12/06/2022
If you’ve never taken cannabinoids in an edible form — or at all — you may be curious to learn how CBD gummies work.
Or maybe you’ve already purchased a package of CBD gummies, popped open the bag, and eaten your first dose. Now what?
You may be wondering:
- How long do CBD gummies take to work?
- How will you know when they’re working?
- Will you feel any “high?”
- If so, how long does the high from CBD gummies last?
- Can you do anything to prolong (or curtail) the effects?
- How long will the CBD (and THC, if any) stay in your system?
While you’re waiting to feel your first dose kick in, let’s tackle all these burning questions one at a time.
“How long does it take for CBD gummies to work?” (& everything else you need to know!)
How long do CBD gummies take to kick in?
This depends on a number of factors.
Are you taking the gummy on an empty stomach or a full stomach? Are you a very large or a very small person? Are you sedentary with a slow metabolism or active with a high metabolism?
A gummy taken without food may kick in after 30 to 45 minutes, while a gummy taken with a meal will likely become active after an hour to an hour and a half. Your body size and metabolism will skew your exact results toward either end of that spectrum. If you’re small, athletic, and you’ve taken the gummy on an empty stomach, you can expect to feel its effects much faster than someone who is larger, has a slower metabolism, and who has taken the gummy with a large meal.
Interestingly, food won’t affect the quality or the intensity of the CBD’s effects. It simply takes longer for everything to work its way through your system if your body has to digest food while your liver handles the CBD.
Another factor that can influence the time it takes for the CBD to kick in is how the gummy was made. Some gummy manufacturers produce regular gummies and then spray them or otherwise coat the outside with a layer of CBD. While this manufacturing method has some notable drawbacks when it comes to dosage (and for that reason, we can’t recommend them), you might be able to place the gummy under your tongue and absorb some of that CBD coating sublingually. This will help you feel some effects quickly while you wait for the rest of the CBD gummy to digest.
How will you know when it’s working?
When you first eat the gummy, you’ll likely experience a bitter aftertaste, similar to that of an IPA or a pale ale. That bitter taste indicates that you’re receiving an adequate dose and the CBD should therefore kick in soon. In other words, you won’t be waiting around for nothing.
The biggest signs you’ll notice when the CBD has started to take effect is a sense of soothing relaxation, lessened anxiety, and reduced pain. If you’ve eaten the CBD gummy specifically for these purposes, you’ll be relieved to know that these are the primary things you’ll feel while the CBD is active in your system. Expect your muscle aches to diminish and your acute anxiety to dull and become less bothersome. If you’ve eaten a gummy just to take the edge off of a general sense of unease, you can expect to feel a sense of relaxation and well-being replace the discomfort.
What you won’t feel is any sense of being “high.” Unless you’ve purchased marijuana gummies with fairly high levels of THC — which is another topic entirely — the ingredients in your CBD gummies will not cause fuzzy thinking or any other changes associated with being high. Even if you’ve taken a full spectrum gummy, which does contain low levels of THC, it’s not enough to get you high.
How long do CBD gummies last?
The duration of the CBD gummy’s effects will again depend on your metabolism. While very active people have the benefit of the CBD kicking in quickly, that also means their bodies are more likely to clear the CBD before people with slower metabolisms.
If you’ve taken your gummy with a large meal, it may take a while for the food to work its way through your system so the gummy can be processed by the liver. This may extend the duration of its effects, especially if you’ve consumed high-fiber foods that take a while for your body to process.
In general, you can expect your gummy to last from three hours on the shorter end to six or seven hours on the longer end.
Can you do anything to prolong the effects?
Aside from the factors we’ve already discussed — metabolism and food intake, primarily — the main thing you can do to prolong the effects of a CBD gummy would be to take a larger dose or eat another gummy a few hours after the first.
One important note is that dosage will be highly affected by how your gummies were made. We mentioned earlier that some manufacturers coat the outside of gummies rather than infusing the actual gummy’s contents with a measured amount of CBD. When manufacturers spray or coat gummies with CBD, some of that active ingredient may drip off, wear away, or get sprayed onto the surface underneath the gummy. Spray applications like this make accurate dosing very difficult, if not impossible. You may get 5 milligrams of CBD per gummy, or you could get 80.
Butler Hemp Co. firmly believes evenly infused gummies are the superior choice. You’ll get exactly 50 milligrams of total cannabinoids in every one of our gummies — no more and no less. That way, you’ll know exactly what to expect when you take your first, second, or hundredth dose. And you’ll be able to gauge when it’s time to take your next dose after the first begins to wear off.
How long will the gummy’s active ingredients remain in your system?
While the CBD effects of the gummy wear off after several hours, that doesn’t mean your body is clear of all the gummy’s ingredients. THC, in particular, creates a metabolite in the body’s fat cells that can be detectable on drug tests and cause a positive result weeks after use. If you’ve used a full-spectrum gummy — even one with a small amount of THC — be aware of the possibility that it could show up on a drug test later.
If you know you’ll soon be facing a drug test, you might want to stick with a topical cream (THC will not absorb into your bloodstream through the skin!) or a CBD isolate that doesn’t contain THC.
There are a number of reasons to try Butler Hemp Co.’s CBD gummies.
Butler Hemp Co. created our easy-to-use gummies for anyone looking for easier dosing, a less intimidating delivery method, or simply a more pleasant flavor than a regular under-the-tongue tincture. Plus, people with Parkinson’s or other difficulties with fine motor skills will enjoy how easy it is to simply pop a gummy into their mouths rather than struggle to draw up an exact dose into a dropper.
Whatever your reasons, we’re happy you’ve found us. Shop for gummies or other products here, or let us know if you have any questions.
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