Replacing Your Nightly Drink With Cannabis? Pace It Like This

Replacing a nightly drink with cannabis? Keep two nights a week cannabis-free from the start. Tolerance comes from repeated use, and trading every drink for a vape session turns that use into a daily habit.

How fast does tolerance build?

Tolerance builds on your own timeline, set by how much you use and how often. The first sign is your usual amount starting to feel weaker. When that happens, keep the amount the same instead of loading more.

Count even a small session as a cannabis night, so your two nights off stay cannabis-free. A smaller hit every night still keeps the pattern daily.

What long-term daily use changes in the brain

Years of daily smoking leave fewer CB1 receptors available, the brain's docking points for THC. A brain-imaging study of chronic daily smokers found fewer of these receptors available, and fewer still with more years of smoking. After about four weeks of supervised time off cannabis, receptor levels matched the comparison group again.

Does vaping make pacing easier?

Vaping helps you pace when you keep each load small. A trial led by Tory Spindle compared vaped and smoked flower in 17 healthy adults who hadn't used cannabis in 30 days. At the same dose, vaping in a Volcano Medic desktop vaporizer generally produced higher blood THC and stronger effects than smoking in a pipe.

Even the lower 10 mg dose, measured as THC in the vaped flower, caused noticeable effects and slower thinking on tests. Take an example load of 0.1 g of 20% THC flower. Its loaded THC content is 20 mg, twice that dose. Start with about 0.05 g, and use our microdosing guide to set up small loads.

Check the THC percentage on the label before you buy, and pick lower-THC flower. A 10% flower puts half the THC of a 20% flower into the same pinch.

How long to wait before another draw

Wait at least 30 minutes before you decide on a second draw. In Spindle's trial, test performance was generally worst 30 to 60 minutes after vaping or smoking, and some effects lasted hours. For your first sessions, take one draw and follow our beginner hits guide.

Treat a vape session as a night in, with no driving afterward. Feeling less high doesn't prove you're safe to drive, and tolerance makes the high feel weaker.

Turn the vape off while you wait. The flower left in the chamber heats up again fine later, with less flavor.

Is cannabis every night a problem?

Every night is the pattern to watch. CDC research links frequent cannabis use to cannabis use disorder, the medical name for problem use. Hold on to your two cannabis-free nights a week, the same rule as for any daily use.

Quitting heavy daily drinking

Talk to a doctor before you stop if you drink heavily every day. Stopping suddenly after heavy, regular drinking can cause withdrawal, including seizures or severe confusion, according to MedlinePlus.

Get emergency help for a seizure, severe confusion, hallucinations or an irregular heartbeat during withdrawal. Once you've stopped drinking safely, start with a small load and wait at least 30 minutes before a second draw.