Let's talk about edibles

 My knowledge surrounding cannabis, prior to this whole journey, was fairly limited to movie trivia. Obviously, I recognise now that it's all exaggerated, played up for laughs. I didn't know much about medical cannabis, other than a vague knowledge that it was legalised in the UK.

When SK first started talking about it, we didn't know enough about the process of obtaining it as medicine. We had Book (a relatively new uni student) who said she could get some from friends. We had a cousin of mine who was in very sporadic contact, who claimed that he'd bring some whenever he came to visit. But we didn't have a direct source ourselves, nor did we know where to get one.

Something I was aware of, from those aforementioned movies, was edibles. Space brownies, CBD/THC gummies, general green baked goods. So I went online, researched, researched some more, researched a lot more (in case it's not obvious, I'm of a very wary nature). With SK being let down so many times, I wanted to try and find an alternative. While she continued to look into where she could procure cannabis, I was looking into more unorthodox methods.

Which took me to Etsy, where I often find myself when looking for niche, personalised or otherwise unusual items. To my surprise, once you know the right terminology, there's quite a lot of options. "Space brownie" was no longer the correct term. "Edibles" brought up dubious results, which might have contained THC, but also might not. "Infused" seemed to turn out the best results. "Hemp" occasionally gave useful results but not always. 

I was still cautious. After all, from an online listing, who can really tell if what a seller claims is the truth? Couldn't it just be some chancing their arm, hoping to make quick cash? I decided to contact a few sellers for additional information. Anyone who blanked or blocked me, I considered a no-go. Reviews were a must. I didn't want to introduce anything that might be harmful, that might make things worse. To be honest, even now that we've tried them, I'm still not convinced that buying them from some random seller on Etsy was, in any way, not a monumentally stupid thing to do.

But I did it. They weren't overly cheap - although I'm not really sure what the going rate is. It was around £28, including shipping, for four cookies. They were packaged in a tupperware, tightly wrapped in cling film, with a note that suggested we start small. That made sense. We could always try more, but if we got plastered from the off... well, it wouldn't be good. 

We didn't get plastered. In fact, none of us could really say that we felt much from them, apart from a dry mouth and a headache. We started with a cookie between us, giving ourselves a few hours to see if they had any effect. Book and I thought, maybe, we were feeling something, although that could well have been a placebo effect. SK didn't get anything from them, other than a third of a subpar cookie. 

We tried them again, at various different times, to greater effect. The headache and dry mouth were real. Dry eyes, fizzy brain, mild dizziness. Heightened emotions, lack of spatial and volume awareness, increased sensitivity. 

I can't claim they didn't work. They definitely did. But it didn't feel reliable, or even safe. Our journey into edibles wasn't over, but Etsy wasn't going to remain my first port of call.