I just renewed my medical marijuana card for the third year.  Before I  got my card, I never used marijuana, I thought it was for people who just wanted to get high and escape life.  You can definitely use it for that but the medicinal properties are amazing. It seriously is a catchall for what is bothering you.  Off the top of my head, I have used it to replace 3 different types of medication.  I use it to help me sleep at night.  I use it to help me if I have a really stressful or anxiety fueled day  and I use it to help me with pain. I really struggled with trying to decide to renew my card this year, it was almost $300! I thought I could try more vitamins for sleep.  I could meditate and exercise more for the anxiety. I could go back to taking pain reliever for any of my pain which honestly isn’t really bothering me that much right now.

However, I cannot forget about last year when I fell off a horse and nearly broke my hip. I had to use a walker for a week and I had a major hematoma that lasted for months and some pretty nasty nerve damage. How I didn’t break my hip is seriously beyond me.  I was able to get up and walk after a couple days and with massage, chiropractic and managing my pain with marijuana I was able to make a full recovery.  The thought of getting hurt again and not being able to use marijuana to manage my pain, scares me.  I do not want to take opioids such as Percocet to help with the pain.  You develop a tolerance quickly and it is easy to OD on.  You cannot OD on marijuana. If you do take too much it is like an all night drinking bender and the only thing you can do is wait for it to subside.  Most users don’t let that happen very often.

With all the benefits its hard to not renew.  What’s even harder is realizing how much money you spend on pot when you could be using that money to pay off some bills.  I have made edibles in the past but its hard to know how strong they will be. It is kind of scary cause you do not want to take too much cause you feel awful if you do but not taking enough can sometimes be just as bad if you really need it. The last time I was at the dispensary, I mentioned how expensive it was and how I wish I could make my own edibles. They suggested using shatter and mixing it in with butter and using that in recipe of brownies.  I was intrigued, could it really be that easy?

Being a newer user the marijuana subculture is terrifying! I try to do the research but one site will say one thing and another will completely disagree. I have never been one to listen to really anyone, so I do a bunch of reading and do my own thing.  I also like being exact cause again, OD’ing is not fun on marijuana and I try to avoid it.  I have found expensive machines that will help make your butter and other ones to test the potency.  Well I do not have the money for that, this is already a pretty expensive habit. My medication of choice are edibles and my favorite kind come in 15 gummies  at 15mg of THC each. I sometimes double up on bad days but usually not more or the world is spinning and I feel like that time I had 7 long island teas at a work holiday party except I cannot get sick in the bathroom and alleviate it, I just have to ride it out.  So making my own edibles is kind of scary.  But I did the research, which was not very consistent and I bought my first shatter from the dispensary.

Shatter is super concentrated dosing that is usually burned to consume. There are special tools and they call it dabbing, but  I am not familiar with it at all and you are free to research that more.  So I took my half gram of shatter and tried to figure out how much dosing I would get.  I found 1 g of shatter is about 1000 mg of THC but it is usually only 75%  THC so that is only bout 750 mg of actual THC and I had half that.  However, I have no idea how accurate any of that is cause the websites conflict more than my parents argue.

I chose gummies over brownies cause I do not need the extra calories from edibles. Plus brownies are delicious and it’s hard to only eat one. Being me and willing to live dangerously I found a recipe for gummies and wing’d it. I’m going to say I was pretty successful and it was super easy to do.

First, I bought some chocolate molds from my favorite hobby store.  I  had bought a few earlier on clearance cause I always planned to eventually make my own gummies.

Then I took a packet of 3oz jello, my favorite is strawberry and 1 packet of unflavored gelatin and I mixed those with 1/3 cup of cold water. I let those mix really well for about 10 minutes.

Here was the scary part, I put in my wax shatter I bought and stirred, it didn’t really mix and the recipe said to microwave for 30 seconds till the gelatin was well incorporated.  Well I did it till my wax shatter was no longer able to be seen.

Some websites say you need to do some form of Decarboxylation.  That word has become my least favorite phrase and I will eventually do all the research to fully understand that concept.  But I figured the microwave had to help with that a bit and if they had no effect, next time maybe I would try brownies which would force the process while it baked.

I did all this in a 2 cup measuring cup so I could easily pour straight into my mold.  Don’t Forget! You will want to oil your mold.  I used a paper towel with vegetable oil on it.  Even doing that, I had to dig the gummies out. I warmed up the mold a bit with warm water in a tray and they all came out in tact. It made 30 gummies of various sizes and I am not 100% sure on my dosage.  What I do know is they tasted pretty dang good and they gave me a nice relaxed feeling.  I definitely see myself doing this way more often because I can try different strains and really tailor these gummies to meet my needs.

Now if you are new to the edible life, that phrase may make you pause, wait they do different things?! Yep! Gummies you buy in store are usually hybrids of  different strains so it is hard to know the exact effects you will experience, which is why some users avoid them.  However, different strains of flower will give you different effects. Most know Indica versus Sativa, Indica is more relaxed where Sativa makes me want to clean my house.  But there is more than just that. Some will control appetite, others provide more creativity, while others will help with pain better or anxiety.  That is why  I think being able to make your own edibles and being educated on the effects is so important.  It’s not a one size fits all and we all have different needs and we need to find what works best for ourselves.

I spent less than $20 bucks on shatter and made 30 gummies that are at least 12.5 MG of THC, which is about where I was at when I tried them.  Normally I spend $40 bucks on 15 gummies at 15mg of THC.  I’m willing to play a little gummy roulette and save myself some major bucks.  I’d love to hear about your edible making experiences in the comments below!