When the West Coast woke up, smelled the coffee and made medical marijuana legal, the question on everyone’s lips was, “How can I get a medical weed card in California?” Well, that question has been answered fairly comprehensively by a number of online articles showing you how you can apply for a medical marijuana card in California and by the growing number of online cannabis cards readily available for those who want to medicate with MMJ. The more pertinent question now is, “How can I consume my medical cannabis?” And that’s what we’re going to look at at today.
Smoking MMJ
OK, so this isn’t the most alternative way to consume medical cannabis; far from it, it’s actually the most traditional and normalized method of getting MMJ into your system. However, it’s also a nuanced practice that has many different approaches. The days of rolling up a joint being the only way to smoke medical marijuana are over, with pipes, bongs, flavored papers and, um, apples being utilized by MMJ users in order to inhale their favorite medication.
It must be noted that that there are health-related side effects to regular smoking and that many doctors advise MMJ users to find alternative ways of ingesting medical marijuana, which is one of the reasons that alternative ways to consume MMJ are becoming so popular.
If you want to continue to smoke (who doesn’t love the ceremony of rolling up or preparing a pipe?), try switching to a herb mix (known as ‘spin’) instead of tobacco to avoid the dangerous and addictive effects of smoking tobacco every day. Unless you roll with pure cannabis (known as a ‘blunt’), of course.
MMJ can be used in all sorts of baking and cooking.
MMJ in Edibles
We know what you’re thinking: brownies. And you’re right, MMJ brownies are just about the finest thing that can pass your lips when you’re craving both medical marijuana and a delicious sugar fix. However, there are so many other recipes that will provide you with your MMJ dosage and most of them will be a lot lighter on calories and don’t have to be scoffed at midnight while watching Wayne’s World 2.
If you don’t fancy doing the baking yourself, you can buy medical marijuana granola in which the MMJ is infused within the granola nuggets that you can eat for cereal, on yogurt or even sprinkled over a salad.
For any budding chefs out there, you can make your own cannabis butter and start baking cookies, cakes, chocolate bars or even the incredibly moreish kale crisps. If you’re in a rush, just spread it over some toast, sprinkle with salt and you’ve got yourself a relaxing snack that you can relish any time of the day.
If you want to, you’ll need a California growers card, which you can apply for online; it goes without saying that it’s best to follow the law to the letter on this – we don’t want to spoil a good thing, right?
Juice MMJ to get a nutritious and delicious hit of your favorite medicine.
Juicing MMJ
We think that Instagram has a lot to do with this one. Ever since the #healthy hashtags started abounding our screens, the snaps of tropical juices and freshly pressed smoothies with paradisiacal backgrounds soon followed. It’s not just yoga bunnies and ’grammers that are jumping on this trend, however; medical cannabis patients, caregivers and healthcare professionals are all exploring the health benefits of juicing marijuana.
It’s important to note that you should not just use any old weed or medical marijuana that has been dried and prepared for smoking; you’ll need to source raw, freshly picked MMJ that is free of pesticides for your MMJ smoothies. We recommend carrot juice but feel free to go more than a little wild with your experimentation; after you learn how to get your medical marijuana card online then all you need is a juicer, a bunch of groceries and culinary curiosity!
For a more detailed overview, check out Juicing Medical Cannabis: A How-To Guide.
Vaping can be a pleasant alternative to smoking MMJ.Vaporizing
Vaping MMJ
Also known as ‘Vaping’, this new trend has enveloped the hipster movement and is now becoming so mainstream (so does that mean that hipsters will stop? Poor them!) that you can buy all of the necessary equipment either online or on most high streets.
The ‘vaporizers’ allow users to select which temperature to ‘cook’ their medical marijuana. This means that you’ll avoid the toxins that would be released if it was burned. You’ll also avoid the vast majority of smoke inhalation that you would get if you were smoking a regular roll-up. Plus, you’ll look cool (but only to some people).
Tea is a very healthy way to ingest MMJ.
Boiling MMJ in Tea
Nothing sounds simpler than sticking the kettle on to prepare a pot of marijuana tea, right? Well, it’s not quite as easy as sticking a few buds in a mug of boiling water, but as long as you can get your hands on some cannabis butter, it’s close enough.
All you have to do is:
- Add 1 tsp of cannabis butter to the cup, along with a teabag (or fresh mint leaves, herbal tea bags, whatever you want to flavor it with)
- Let the butter dissolve and then make your tea as you would normally
- Remove the teabag, adding milk, sugar, honey. etc.
A perfect remedy for the long winter nights. Set your pot down next to your California 420 card and raise a glass to Proposition 215, the 1996 act that legalized MMJ in California.