Hi there, I’m not a member of this community (only a very sporadic user myself) but figured it would be a good place to ask this question.
The TLDR version is: My lady friend OD’d on edibles and is still a bit sick a day and a half later, is there any good remedy to help her get back on her feet?
Longer version below:
The girl I’m seeing recently had a downright awful experience with weed. She hasn’t ever used before (she tried smoking once but didn’t inhale properly so no high), and I expect she probably won’t try it again any time soon.
On Friday night she was hanging out with some friends and decided to try an edible since her friends were having some. Her weed literacy isn’t great, and she didn’t know that edibles hit different, nor that they take a while to kick in. She was also on an empty stomach since we had a dinner date in a couple hours and she often skips lunch at work, and on top of all that she’s on the smaller side, so less bodyweight.
She only had a third of what her friends took, but ended up being super unwell. I’m talking throwing up multiple times, bad vibes (crying, saying she didn’t want to go to sleep because she would die in her sleep), and acting irrational (kept trying to leave her friend’s house because she didn’t want to be late for our date).
Her friends texted me from her phone as it was happening because she was insistent on leaving and they wanted to let me know it wasn’t happening. I told them about the thing with black peppercorns and apparently that (plus telling her not to worry about standing me up) helped enough that they were able to get her to fall asleep.
She ended up sleeping and being nauseous for basically the entire day yesterday and I only heard back from her this morning.
Anyway, that’s all just the loredump. My actual question is, is there anything that can be done to help someone feel better when they are recovering from OD’ing on edibles? She’s still not feeling 100%, probably from throwing up and panicking so much. I know for someone who is badly hungover from alcohol there are all sorts of folk remedies that at least work as a placebo if not as an actual cure. Just wondering if there’s some equivalent for weed. I want to do something nice for her since I think she must feel awful about missing our date.
The first thing to remember with a green out is that you can feel like you’re dying even though you’re not. So first step is to be psychologically supportive - calming, quiet, supportive and nurturing. Reassure people that you won’t die from a cannabis overdose, it just feels awful but it will pass. Lots of reminders that it will pass.
THC metabolites are water soluble. You want to flush them out. So drink lots of water. I STRONGLY recommend using electrolytes in water though. Coconut water is great, sugar-free electrolyte drops otherwise. Sports drinks as a last resort. Even just putting a pinch on salt in a glass of water is better than plain water. This is because too much THC can plummet your blood pressure and drinking plain water or getting deficient in electrolytes will make low blood pressure even worse.
You can also drink things that have a diuretic effect to get your body flushing fluids faster. I don’t recommend coffee though or anything with large amounts of caffeine because that can make you fee worse. I’m personally fond of rooibos tea. Skip this if someone is vomiting.
CBD can help offset the unpleasant psychological effects of greening out. B-Caryophyllene and limonene terpenes are also great for this (black pepper is high in Caryophyllene which is why it works as a remedy). Think pepper, cloves, rosemary, Oregano, cinnamon, and citrus.
Bonus make a spicy mulled citrus drink (add a little ginger for nausea) that does double duty to help flush out the THC and calms and soothes with its warmth and terpenes.
After the vomiting is past or once someone feels like eating, the usual fatty hangover foods work wonders. 😊
All great suggestions. I wish it had occurred to me the thing about reminding someone that it’s temporary and will pass. A lot of the resources I found while googling were written for the audience of the person who was actually experiencing it, and they all included multiple reminders that it is temporary. It didn’t occur to me that that in itself is something the person may need to hear.
I was really surprised that the black pepper thing worked as well as it did. It was like an instant change in her bad vibes when she tried it.
Her friends were trying to keep her hydrated at the time but she threw up even regular water, so that was a challenge. I wonder if an electrolyte drink would have worked better.