What Are the Signs I’ve Taken Too Much Cannabis?

• While consuming too much marijuana is exceedingly unlikely to jeopardize your health, it can be uncomfortable. When you “green out,” you might become overstimulated, feel sleepy, experience anxiety, develop nausea, or feel disoriented from your surroundings.
• Recovering from a green out is all about patience and comfort: fill up your water bottle, grab a snack, dim the lights, and try to distract yourself or catch some Zs.

Picture this: you’re standing in your kitchen preparing dinner for your family while your cannabis edible begins to take effect.

During the beginning of your meal prep, you feel creative, energetic, and hungry. But when it’s time to pull your dish out of the oven, you’re a little hesitant—what if you drop it and spill hot casserole everywhere? That oven is really hot. Where are the oven mitts?

Mild disorientation is just one sign that you might have overconsumed cannabis. While you won’t face any risks to your health, you might face a few less-than-comfortable side effects until your dose wears off.

In this guide, we’re taking a deep-dive into cannabis overconsumption (sometimes called “greening out”). We’ll touch on the risks of overconsumption, five signs you might have taken too much, and what to do next.

Is Cannabis Overconsumption Dangerous?

First and foremost, taking a little too much THC (or way too much THC) almost never poses significant health risks:

• Zero people have fatally overdosed from cannabis—it’s nearly impossible.
• To scratch the surface of a fatal overdose, you’d have to consume about 1,500 pounds of cannabis flower in fifteen minutes.

However, there are a few auxiliary risks to consider if you find yourself greening out:

• Slips and falls – If you’re feeling clumsy after smoking too much weed, try to stay seated or move while holding onto furniture for stability. If you fall, you could injure yourself.
• Dehydration – If you find yourself with a case of “couch lock” (i.e., having a hard time standing up after sitting down), it might feel almost impossible to get up and grab your water bottle. Consider calling in reinforcements to keep you fed and hydrated.
• Social discomfort – If you’re in a social setting and you discover that you’re greening out, you might be a little embarrassed. We can almost guarantee that someone in your social circle has been where you are—there’s a compassionate face somewhere in the crowd.

5 Signs of Cannabis Overconsumption

With some of your worries eased, let’s cover a few telltale signs of a green out. They’ll fade with time, but they might feel severe in the moment.

#1 Overstimulation

Let’s return to the meal prep hypothetical: that’s overstimulation in a nutshell. In that scenario, you might feel like:

• There’s too much going on around you – Rice is on the stove, casserole is in the oven, and bread is in the toaster. While you might be able to multitask like a pro under normal circumstances, overconsumption can make this juggling act feel more like a barrage of stimuli than a party trick.
• You don’t know what to say or do next – In the face of overwhelming stimulus, you might freeze up—this is perfectly normal. We recommend communicating with a housemate (“Can you take dinner out of the oven? I need to sit down.”) or solving problems one step at a time (turn off the oven, then the stove, then the toaster, and then sit down).
• You’re going to mess up – What if you drop the casserole on the kitchen floor? What if the rice is burnt on the bottom? What if the toaster catches on fire? Overstimulation and panic are sometimes a package deal. Again, ask for help or do your best to tackle problems one at a time.

#2 Intense Drowsiness

Depending on the strain of cannabis you used, you might feel exceptionally drowsy once the effects of your dose kick in. This is another perfectly normal response to cannabis overconsumption—your body is telling you that you need to sleep it off.

In the face of drowsiness, remember that:

• Sleeping doesn’t put you in danger – If you head to bed while you’re greening out, you’ll be perfectly fine. It’s safe to sleep after taking cannabis, and you might even sleep better than usual.
• Sleep is a great green out recovery method – One of the only things you can do to overcome a green out is wait. Sleep is an excellent way to kill time.

#3 Agitation, Anxiety, or Paranoia

If you used a more stimulating strain of cannabis, overconsumption could lead to more stimulating effects:

• Agitation – Feeling itchy, fidgety, or overheated? This, again, is perfectly normal. Do your best to make yourself comfortable: ditch itchy fabrics for soft ones, use self-soothing motions (like rubbing your shoulders or arms) instead of frenetic ones (like tapping your feet or pacing), and crank the A/C down.
• Anxiety – You might have noticed some tinges of anxiety in our kitchen hypothetical: “What if I drop the casserole?” Try to think through the facts of your surroundings: how many times have you dropped something that you pulled out of the oven? You can likely count those experiences on one hand. Even if it doesn’t feel like it right now, it’s going to be okay. Ask for help if you need it.
• Paranoia – Paranoia can be scary—but if you’re in a safe place with people you trust, you are okay. Remember that the people around you care about you, and you’re not in danger.

#4 Nausea

While cannabis is well-known for its nausea-soothing properties, overconsumption can have the opposite effect: especially if you indulged in the munchies before you started greening out.

What should you do?

• Drink water or something carbonated – Staying hydrated is key, but drinking a bubbly soda (or, better yet, a ginger ale) might help soothe your stomach.
• Eat something simple – Remember the BRAT diet? BRAT stands for bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast. They’re simple, plain foods that likely won’t upset your stomach (and might even help settle it).
• Distract yourself – Flip on your favorite movie, try some low-intensity movement work (like yoga, tai chi, or stretching), or phone a friend. Try to distract yourself from the nausea symptoms.

#5 Disorientation

In very extreme cases, you might feel disoriented or detached from reality. While overconsumption very rarely produces full-scale hallucinations, you should respond to all of these in the same way:

• Dial back the stimuli – Turn off the TV or loud music, lower the lights, close the blinds, and go to a quiet room (if you’re in a social situation).
• Self-soothe – Gently rub your arms, put on comfy clothes, turn on white noise, or hum softly. While this might not be the best time to meditate, try to set a scene you might like to meditate in: a relaxing, comfortable setting.
• Make grounding statements – In the face of disorientation, it often helps to remind yourself that you’re in a safe place, you have people you can call if you need help, and you will return to stasis soon.

How to Recover from the Green-Out

Other than the tips and tricks we’ve provided above, what else can you do to recover from the green out?

• Movement – While we mentioned yoga and other low-intensity workouts above, don’t be afraid to take your movement outdoors (if you’re not feeling disoriented). Take a walk around the block, hitch a ride with a friend to a nature park, or follow along with a low-flow dance tutorial on YouTube.
• Phone a friend – Having someone to keep you company during a green out recovery can make everything a little easier—they can refill your water bottle, make you a snack, or listen while you think out loud.
• Document your experience – Gathering data to reflect on might help you prevent this in the future. Consider writing down your dose (even if it’s approximate), the strain or product you used, and how you’re feeling. This might also serve as a grounding exercise.

Start Your Medical Cannabis Journey with TeleLeaf

Greening out can feel mildly uncomfortable at best and moderately stressful at worst. Keep in mind that the effects of cannabis are temporary: in a few hours, you’ll feel like your old self again.

When it comes to choosing the right products and dose to prevent a green out (and optimize your healing), turn to cannabis-informed healthcare providers who deeply understand the science of medical marijuana. At TeleLeaf, we have a whole network of providers like these; and we want to connect you with them.

Our licensed clinicians can help you get your medical card, solidify your treatment regimen, and help mitigate the (very few) risks of using cannabis for healing. Ready to get started? Make an appointment with TeleLeaf now.

Sources:

The Independent. Here’s How Much marijuana It Would Take to Kill You.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/how-much-marijuana-take-to-kill-you-fatal-weed-a8043856.html

University of New Mexico. Cannabi Offers Immediate Relief from Symptoms of Nausea, But Produce Use Matters.
https://news.unm.edu/news/cannabis-offers-mmediate-relief-from-symptoms-of-nausea-but-product-use-matters

Piedmont Health. The BRAT Diet: What to Eat After a Stomach Virus.
https://www.piedmont.org/living-real-change/the-brat-diet