Marijuana - How Is It Taken?

How Is It Taken?

In order to produce psychoactive effects, marijuana must be heated. People cannot get high just by eating the raw plant material, unless they eat hashish or buds with the highest concentration of THC. Even so, the high produced will be lessened and will establish itself slowly, over a period of hours. Marijuana does not dissolve in water or other room-temperature solvents, so it cannot be injected.

The most common way to use marijuana is to smoke it. Small amounts of marijuana are rolled into cigarette papers and smoked. These are called "spliffs" or "joints." Pipes are also used, both the conventional sort that are made for tobacco and special ones just for marijuana or hashish. More elaborate pipes, called "bongs," pass the smoke through water as the user inhales. Bongs work with tobacco as well as marijuana, but vendors who sell them still run the risk of getting arrested for peddling drug paraphernalia (items used to deliver drugs into the system). Users also hollow out cigars and replace the tobacco with marijuana. These are called "blunts."

Marijuana, or more often hashish, is also baked into food, such as "hash brownies." The cooking process releases the same chemicals that are released while smoking. When eaten, baked hashish products can provide the strongest—and most unpredictable—high. Some users brew marijuana as a tea as well.