HEALTH | LIFE LESSONS

My First Experience with Cannabis (Marijuana) Edibles

It affected me a whole lot differently than I thought it would

What happens in Vegas doesn’t always stay in Vegas

Las Vegas, Nevada is where I was for a week in May 2021, staying in a semi-luxury timeshare condo with my two best besties in the world. It was my first time in Vegas but not the last. We had a fun time.

The food was delicious. The casinos were…well…casinos. The shows were spectacular. Red Rock Canyon was beautiful. Fremont Street was cool. The people were friendly. And I especially loved the climate. The temperature was in the 90s with low humidity, making it feel like it was only in the 70s, which was perfect! Being from the Ohio Valley, I was afraid that we would be in a pressure cooker when I saw the weather forecast, but I was pleasantly surprised.

It was also my first time trying edibles. I’m not a marijuana user usually so it was quite a new experience for me. I’ve always wanted to try edibles because I’ve been a student of the medicinal benefits of marijuana for quite some time, and this is a major reason why I believe that cannabis should be legal in all states.

I really don’t see why marijuana is categorized as a schedule 1 controlled substance, particularly since so many people declare the medicinal benefits of cannabis and have been for 3000 years! And, too, it’s not as dangerous as alcohol and that’s legal. But, anyway…

Marijuana Shopping

Since my friends and I were in a state where marijuana use is legal, I wanted to take advantage of that fact and see what the hype was all about with the edibles. So we took a trip to the Planet 13 marijuana dispensary. And, it was a TOTAL experience to say the least.

Ok, so I didn’t eat anything while we were there. I saved that part of the experience until later that night when we were back at the condo. But the rest of the experience was something I did not expect.

First of all, the security was on high alert! When we walked in the door, we had to show ID, sign in at a counter, and get a ticket like at the movies. Then we had to walk through metal detectors before going through to the dispensary but we had to have our tickets ripped before walking through the doors. There were cameras and surveillance and security personnel everywhere. The staff had on red gloves and cameras on them at all times behind the counters.

Inside to me looked like a fancy peddler’s mall with all the paraphernalia, bud, pre-roll, extract, tincture, topicals, hemp, flowers, CBD, and of course edibles. Most stuff was in glass cases and they had a concession stand in there. And there was so much to choose from. I went with the Green Apple Gummies.

These are the Green Apple Fruit Chews [10pk] (100mg THC), which is 10mg of THC per gummy, not 100mg like I thought. LOL! Whew! That would have been way too much. OMG.

After making a decision, we had to tell one of the floor security staff what we wanted and that person took the order and gave us a number and we were to wait until we were called up to the counter.

The cost: $33 sticker price. But by the time we got up to the counter and found out about the add-on fees for this and that, it came to $41. Why don’t they just put the total cost of the product on the price tag? I was annoyed by the fact that they didn’t.

After the red-gloved guy behind the counter confirmed our orders and we swiped for payment, he said that he’d be right back and left the counter. He then came back with the products in a tray for us to take out. Then we signed out to leave the dispensary area and took a short tour of the rest of the building.

Down the hall was the manufacturing area with a glass wall where you can see these large machines and employees with masks and gloves working to make and package the products.

And there was this picture-taking prop that is a replica of a 1960s mini-van decked out like on Scooby-Doo, with a smoke machine to look like the van is full of marijuana smoke. We took pictures while hanging out of it. I was choking on the smoke and coughing in my pics. LOL!

Eating the Edibles Experience

Later that night, back at the condo is when I decided to try one of my marijuana gummies. The package itself came inside a zip-locked heavy plastic pouch. I got it out and the gummies package was not easy to open for some reason.

Per the instructions for beginners, I only ate half of one of the gummies. It tasted just like a sweet piece of gummy candy, nothing out of the ordinary. So, 1/2 was only 5mg of THC. I ate that and after 15 or 20 minutes, I didn’t notice a thing, so I ate the other half. Still nothing after waiting.

I’m like, “Ok. Since I’m not a regular at this, isn’t my tolerance supposed to be pretty low? I don’t feel a thing.” And my friends said it was supposed to be more relaxing than anything else.

Oooookaaaayyyy.

I go ahead and eat another one.

About 15 minutes after that, I started feeling kind of mellow but not “high”. It was more like a “low”. LOL! Why do people say they’re high off of marijuana when it’s actually more of a downer rather than an upper because it’s a depressant.

Long story short, by the end of the 5-day vacation, I’d eaten all of them with very little effect. So, my impression of those $41 marijuana gummies is that they were not much different than a $1 bag of regular gummy candies. LOL!

Not what I expected AT ALL.

And that’s about it.

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