How long do the effects of cannabis last?

If you are considering consuming cannabis for the first time, check your schedule and make sure you reserve at least six hours for the experience, which is generally the maximum duration from one use, although this may vary depending on various factors. You may even want to take the day off the first few times to avoid the stress of conflicts with any obligations or outings.

Factors Affecting the Duration of Cannabis's Effects

- Form of consumption

If you eat cannabis, you must wait for it to digest and slowly enter the bloodstream, which will lengthen the process. If you smoke it, on the other hand, the THC enters the bloodstream more quickly, through the lungs.

- Amount consumed

This should be obvious, but the more cannabis you use, the longer its effects will last, since your body must process large amounts of cannabis for a longer period of time.

- Quality of consumption

If you just puff on a joint, you're going to ingest significantly fewer cannabinoids compared to vaping or eating the plant, as cannabinoids are lost through combustion.

- Strain and terpenes

Cannabis comes in the form of different genetics, each with unique attributes and combinations of terpenes that can yield a wide variety of effects.

- Setting

If you are not familiar with the place where you are consuming, you may experience strengthened effects that could be lengthened by this greater sense of intensity.

- Metabolism

Each person's body metabolizes substances differently. If your body processes chemicals slowly, the effects may last longer than what your peers experience.

- Tolerance and awareness

Your familiarity with cannabis and understanding of how to tolerate and adapt to its psychoactivity can affect the length of a trip. As you get used to more intense cannabis use, you may feel that you stop feeling "high" after a shorter period of time, despite the cannabinoids still acting on your body.

Other factors may include: age, height, weight and general health, the simultaneous use of cannabis with other drugs and alcohol, personal expectations, and/or previous experiences or exposure to cannabis.

So, how long do the effects of cannabis last?

A great way to determine how long the effects of a particular cannabis will last is to use an equation that covers many of the factors listed above; specifically five main aspects:

Effect length = (dose x concentration) / (metabolism x tolerance)) x method of consumption

In other words: how much weed you put into your body, divided by how you process it internally, all affected by the specific pathway into your system.

It is less complicated than it sounds. And, if you are looking for a final answer, then it is simple:

- After inhaling cannabis, whether smoked or vaped, expect to be high for about an hour or two. Smoking weed will cause THC levels in your blood to peak within half an hour after your first inhalation. It will then hover around that peak for another half an hour before it begins to wane. After the first hour, its effect will diminish fairly quickly until you no longer feel the THC.

- If you have eaten cannabis, its effects will last 3-4 hours, maybe longer, depending on the dose and how quickly your body processes THC. The effects of edibles can last up to 8 hours, due to the different metabolic route that THC takes when it reaches the stomach. In short, the digestive tract converts the THC in a different way, one with great staying power in the body.

But, we are all different, so the only way to really know how long cannabis effects you is to try it several times in a safe place. Avoid driving, operating heavy machinery, and interactions with family or people who may stress you out, or are not sympathetic to your cannabis experiments. Being aware of how long its effects last will allow you to use cannabis more responsibly, whether you're smoking for the first time ... or taking it to the next level after discovering the wonders of resins and concentrates.