MARIJUANA 101
Bud tender Avery Clark, right, helps a customer at Local Joint dispensary. Experts say Arizonans new to marijuana should start with low doses and see what they are comfortable with.
“Cannabis is very individual to people’s bodies and how it reacts.”
Jane Fix
Director of patient services for Sol Flower’s four Arizona dispensaries
Marijuana dispensaries in Arizona have advice for people making their first recreational purchases: Start low, and go slow.
Many of the medical-marijuana shops in the state began selling recreational marijuana to people over age 21 on Jan. 22, following the swift implementation of Proposition 207, which voters passed in November.
While dispensaries are eager to open their doors to more customers beyond those with state-issued medical cards, they are reminding people unfamiliar with the thousands of marijuana strains and products to take it easy.
Arizona dispensaries offer hundreds of products, from traditional “flower” or marijuana buds for smoking to concentrates, edible gummies and tinctures, all of which affect people differently and for various lengths of time.
Several dispensaries offer staff experts to help shoppers, who up until this point were all medical patients, select something appropriate. Those experts are in high demand.
“A lot of people want to start with edibles and gummies, but we have found those are better for experienced users because they are more potent and longer lasting,” said Veronica Paz Booth, an educator for Item 9 Labs, an Arizona company that sells marijuana and other products to dispensaries.
Paz Booth mostly consults employees at dispensaries, but also sometimes talks with consumers. She also is working on her master’s in medical cannabis science and therapeutics online at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy.
Paz Booth said that she usually recommends people start with traditional marijuana flower, and not necessarily the strongest strain, or a “full spectrum” vape pen.
Vaporizers or vape pens can be easier on the lungs and cause less coughing. Without getting too technical, “full spectrum” means a vape pen with more components of the actual marijuana plant in the extract that is smoked, compared with distillate pens that often have higher potency but fewer natural plant compounds.
Paz Booth recommends actual flower or full-spectrum products because they give users a more balanced sensation than a highly potent distillate concentrate.
Take one puff and then wait
Paz Booth said new consumers or those who have not used marijuana in several years should start with a single puff and then wait 30 minutes to an hour before taking more.
For those who prefer edibles, she said they need to pay attention to the la
bels, as even small portions of food can hold a significant amount of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the primary psychoactive substance in marijuana.
“You can put a lot of THC in something very small,” she said.
All products sold in Arizona are labeled, and she said those new to edibles should take no more than 2.5 milligrams of THC and wait 24 hours before taking more.
That advice is extremely conservative, she said, with some dispensaries recommending starting with a 5-10 milligram dose, “but for a lot of people, especially people who have not had cannabis and don’t know how to handle that euphoria, that feeling known as being high, that can be a lot. So it is best to start low and slow. We really cannot emphasize that enough.”
The reason for the caution is that edible products take longer to affect a user, hours in some cases, but can induce a much stronger effect that lasts longer.
Some edible products like mints are even more complex because they can enter the bloodstream through the mouth and have a more immediate effect, she said.
Talking to people at dispensaries is key for customers unfamiliar with the different products, she said.
“And obviously no driving. You cannot drive,” Paz Booth said.
Driving under the influence of marijuana remains a crime in Arizona, despite the drug being legal for adult use.
Washington state, which has more detailed laws regarding marijuana and impaired driving, recommends people wait five hours after smoking marijuana before driving, and longer than that if they consumed edible marijuana products.
Strains affect people differently
Beyond just the type of product, there are a host of strains of marijuana that affect people differently, Paz Booth said, with some people getting more of a high than others from the same strain.
Nearly all flower and vape pens list the strain of marijuana in them, though some are proprietary strains used only by certain companies. Some edible products list a strain, but many do not.
Strains are usually classified as either indica, sativa or hybrid. In general, indica strains are known to give users a feeling of relaxation or laziness, and are usually preferable in the evening, Paz Booth said.
Sativa strains are better known for being uplifting, and hybrid strains are somewhere in between, she said.
Americans for Safe Access, a Washington, D.C., group advocating for access to marijuana for therapeutics and research, notes that all strains “produce effects that are more similar than not,” but that different strains affect users differently.
“Many people report finding some strains more beneficial than others,” the group reports in a guide to using medical cannabis.
“For instance, strains with more CBD (cannabidiol, a chemical compound) tend to produce better pain and spasticity relief.”
The group adds that the effects can vary for people based on their environment or the setting in which they are using the drug, and their physiological state when they take it.
Jane Fix, director of patient services for Sol Flower’s four Arizona dispensaries, provides free consultation for patients and adult-use customers.
“Cannabis is very individual to people’s bodies and how it reacts,” Fix said.
Fix said some customers will be drawn to stronger, smokeable concentrates, but that those are not for everyone.
Avery Clark, a bud tender at Local Joint in Phoenix, said the rush of new customers since recreational sales is a change for dispensary workers, but that helping customers find something to suit their needs is the same whether they are medical-card holders or not.
He said he spends a big part of his workday explaining the effects of products and how they affect people differently.
“I will tell them, this is a very different high and a very different experience from smoking a joint,” Avery said of customers who are drawn to potent edible products. “We usually tell people, ‘You can always eat more edibles, but you can’t eat less.’”
Stay close to home your first time
Once consumers pick a product, most educators recommend sticking close to home, in a comfortable place, and being around close friends and family rather than strangers or large crowds for users’ first experience.
“It seems innocent enough. People will say, ‘We can get some cannabis and go out to the casino.’ They eat the edible, get to the casino, and all of a sudden they don’t feel good,” Fix said. “I don’t like to see people get in over their head and have a bad experience.”
For those who have consumed too much and feel anxiety, the most common unpleasant side effect, Avery suggests taking CBD, a non-psychoactive component of cannabis available in many grocery stores as well as dispensaries.
Another folk remedy for those who have taken too much is to smell ground black pepper. Fix said there may be some validity to that remedy, but she’s not aware of any research confirming that it is effective.
“Most people if they have over consumed, just distract yourself,” she said. “Watch TV, drink lots of water, do something to get your mind off it. Take a nap if you can. Take a walk in your neighborhood,
take a bath.”
Medical benefits of interest to recreational customers, too
Clark also said that many people visiting dispensaries still want to use marijuana to address medical ailments such as chronic pain, but for one reason or another didn’t previously go through the trouble of getting a medical card.
That’s something Fix also sees, especially at the Sun City Sol Flower dispensary.
“Especially people that have benefits through the VA,” she said. “We noticed an uptick over in Sun City of older men that had VA benefits and were afraid to get a (medical) card.”
If customers have complex medical issues, Fix says it requires a deep dive into what medications they are using and how they have responded to treatment before she can make a recommendation on what product is best.
She said many new customers are using marijuana to treat stress or anxiety, which are not qualifying conditions for a medical card.
Clark said he’s happy to help customers find what works best for them, and repeat customers request him as their bud tender because he helped them previously.
“I’ve had people come back (and) request me because I’m actually recommending good medicine that will help them feel great throughout the day,” Clark said.