Eating marijuana is an entirely different experience from smoking or vaping it, and it has a different impact on your body as well. To understand how to get high from taking THC, we must know how the decarboxylation process works.

When in its raw, natural form, cannabis plants contain THCA, a precursor to THC, the cannabinoid responsible for getting us high. THCA doesn’t have psychoactive properties, which means eating raw marijuana will do very little to make you high.

But when exposed to heat, THCA will be converted to THC. The heat gets rid of the carboxylic acid attached to THCA that prevents it from getting into a person’s cannabinoid receptors such that it doesn’t reach its psychoactive potentials to get you high.

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Those who smoke or vape cannabis need this step because the heat naturally decarbs the marijuana when it is smoked. With marijuana edibles, the decarbing process is also crucial in ensuring that they have an intoxicating effect. This is among the reasons why cannabis edibles have a longer duration of action. It’s also why users get a more potent high than what they’d have gotten if they smoked or vaped the same amount of weed.

When you smoke cannabis, the THC gets into your body through the lungs or blood barriers into the bloodstream and settles in your brain (the cannabinoid receptors). This process is what gets people high within a short time.

A stronger high is experienced if the THC gets to your system via the digestion pathway, which is what happens with edibles. When THC is eaten and passed through the digestive tracts it gets to the stomach and liver. When inside the digestive system, the THC is processed by the body’s metabolic system. This enables the THC to be fully absorbed into the body’s system hence the potent effects.

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It should be noted that these processes takes time, thus accounting for the longer onset of action, and long duration of action of cannabis edibles. However, some people are wired differently and that’s the beauty of humans, we’re all different so what works for a person won’t necessarily work for another person.

Why cannabis edibles doesn’t get you high 

You are not getting enough cannabis 

You may not be getting high from cannabis edibles because you are not getting enough cannabis into your system. By “enough,” I am referring to your body’s cannabis needs per dose.

Maybe your friend requires a single dose to get high, which is great but does that also apply to you? You’ve got to monitor the amount of weed that gets you high and use that amount to determine the number of edibles you should eat.

Your body metabolizes THC too swiftly

Cannabis edibles work differently compared to other methods of consumption. With smoking, tinctures, and vaping, you get to absorb the marijuana directly into your bloodstream. Edibles will need to be digested first with the THC metabolized in your liver before getting into your bloodstream.

If you have very high or deficient CYP enzymes, it could alter your metabolism, which means THC wouldn’t metabolize. Our metabolic enzymes are responsible for breaking down these substances, and they exist and function based on our DNA blueprint which means your enzymes function differently than that of someone else.

RELATED: Why You Need To Be Careful Using Edibles The First Time

These differences in our DNA affect how things work inside our bodies. If you don’t have the enzymes that can break down these substances or if you’ve got prolonged ones, then you wouldn’t get high with cannabis edibles.

If you take the cannabis edible on an empty stomach 

In some cases, instead of feeling high after taking cannabis edibles, you may feel anxious and restless. With this situation, you may have eaten the edible on an empty stomach.

Eating cannabis edibles on an empty stomach slows the absorption process and prevents you from getting high on THC. If this has happened to you, please ensure to eat before taking the edibles.

It may not be suitable for you

For some people, cannabis edibles just don’t work on them. Just as certain medications work for some people and don’t work for some. You may have to consider enjoying the edibles but relying on smoking or vaping to get high.

How to make edibles more effective 

Here are some steps to make your cannabis edible more effective;

• Eating food rich in caffeine, such as coffee which speeds up your metabolism.
• Try taking cannabis sublingually which entails allowing it to pass your GI tract and getting directly into your system through your mouth tissues.
• Try eating cannabis edibles with lower amounts of carbohydrates and fats.
• A healthy and fit lifestyle with exercises and a diet rich in protein will increase your body’s metabolism making it easier for the body to absorb the THC from cannabis.

Bottom line 

There are numerous reasons for not getting high after taking cannabis edibles. While there are solutions to some of them, if your genetic build-up doesn’t allow for it, you may have to give up marijuana edibles. Of course, you can still eat it if you still like to, but now you will be consuming it with an understanding that it wouldn’t get you high. So your new approach will be to enjoy the edibles but then smoke the weed to get high.

This article originally appeared on Cannabis.net and has been reposted with permission.