are therefore more suitable for medical use. They work with hot air and produce no or barely visible vapour.

Ingesting cannabis through food is also a very safe form of consumption, but the effect is not quite as easily controllable as vaping.

4. tip: start with a small amount

When patients start using cannabis, it is often not clear which dosage is the right and effective one. Before you get overwhelmed with too high a dosage, fall asleep or have unpleasant experiences, you should first start with a low dosage. This dose can then be slowly increased as needed and in small steps until you have reached the individually suitable dosage.

A moderate and gentle initial dosage can be:

• 0.25-0.5 g dried flowers (equivalent to about ½-1 joint)
• 1 drop of medicinal cannabis oil (about the size of a grain of rice)
• in food: 5-10 mg per intake

This dosage may be too little for experienced users and certain symptoms, and is only a rough guide for beginners. Many cannabis patients consume up to 1g of cannabis oil per day. With cannabis that has been processed in food, it should be remembered that the effect is much slower to set in after some time. It can take between 30 minutes and 2 hours for the effects to fully unfold. Eating too much cannabis-infused food too quickly can produce an unpleasant but harmless overdose.

Tip 5: Document dosages and experiences.

Observe and note down your experience and the respective dosage. This can help you talk to your doctor about it and make adjustments. The following things should be noted:

• Symptom before cannabis use
• Signs of disease
• THC and CBD levels
• Daily dose
• Time of ingestion
• Symptoms after ingestion (30 minutes later, 1 hour later...)
• Symptoms when the dose is changed.