Cannabis edible

A variety of space cakes from Amsterdam.

Canabis foods are foods prepared with cannabis in herbal or resin form to enjoy the psychoactive effects of the drug for those who prefer not to smoke it. Commonly it is cooked into a cake, cookie, brownie, or other baked product to be distributed socially. As with other illicit activities and drug culture in general there are many different names and slang terms for these recipies. Most are based on standard recipies for brownies, cakes or cookies. The addition of hash, canabis, weed or the more euphemistic space, magic, adult, special prefixes gives some of the more common names like hash brownie, space cake etc.

Types of preparation

They are usually prepared by using oil or butter which has previously been used to extract the active ingredient from the cannabis. Sometimes, however, the ingredients are mixed in directly.

THC and other cannabinoids are hydrophobic oils. They are insoluble in water but soluble in alcohols, fats, and other oils. As cannabinoids are insoluble in water alone, they suffer from low bioavailability when eaten. By dissolving the cannabinoids in alcohol, fats, or oils (such as the fat in butter and cheese), their ability to be absorbed by the body is increased. Heating the THC in the presence of fats or oils simply accelerates the process of dissolution in the fats, from some hours at room temperature to minutes in the microwave.

Drug effects

Eating such a food can result in a similar psychoactive effect or "high" as smoking marijuana, although it may be delayed or mitigated due to slower absorption of the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) through the digestive tract. Some believe it imparts a smoother "high". However there are many accounts of stronger, sometimes frightening, longer lasting highs resulting from eating cannabis. Whereas the effects from smoking cannabis are usually felt within a few minutes, it can take up to two hours to get high from ingesting it.

Contrary to smoking, where one can feel the high coming gradually; the way the THC is digested can result in a significantly stronger high that can last for hours. Products containing cannabis are widely available in cannabis coffee shops in the Netherlands (and various European cities), where the consumption of marijuana is effectively legal.

In pop culture

A song entitled "I'll Never Smoke Weed with Willie Again" is about smoking weed with Willie Nelson. Written by Toby Keith and Scotty Emerick.

• The brownie was used in the 1968 film I Love You, Alice B. Toklas, in which a character portrayed by Peter Sellers becomes disillusioned with his mainstream life after falling in love with a free spirit, only to become just as disillusioned with the hippie subculture. Marijuana-spiked brownies are a key plot element.
• In "Garage Sale" - the second season premiere of the FOX sitcom That '70s Show - Steven Hyde makes "special brownies" that end up being consumed by Red, Kitty, Midge and Bob.
• In the movie Eurotrip, Scotty, played by Scott Mechlowicz, and Jenny, played by Michelle Trachtenberg eat some brownies in a Dutch bake shop that they assume are hash brownies and "suffer" the symptoms. They learn, however, that the brownies contain no cannabis, with the staff referring to the establishment as a "simple Dutch bakery", much to their embarrassment.
• Ethan Embry's character in the film Empire Records consumes hash brownies while watching television.
• In the movie Never Been Kissed, Josie eats a load of pot brownies.
• In the movie How High, the Chancellor of Harvard University and his wife unknowingly consume large amounts of brownies mixed with marijuana, causing them to act silly at a Halloween costume party later that night.
• In the movie "In a Noir York Minute", the character Jefferson, played by Regis Philbin, eats a hash brownie every night after work to "you know, just chill out a bit."
• In the movie Can't Hardly Wait, the stoner character played by Eric Balfour is eating hash brownies with his friends when his female friend feels tricked and throws her hash brownie at Lauren Ambrose's hair, where it sticks. Eric Balfour's character runs over to the thrown hash brownie and licks it off her head, saying, "I don't wanna waste any."
• In the movie Dick, Kirsten Dunst's character unknowingly makes hash brownies for President Nixon and his cabinet. (She believes the hash is "walnut leaves")
• In the HBO series Oz, the character Stan Burkowsky makes marijuana brownies for the Homeboys in season six before being killed by the Italians.
• In an episode of My Name Is Earl, Earl Hickey remembers about the time he switched Crabman's pot brownies with actual brownies. After dissatisfied customers found out they were eating real brownies (i.e. "I had to listen to a Phish album...it sucked!"), they stoned him "biblically".
• In the episode "High Holidays" of Frasier, Niles Crane plans to eat a cannabis brownie to experience the rite of teenage rebellion he had missed when he was a teenager. His father, a retired police officer, unwittingly eats the brownie.
• In one episode of Greg the Bunny, Eugene Levy's character accidentally ingests marijuana brownies.
• In an episode of Grounded for Life, "Henry's Working for the Drug Squad", Sean Finnerty eats cannabis brownie batter, still containing the seeds. He stumbles to his backyard and throws up. A marijuana plant grows in the puke.
• Space Cake is the name of a metal/funk band from Surrey, England.
• In an episode of Nip Tuck, a blond woman offers a chocolate-color cannabis brownie to Sean McNamara.
• In the movie Next Friday, Roach gives Chico the dog a brownie with cannabis so Craig played by Ice Cube could break into The Jokers home.
• In the novel, The Perks of Being a Wallflower the main character consumes a marijuana brownie accidentally while at a party.
• In the 70s US television show Barney Miller the police detectives accidentally eat a marijuana brownie the girlfriend of Detective Stan 'Wojo' Wojciehowicz has given him.
• In Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo T.J. tricks Deuce into getting high on space cake while at a cafe in Amsterdam.
• In an episode of Arrested Development (TV Series), following a comic misunderstanding with his nephew Michael, Oscar Bluth succeeds in getting his sister-in-law Lucille high on cannabis by "putting it in her brownie."
• In the video game EarthBound, the player must buy and consume an item called "Magic Cake" in order to inhabit the body of Poo, the fourth and final party member.
• In the movie 50 First Dates, Henry Roth makes numerous references to Marijuana and special brownies used by his friend Ula.
• In Taxi (TV series), a pot brownie completely derails the life of a straightlaced Harvard student, turning him into the junkie cabbie Reverend Jim, played by Christopher Lloyd.
• As part of his "Part Troll" tour, the stand-up comedian Bill Bailey encouraged the audience to suggest alternative foods that can be cooked using cannabis. On the DVD suggestions included lard, shepherd's pie and beef stroganoff.

See also

• Chocolate brownie
• Brownie Mary

External links

• The Straight Dope column on Alice B. Toklas brownies (includes original text of recipe)
• Erowid.com recipes for cooking with cannabis