One of the best things about weed is you’ll get high. For the most part, getting a cannabis high is a simple affair, you smoke or eat a cannabis product and before you know it- you’re feeling better than you were, seeing the world as a kinder, gentler place.

But every once in a while things don’t go as planned with your high, and you find yourself intimidated by being too high or frustrated that you didn’t get high enough.

Cannabis as a drug is personally expressive. There are a number of factors that can potentially affect the quality of your buzz, including:

your mood
your comfort level with the setting
the food you do or do not have in your stomach when you dose
how much you’re hydrated

A little understanding of how a cannabis high interacts with your body can improve your buzz and spare yourself the confusion of overwhelming euphoria or the disappointment of what feels like a wasted effort.

In this article, we’ll explore ways you can influence your experience with pot and assure you’ll have the happy time you were anticipating when you planned to get high.

Expectation Determines Outcome

A cannabis high is as much about allowing yourself to be high as it is consuming something to catch that buzz. So much of our lives we were inundated with the lie that cannabis was dangerous, and there’s a certain amount of resistance against pot in each of us.

As in all things, you’ll get what you expect. Setting the expectation of happy euphoria increases your chances of having it be so. Deliberately intend to enjoy the experience of your cannabis high before you start.

Check Your Emotional Tone

Blocking out noise is pinnacle to maintaining a strong cannabis high.

Your body is always trying to maintain homeostasis, the balance point of “just enough” – just enough receptors for just enough endocannabinoids, and just enough enzymes to break the molecules up for elimination from your body.

All this balancing is strongly influenced by your mental and emotional state. agitation, frustration, and fear create tension in the body that interferes with cellular signaling, and those emotions will make it more challenging to attain and maintain a comfortable euphoric atmosphere. A little levity goes a long way to help build a better cannabis high.

Lighten Up

Laughter can actually aid your emotional well-being leading up to a cannabis high.

THC will modify your mood, regardless of your starting point at the time of dosing, but it’s worth noting that using cannabis when you’re under emotional duress may make it more challenging to get to that point of serenity and bliss than if you were laughing before you started getting high.

Laughter is the best medicine, and for good reason. Each belly laugh releases more tension that was getting in the way of cellular signaling. Six-year-olds laugh an average of 300 times a day. Adults come nowhere near that count with a paltry 15-100 laughs on an average day.

Think like a six-year-old. Laugh more. Your body will thank you for that and you’ll find it easier to maintain your cannabis high.

Where are you when you take your dose & how comfortable are you in that setting?

Enjoy your cannabis high in a comfortable setting.

Set and setting have a strong effect on your cannabis experience. This is very much mind/body medicine, with cannabinoid receptors sitting right next to the limbic system receptors that interpret your thoughts into feelings, and those of the endocrine system that will create the hormones driving the physical response for those feelings.

Recreationally, the more relaxed you are when you use weed the better you can expect your cannabis high to be. As a medical patient, a relaxed setting fosters a vibrant internal atmosphere for cellular signaling. Allow yourself to choose a setting where you feel safe and relaxed.

A hidden bonus: Incidentally, one of the amazing qualities of using cannabis is how quickly the mind will snap back to clarity when confronted with unexpected chaos. I’ve personally experienced being blissfully high, to have some small or large disaster happen that required my immediate and alert response. Without pause, my mind cleared and sharpened to focus on the task at hand.

I know of no other drug that offers this effect. My experience is not unique, by any means.

This does not give you a license to drive within three hours of catching a buzz. Responsible use protects us all.

Feed Your Body Before You Catch Your Buzz

Your body needs high-fat meals to foster a strong high.

Introducing a cannabis high on an empty stomach can leave you feeling on edge or mildly paranoid, and with some people that can create a bit of mild stomach discomfort.

Cannabinoids absorb more efficiently in the company of fats. Eating a small meal or snack high in fats about 30 minutes before the dose will calm this tendency. Something as simple as a spoonful of coconut oil will do the trick.

How much fat was in the meal you ate?

Cannabinoids hold hands with fat molecules to get absorbed into the body more efficiently. Eat a low-fat meal in advance of your dose and THC won’t hit as powerfully as they will with a high-fat meal.

NOTE: Be alert that eating a high-fat meal after your cannabis dose may cause the same enhanced euphoric effect. When you eat more fat it makes it easier for any cannabinoids already in your stomach and awaiting absorption to become more bioavailable.

Hydration Counts More Than You Think It Does

Cannabis intake requires an increase in hydration.

Cannabinoid use demands an increase in water intake. Over the course of a cannabis high, your body creates enzymes that tear the cannabinoids apart and prepare them for elimination from the body by making them water-soluble. That process requires more water to be available.

Whatever your water intake before you started using cannabis, train yourself to drink more. I personally try to drink about a gallon of water a day.

Adjust Your Cannabinoid Ratios

For many years it was believed that high-THC was the way to a better cannabis high, but now that we have access to strains with different cannabinoid ratios we’re finding that other ratios may offer more interesting euphoria.

CBD molecules will modify the shape of CB1 receptors, making it difficult, if not impossible for THC molecules to fit well enough to activate those receptors. With fewer available receptors to activate, your cannabis high is tempered, often with surprisingly satisfactory results.

After some personal testing, I discovered I enjoyed a 2:1 THC:CBD ratios as being less edgy but every bit as satisfying an experience as high-THC with little or no CBD included. It reminded me of the pot we used to smoke back in the 1970s that made you giggly. My experience was as individual as yours will be. You won’t know how your ECS responds to different ratios until you try for yourself.

Check out my previous post for some further information on the differences between THC and CBD.

Mix up your cannabinoid ratios to find an ideal middle ground.

Explore

I turned 66 last month. Times certainly have changed from the days of limited choices I and most of my generation grew up with. In today’s rapidly changing world there are more ways to enjoy a cannabis high and medicate a healing body with pot than you ever dreamed of.

When you make your next visit to the dispensary you’ll be amazed by how many more options the dynamic cannabis market has created.

We’ve looked at the way our diets, emotional moods, and the setting we choose to dose in affect our experience with a cannabis high, and looked at simple, practical ways to influence your buzz for the better. If you’ve found ways to create a better buzz- we’d love to hear about it in the comments section below.