Understanding how to dose cannabis edibles is extremely important! In this guide, you will learn more about dosing, discover your tolerance level, and get my helpful tips and tricks for dosing homemade edibles safely and effectively.

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Article Features

  • A simple guide to help you understand dosing
  • Featuring the golden rule: start low and go slow
  • Want to skip the hard work? Shop with me and have premium, high-quality cannabis products delivered directly to your door! Now shipping across the US.
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How To Dose Cannabis Edibles

Ignore the dosage charts! You know those who say you should consume xx if you weigh xx? Skip them!

Why? Because everyone responds to cannabis differently, and so many factors influence that response way beyond weight.

As I teach all of my Well With Cannabis Community members, dosing edibles, mainly THC, is highly unique to each person.

That is why it is essential to stay patient and take your time to discover your ideal dose according to your body’s tolerance.

In this guide, I will teach you how to do just that so you can dose your edibles safely, ensuring you have a safe and enjoyable time while getting the dose just right.

A shallow bowl of green cannabis flower

Edibles Affect Us All Differently

It’s important to remember that the ideal milligram serving size can vary from one person to another.

Some people get high with as little as 2mg of THC; others do so at 30mg; others won’t feel the effect until the dosing is over 100mg or more.

Others may not feel the effect of edibles at all.

This is all based on your tolerance. Many factors, including your weight, metabolism, and the unique endocannabinoid system, can impact your tolerance and ideal serving size.

If you have never consumed edibles before, but have used other forms of cannabis, understand that your tolerance for smoking or vaping has no bearing on your tolerance for edibles.

Don’t assume that you should start with a higher dose because you smoke a lot. Edibles affect the body differently than other application methods.

Follow The Golden Rule

If you’re new to dosing cannabis edibles, specifically THC, it is crucial to follow the golden rule: start low and go slow.

This means you start with a low milligram dose, typically around 1-5 milligrams, and you wait three or more hours before taking another dose to assess your reaction.

This helps to ensure you do not take too high of a dose on your first try and end up consuming too much THC and having an unwanted reaction.

If you accidentally consume more THC than your body can handle, you may experience disorientation, dizziness or drowsiness, short-term memory issues, slow reaction times, anxiety, heart palpitations, and tachycardia.

While there are ways to come down from a bad high, the best option is to prevent this from happening in the first place by not consuming too much.

Wait Before You Take A Second Dose

As mentioned above, starting with a small dose AND waiting before taking a second dose is recommended.

This is because edibles have a delayed onset. They are slower to take effect due to their need to travel through the digestive system.

While you can feel the effects of smoking within 1-3 minutes, it may take 1-3 hours (or more) to feel the effects of edibles.

This means that if you take a 5mg dose, don’t feel anything, and take another 5mg dose 30 minutes later; you may accidentally consume more than your body needs.

This overconsumption can make you feel sick. That is why waiting several hours, if not a day, is recommended before trying a new, higher dose.

How to Titrate Your Dose

It is recommended to start with a small serving size and work your way up, taking time to evaluate how you feel. 

If you have taken the recommended 1-5mg…

Feeling great? Keep up with the dose that is working! Or feel free to experiment as desired.

Not feeling it? Increase your daily serving size by 1mg-5mg each day until you meet your goals.

This slow, gradual increase of your dose is known as titration or titrating the dose. This slow, methodical increase helps ensure you do not consume too much at one time or develop too high of a tolerance.

Additional Factors That Impact Dosing

Several factors can affect the amount of cannabis required to meet specific goals or respond to a particular dosage.

Individual physiological factors, such as body weight, medical conditions, and absorption rates, can affect the experience from person to person. Additionally, your genes can impact your tolerance.

Variables such as the type of flower you start with, whether you have eaten, what you have eaten (like mango), and the serving size can also impact results.

We are all different, be patient, and enjoy the journey to finding your perfect serving size.

What About Cannabinoids That Don’t Produce A High?

There are many cannabinoids you can consume beyond THC.

Cannabinoid acids like CBDA, THCA, and cannabinoids like CBD, CBG, and more can all be consumed, but they do not produce a high. This makes it more difficult to determine your perfect dose.

Luckily, there is no risk of feeling unwell from overconsumption, so you have more room to experiment with higher doses.

Many people start their dose between 10-20mg and can safely increase to 100mg or more at a time.

How to Dose Homemade Edibles

When purchased from a dispensary, edibles are much easier to dose because they come labeled with a milligram dosage.

This makes determining your tolerance easier because you can know that 5mg makes you feel one way and that 10mg makes you feel another.

However, dispensary edibles are not available to everyone. Many people prefer to make homemade edibles to control the final product, save money, and use up homegrown products.

Suppose you know the input value, the percentage of THC or CBD in your starting material. In that case, you can use our edible dosage calculator to get a rough guestimate of the potency of your final products.

You can also use the calculator backward before making a product to play with the numbers and determine how much cannabis you should add to get the final dose you desire.

Keep A Dosage Journal

If you’re finding it difficult to find your perfect dose, I recommend keeping a cannabis journal.

A cannabis journal is somewhere you can record your daily dosage, associated symptoms, and feelings. This will allow you to look back and see any patterns or apparent issues that should be addressed.

Your cannabis journal can be as simple as a pen and paper or a specific cannabis journal like these from Gold Leaf Journals.

About Emily

Hi, I’m Emily Kyle and I teach people just like you how to use cannabis to find joy, enhance productivity, improve relationships, and naturally support your overall health and wellness.

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26 Comments

  1. Hi Emily
    I was given cannabis as payment for a job. I’m going to decarb it and add it to a shop bought brownie mix. I don’t know what strain or level of thc, but it’s quite potent when smoked. Just trying to work out how much to add.
    By the way love all the info I’ve read so far. Have a lot more study to do now. Thank you

  2. Hi Brendon. That’s a great way to be paid! ? Are you using butter or oil in the brownie mix? Depending on how much it calls for, you can follow Emily’s Cannabis Flower-to-Oil Ratio Guide & Printable Chart for guidance. You’ll want to make more than what you are using in the recipe, as you’ll lose roughly 20% of butter/oil during the infusion process. I hope this helps!

  3. Hello Emily-I enjoy your website, and appreciate the insight on how much and when. Being a disabled Veteran, I prefer the green butter management, and am still learning the ropes of crockpot cooking and the proper ratio of butter and bud. I’ve been near catatonic is the past, and try not to overindulge, but find the green butter the best method for pain control. My Sons are helping me with sourcing the components needed, so I’soldier on and keep enjoying your column. Thank you so much for your insightful columns.

  4. Hi Robert. The edibles journey is a never-ending learning adventure and we’re here for you every step of the way. We appreciate your positive feedback and continued support!

  5. Say it I was to put 1ml into my mixture of average strength RSO and make 100 sweets what would be the rough strength of each sweet are we talking 10 mg per sweet or 100mg?

  6. Hi Mac. Average strength for 1ml of RSO/FECO is 750mg and if divided into 100 servings, each serving will be 7.5mg. You can adjust accordingly depending on the serving size you’d like. If you have dispensary RSO, the total strength should be listed on the packaging.

  7. You’ve mentioned that evaporating some of the alcohol from the green dragon tincture when infusing store bought gummies would make it stronger. Do you calculate FECO differently from how you’d calculate tincture? My tincture, per tsp, figures out to be 48mg of THC. Does that change once reduced?

  8. Hi Mary. The total THC of your tincture doesn’t change, but per serving will. (FECO is the total MG of the entire tincture) After you evaporate off some alcohol, each teaspoon will be more potent, but you will have less teaspoons. I hope this helps! Dosage math gets the best of all of us at times!

  9. Hi Emily,

    I am going to make my hubby fruity prpples marshmellow treats. i want them to be thc50mgs. how much cannabutter would i need for about a pans worth. i figure thats about 8or9 treats. what size should i cut them into? Also, my sis is dying to try them but lives out of state. what kind of packaging should i use so they don’t go bad.
    PS. I think your GREAT!

  10. Hi Angela. Fruity pebbles marshmallow treats sound absolutely delightful! To reach a potency of 50mg THC per treat, you’ll first need to ensure your cannabutter is properly infused. Assuming each treat should contain 50mg THC and you’re making about 8 or 9 treats, you’ll want the total amount of THC in your cannabutter to be around 400-450mg. This way, when you distribute the cannabutter evenly in your recipe, each treat will have approximately the desired potency.

    When it comes to packaging and shipping, you’ll want to make sure the treats are well-sealed to prevent them from going stale. Airtight containers or vacuum-sealed bags can work well. If it’s a long journey, you might consider adding a cool pack to the package to keep them fresh.

    and I agree…Emily is GREAT! 🤗