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Dear Stoner: I don’t like to smoke weed during the day and can take or leave the “high.” But it really helps me sleep at night. I don’t have many strain choices in my town, so how can I guarantee my weed is the sleepy stuff?
Ibram
Dear Ibram: Finding a strain that consistently puts you to sleep isn’t as easy as most of us assume, and it only gets harder as our tolerance builds. The indica-sativa labels were debunked years ago, even though some dispensaries still use it, and each strain affects us all differently. Increasing the plant’s sedative effects can be done at home with little effort, though, as long as you have a little time and privacy.
Most people associate the word “indica” with sleepy-time weed, but that’s not always the case.
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THC, the stuff in cannabis that gets you high, will convert into CBN in the face of heat, light and oxidization. Although CBN is also intoxicating, it’s considered much more sedating than THC, and doesn’t make users nearly as high. Look for older buds with amber-colored resin glands, grind them up and then put them in the oven at around 390 degrees Fahrenheit for twenty to thirty minutes. It won’t taste or smell good when you smoke, but it’ll get the job done – and you can always try making edibles.
Edibles take longer to kick in and put you to sleep, and you might gain a few pounds, too. Most homemade edibles recipes, although easy, require a lot of fat and sugar, and I find the munchies on edibles to be much stronger than from smoking. But if you have better timing and discipline than most, edibles are very effective at relaxing the body and keeping it asleep.
Send questions to marijuana@westword.com.
