Can You Overdose on Weed?

Yes. It’s called a weed nap:

 

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But seriously, with most drugs, it is possible for one to overdose.  A person can develop acute water intoxication, or take too many aspirins, therefore, it must be possible to overdose on the sticky green stuff too, right?

Almost every drug used as medicine is given a so-called LD – 50. This LD – 50 rating shows us the dosage at which 50 percent of test animals that are given a certain drug will die due to an intoxication of that very drug.

So the question remains…is it possible to overdose on marijuana?

The short answer probably does not surprise you:

NO.

Researchers in the past have attempted to determine the LD – 50 rating of marijuana in test animals with little to no success.

That is why marijuana is considered remarkably safe–even safer than aspirin– because of the lack of its overdose risk. Currently, cannabis has an LD – 50 rating estimated at around 1:20,000 or 1:40, 000.

Okay, so what does that even mean?

Well simply put in order to overdose on cannabis one must consume 20, 000 or 40, 000 times as much as one average marijuana cigarette.

Let’s break that down even further.

In order to successfully overdose on marijuana, one would have to consume 20,000 to 40,000 joints…in one sitting.

To induce a lethal response one would need to consume almost 1500 pounds of marijuana in a  fifteen minute period. I don’t care how much you smoke, NO ONE can accomplish that. And if they can, then perhaps they deserve to have that monumental achievement etched prominently on their gravestone.

So what about Dabs? Those can certainly kill you–right?

While you might feel like you are dying, chances are you’re not (well theoretically you are, we’re all dying slowly, at least according to my guru). However, it’s not recommended you try to overdose on your dab rig.

And for those of you who aren’t as hip as I let me explain. Dabs are concentrates which are typically 10-15 times more potent than flowered marijuana. Even with this potency, however, it would take pounds of wax, or shatter or crumble to succumb to the evil weed.

So what happens when someone consumes too much cannabis? Can they become ill or sick?

Not quite:

Don’t believe a “weed head” like me? Perhaps the folks at the National Cancer Institute will convince you:

“Because cannabinoid receptors, unlike opioid receptors, are not located in the brainstem areas controlling respiration, lethal overdoses from Cannabis and cannabinoids do not occur.”

 

Petey Wheatstraw

Hi, my name is Petey Wheatstraw. I'm an avid marijuana smoker, writer, devoted father and non-profit minion-- not necessarily in that order. A Chicago native I've lived in the Bay Area since 1996. Click Here for Free Cannabis