The Marijuana Chef Cookbook. S. T. Oner

by a doctor to alleviate your suffering. Many people still have not accepted the use of marijuana as medicine, and combating other people’s personal bias when you are in pain is an unwelcome, additional stress. People who suffer from chronic pain may want to eat marijuana because the long-lasting high enables muscle relaxation and relief. Recreational users typically want a high to kick in quickly. However, medical users might actually want a slower release of the drug into their system, since it enables the high to last longer. This may mitigate the extreme of the high, but consistent relief is what some consider most important. To achieve this, consider eating doses of marijuana with larger serving sizes. As the body breaks down the food, the marijuana will be released in stages — a process very similar to a “time-release” capsule.

      People have found marijuana to be effective in the treatment and relief of numerous ailments and terminal conditions. One of the first illnesses that pot was legally made available for was glaucoma. Marijuana has been proven effective in reducing ocular pressure, a condition that damages the eye over time. Glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness in the United States, and most sufferers of the disease are not physically helped by the medications currently available. Unfortunately, most of these people do not live in areas where their doctors can prescribe marijuana. There are many glaucoma patients who credit their remaining eyesight to marijuana use. Other advocates include cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, who use cannabis to stimulate their appetites. Their increased appetite helps them maintain the weight and strength to fight their illness. People living with multiple sclerosis, AIDS, and chronic migraines are all helped by marijuana’s properties. Since most medicinal users don’t want to smoke, for obvious health reasons, eating marijuana is their best option.

      People may also choose to eat marijuana simply for economic reasons. Although you certainly can cook the flowers and the bud of the plant, it is just as effective to cook with the plant’s leaves. The leaves are useless to the grower once the plant is harvested, and they have to be pruned off the plant. Be aware that leaves are still just as dangerous to have in your possession — the penalties for a pound of leaf are the same as those for a pound of bud — so the grower has an incentive to get rid of the leaves as soon as possible. But, because the leaves are harsh to smoke and are not nearly as high in THC, they are not very valuable and are often given away or destroyed as soon as possible. When cooked, the leaves will be stronger than their equivalent weight in buds.

      

Chapter 2

       Marijuana Cooking Basics