So, I've been experimenting with those "fast-acting" nanoemulsified Δ9-THC gummies, and I have found them to actually be quite enlightening. I've now gone up to 40 mg and have a lot to say about it.
I've covered these gummies in previous posts, but if you missed it or aren't aware otherwise, a couple years ago someone created a new way of making cannabis edibles using a food-safe nanoemulsification process that causes your body to absorb the Δ9-THC contained within as if it's water-soluble, absorbing through your mouth, throat, and stomach lining, and causing you to get high within the first fifteen minutes, sometimes as fast as around five, and creating an effect that is relatable to smoking and vaping rather than to traditional edibles because it skips first-pass metabolism, meaning it does not significantly metabolize to 11-OH-Δ9-THC unlike traditional edibles. I have seen these for Δ9-THC and CBD in legal states, and I've already seen them for Δ8-THC on the internet too. I don't think it's that hard to make relatively speaking so I'm sure more cannabinoid and alt cannabinoid products like this will be popping up over time.
I decided to experiment with these recently after spontaneously discovering that they exists and even more recently decided to do some tests for a report that would compare these gummies to the traditional edibles, which I can do with exact Δ9-THC dosages since both types edibles that I can get are explicitly labeled.
The lower dosages are the easy part. I only used 10 mg once or twice I believe, as it doesn't feel very strong for me. The buzz is similar to smoking a very small amount of standard flower available these days for me, not enough to really get to a point I want to be at or even those close, but I can definitely feel that I do have Δ9-THC effect in me, that much is for sure, and especially since it comes on fast. I've used 20 mg probably a few times, and this is probably as low as I'd go most of the time, and it's definitely more than 10 mg, but it's still not that much. The last time I took this dosage, I compared it based on just how I felt in the moment to maybe smoking around half a bowl of what I had normally been smoking at that time, which was out of a small glass pipe. I've taken 30 mg at least a couple times now, and this is a pretty decent dosage for me, although it can get into an uncomfortable space where I feel like not quite high enough to feel really baked and happy but enough that I feel some head pressure, like it can be a kind of on-the-fence dosage for me, but it can also get me high enough to get me well-immersed in a movie or something. The last time I took 30 mg, I noticed something that I previously stated I hadn't yet noticed from smoked cannabis: there was a little "release" feeling as I call them when the high really peaked, similar to what I was describing for traditional Δ9-THC edibles and salvia, but it was very subtle, alike when I smoked the quarter-bowl of salvia plain leaf and just barely got a buzz with a noticeable time course but no obvious trippy effects. After this, I experimented with smoking to see if I could feel it and felt that I could while smoking, but it seemed clear why I hadn't noticed it before, because it just wasn't very overt all at compared to the others for me. It seemed like I would often smack or lick my lips as if I was eating something when this release would happen, but again, there was no trippiness associated with it, just a little burst of getting high.
I have now taken 40 mg twice, and this is the dosage where it really got interesting for me. The first time, I just noticed that I finally got at least as high as I would normally want to get from smoking a bowl of cannabis, it was very satisfying although I spent the whole time distracted in conversation, so I wasn't paying attention to the high. I don't recall it being trippy or anything, just a good cannabis high. The second time I took 40 mg was today, and that was a whole other story.... I was busy again at first, but around the time it had been just long enough for the gummies to fully peak for me, which seems to be around thirty minutes, I suddenly had a genuinely hallucinogenic release similar to what I've been getting from the traditional Δ9-THC edibles, but still distinctly different. What happened was that I suddenly saw a clear mind's eye image of a volcano which erupted, which suddenly dissolved into a psychedelic image of two women's faces together as if they'd been kissing, pulling away from each other and spinning off into patterns, and at some point I felt the emotional aspect of the release too which was associated with a very loud and full internal scream. It was a weird feeling, but quickly passed and became more euphoric again, although I was ridiculously high, and very surprised at how high I was. I have experienced something that felt like this before and was high at the time from smoking cannabis, but in general this is not an effect that smoking cannabis gives me, and I was a bit shocked that it only took 40 mg of nanoemulsified Δ9-THC to get me seemingly above the range of psychoactive effect where my smoking highs normally seem to ceiling out at. I have gotten high enough to in some ways I think be considered higher than this from a bong, but those highs are notably kind of tense and anxious for me, and they don't seem to actually go as far as being as trippy as this was for me even when they try to tease it. I did notably manage to get this high rather consistently from vaping HHC-O-acetate though, which I even once described as feeling like a volcano erupting at the peak, although it didn't actually have the clear visual component that this time had for me, although it did have some psychedelic-like visuals of women after that peak too. (I really liked it at the time, but I can't actually get it anymore where I am now.)
Something I wanted to say that stuck out to me about this trip was that the way I experienced it seem to go from a realistic chaotic hallucination (an erupting volcano) to something abstract and orderly (women forming psychedelic patterns in a way I've seen many times on serotonergic psychedelics) and had an anxious peak that then gave way into a good put powerful high, which is actually opposite to the pattern that I've observed and reported on in my traditional Δ9-THC edible trips so far, where it instead goes from abstract psychedelic order into disorderly realistic chaos with an orgasmic feeling, and instead compares much more to the effect that I reported on from salvia. This makes me suspicious enough to look into the other differences between the two different types of Δ9-THC trips for me, and one that immediately stands out is that when I've had this trips so far on traditional Δ9-THC edibles up to 50 mg, the trip has always felt very easygoing and relaxing, just smooth and beautiful, whereas on the 40 mg of nanoemulsified Δ9-THC gummies this time, the trip felt very demanding and overbearing, which is beyond what smoking cannabis out of a small pipe usually does for me, but is more alike what smoking it out of a bong does for me. This leads me to feel that what I must suggest is that there is something inherent about the cannabinoid high that causes this kind of trip for me regardless of if I take Δ9-THC that skips first-pass metabolism and remains mostly Δ9-THC or Δ9-THC that gets metabolized and a lot of it is converted into 11-OH-Δ9-THC, but that when I experience the trip from Δ9-THC itself, the trip does not become powerful enough to become hallucinogenic unless the dosage has already passed that signature point where the cannabinoid high flips from being more rewarding and smooth to more aversive and anxious, which seems to cause the trip to roll over in a salvia-like way for me, whereas when the cannabinoid trip also has the contribution of 11-OH-Δ9-THC in it, the trip is strong enough that it is able to produce actual hallucinations at a dosage that is still low enough to have a cannabinoid high that is euphoric rather than dysphoric, which makes the trip flow in a direction opposite to salvia. This definitely increases the curiosity I have about what dosage will be required to flip traditional Δ9-THC edibles from rewarding to aversive for me, as now I'm thinking there's a good chance I will mostly prefer them at less than that amount....
So, I'm actually pretty happy with the nanoemulsified Δ9-THC edibles and the observations on these cannabinoid effects I have gotten from them, although in my case one of the biggest things they did is actually help me grow to appreciate the traditional Δ9-THC edibles even more. I think I may try to experimental mostly just with regular edibles for a while if I can swing it, this has given me some new ideas about how to look into things they do and see what kind of benefits I can really get out of them in the long-term....
Incidentally, I had another traditional edible trip where I saw spinning gears of psychedelic visuals alike the kind I normally get of female faces kissing each other that was the same kind of visual I just described above on the downswing of the nanoemulsified Δ9-THC gummies, except this time it was on the upswing of the traditional edibles and instead of female faces kissing, it was penises all like getting closer to start slapping and smacking each other or something. They got closer and closer, and when they finally collided, I felt the orgasmic feeling that traditional edibles usually give me, and the psychedelic imagery twisted until the penises grew covered in woody texture and sprouted leaves from their tips, and they became palm trees spread chaotically around a lush jungle that covered an entire hallucinated Earth, although a not-very-to-scale one because the trees literally jutted out into space with stars visible behind them and stuff, and I zoomed in and felt like I was walking through a calm path within this jungle, although this was also just a vision in my mind's eye, and it didn't last long before smoothly kind of panning out again, with some little fluctuations of trippiness here and there. So again, I feel that it was the exact opposite of what happened with the nanoemulsified Δ9-THC, although with my mind in the same kind of place and seeing similar visuals probably due to the close proximity of the experiences: starting out psychedelic and orderly, and then moving to realistic and chaotic, with an orgasmic transition.
That's all I've got for now.
