I was casually reading a post written to debunk the most common medical cannabis myths when I ran across the assertion that all medical cannabis products do not necessarily get patients high. It’s true. It is so true that I figured I would expand on it in this post.

Getting high is entirely possible with medical cannabis. No doubt some patients seek to get high as a primary means of finding symptom relief. But getting high isn’t a given. Indeed, you might be a medical cannabis patient who is not made high by your meds. Maybe that has you thinking you’re doing something wrong.

Defining Medical Cannabis

There are multiple ways to explain why medical cannabis might not get a patient high. The first is to distinguish between different forms of medical cannabis. That requires defining what it is.

Although most people think of marijuana and THC when the topic of medical cannabis comes up, such assumptions are not accurate. Cannabis is a plant with multiple varieties including marijuana and hemp. What is the difference between the two popular varieties? THC content.

Cannabis plants with more than 0.3% THC are considered marijuana. Plants with less THC are considered hemp. It turns out that hemp is bred specifically to limit THC while simultaneously boosting another cannabinoid: CBD.

Note that both THC and CBD can be used medicinally. That means you can buy a legitimate medical cannabis product with absolutely no THC in it. And if it has only CBD, it is not going to get you high no matter how much you use it. CBD just doesn’t produce those feelings.

Dosage Also Matters

Medical cannabis products containing THC do have the potential for creating high feelings. But dosage matters. For example, low-dose (low THC content) medical cannabis products may not contain enough THC to make you high. Yet they still might work to alleviate your symptoms.

As a side note, this plays into the ‘low and slow’ philosophy so many medical providers and pharmacists recommend. Low and slow dictates that new medical cannabis patients start with the lowest possible dose and work up from there. They stop increasing dosage once their medications are achieving expected symptom relief.

Delivery Method Matters, Too

Low-dose THC products are less likely to make a patient high compared to their high-dose counterparts. But there is still yet another factor in play: delivery method. There are different delivery methods, with each one impacting THC’s effects on the patient.

Salt Lake City, Utah’s dispensary Beehive Farmacy says that vaping and dry heating are among the most popular delivery methods in the medical cannabis arena. Most states with medical-only cannabis programs do not allow patients to smoke plant material. Vaping and dry heating are comparable.

Both practices deliver THC to the bloodstream fairly quickly and intensely. It is not hard to get high when vaping or dry heating. On the other hand, consuming medical cannabis by way of a gummy is an entirely different matter.

Gummies need to make their way through the digestive system. It can take hours for their effects to be felt. Not only that, but the effects are also not as intense. They are more gradual and consistent. So it’s entirely possible to consume gummies and never get high.

Assuming that all medical cannabis products make patients high is incorrect. That’s not how it works. Some patients get high and others don’t. It depends on what they use, how much they use, and how they use it. This might matter to you if you have been considering using medical cannabis but are afraid of getting high.