In Defense of Macrodosing

Cannabis entrepreneurs have a lot of cherries to pop now that marijuana is melding with the mainstream.

While veteran stoners could assuredly find a hookup in Amish Country if need be, millions of wide-eyed non-smokers are finally opening up to the possibilities of their first puffs and medicated coffee beans. And naturally, these newbies are looking to the right government-sanctioned ganja guru to hold their hands keep them from freaking out during their first dance with the Devil’s weed.

Which must be the reason every self-appointed new cannabis authority and bud brand seems to be latching on to “microdosing:” a buzzword that intends to take the daunting edge off of edibles and the zillions of bad trip stories surrounding their consumption.

Now literally every cannabis convention and panel I attend begins and ends on a patronizing sermon by some person I’m certain I’ve smoked more weed than in life. Explaining how I should start with tiny amounts of cannabis and increase them gradually until I find the right dose that works for me, typically accompanied by a pitch for some products that maxes out at 5mg a serving.

Similarly, every infused dinner I get excited for comes with attached the promise that the doses are “very low.” As if that’s a good thing.

So on behalf of people who love to get really, really, really baked in life, I’m here to say: fuck microdosing. We want to put the focus back on macrodosing.

We are, after all, stoners. Getting high is what we love. It’s right there in our name: Stoners. Not people who tinker with small amounts of cannabis in the hopes of feeling something but not too much of something.

So if getting high is what we love, then it makes sense that getting really high is what we really love.

These are sound geometric principles at play. And it’s about time the powers that be found ways to get us even higher, instead of ignoring the veteran stoner market for those newbies who shunned you in the dark ages.

After all, many of us entered the world of cannabis when all we had was a tin can and some dry buds the color of Hershey cocoa. We usually had to meet up with some sketchy old guy behind a gross bar to get a bag of that crap, then find a stick to poke holes in the can and… it was just a mess.

And as we grew, weed grew with us, becoming more powerful. The herb got stronger for a reason. And the devices followed suit just the same. The can begat the bong begat the Volcano begat the dab rig. All in an effort to make cannabis more, not less, intoxicating.

My point is, stoners aren’t a skittish bunch. And most us came to the scene to deliberately experiment with drugs. And possibly lose our minds a little if it had to be.

Of course, this is hardly LSD or DMT we’re talking about. Things one could and should legitimately microdose. We’re still talking about a plant, albeit a potentially 132 billion dollar plant.

And to be truthful here, I want to get high. Like the song. Super high. I want to question if I’m possibly too high. Just like every time I’ve enjoyed being high. It started with me suspecting that I might be kind of too high to go to dinner/the post office/that Kubrickian orgy in Beverly Hills. But I want to be that high. And higher still.

And I’m not alone amongst stoners I know. Dedicated, longtime herb addicts like my friend Marcus, who recently joined a friend in each taking 1700mg from a dropper of liquid THC. They spent the day walking along the beach experiencing something more akin to a psychedelic trip. Everyone lived. Only one stomach got upset.

Or my friend, Lex. When an Orange County security guard attempted to confiscate his bag of THC-laced gummy cherries at a recent show, he tilted his back and swallowed the whole thing in front of everyone, downing about 750mg in total while the guard expressed concerned, “Sir, I can’t let you do this.”

As he came back from the bar with a gin and tonic in hand, I checked in on him to make sure I wasn’t going to have to drive his ass to the hospital later. “No, no worries, I’ll just be really fucking high is all.”

There’s something to be said for going to the edge with a drug that has never killed anybody.

Now, we’re not advocating for overdosing on drugs or making yourself sick. And we respect moderate weed consumption’s place as a necessary medicine for people who need it. And certainly, you should not take 1700mg of liquid THC anytime soon. Especially not if you’re going to blame this story when you’re jabbering at your ER nurse.

But to get serious for a second, we do face a potential THC-dosage crisis in the U.S. As legalization grips California, restrictions on THC-content in edibles designates that many products stay under 10mg of THC per serving product. As a result, many higher potency products have vanished overnight, afraid to bare their colorful packaging until Jeff “Boogeyman” Sessions retreats back to his Hobbit hole.

For anyone with a jacked-up tolerance or heavier body, getting one’s hands on higher potency edibles is proving difficult as a result, affecting consumers who use cannabis both medically and recreationally.

As we’ve seen repeatedly, removing effective medicines, including cannabis, from easy accessibility leads to patients and aficionados looking for a source down other, often more dangerous, roads. And also leading to Pink Floyd albums sounding 23% less awesome.

So if you like getting high, the day may have arrived when you need to stand up for your right to get too high. Before you lose your right to get any high on the slippery slope of regulation.

And if you don’t like getting high, please email us and tell us what are you doing reading High Times. The curiosity kills us.