What happens if I eat weed?

Now that we're entering our third year of cannabis legalization in Canada, we're starting to get this question almost every week.

There's nothing new about consuming cannabis in the form of edibles to get high. Maybe the recipes are new, and perhaps the potency from the type of cannabis is different. But as anyone who’s ever taken an edible knows, when you eat cannabis you’re not actually eating raw bud or flower. But if you did, what would happen? Can you get high from eating raw weed?

The most popular question we get boils down to: what happens if my pet or kid eats my weed?

If your pets or kids get into your weed stash (we're talking raw flower / raw bud ) don't worry! . Raw weed will not get you high! And there's some quick chemistry to explain this.

The sensations and body effects of being high on cannabis is only felt if your body gets active THC, and as it turns out, raw cannabis doesn’t actually have THC readily available. Instead, raw cannabis contains the non-psychoactive cannabinoid THCA, which needs to be exposed to heat in order for THCA to be converted into “active” THC, which then makes you feel high.

This process of activating the raw bud into THC is called “decarboxylation,” which is exactly what happens when you ignite bud, or when you heat it to the point of vaporizing. It’s also why before an edible can get you high, the weed must at some point be decarboxylated.

But when you eat raw weed, this crucial step is missing.

As a result, all you’re getting in eating raw flower is THCA, NOT THC, which means NO, you will not get high.