Self-Titration: Finding Your Personal Optimal Dose
The effects of cannabis are very personalized and varied from one person to another, including an individual’s minimum effective dose.
This is why cannabis-savvy physicians recommend that consumers should use a process of self-titration: optimizing your own individualized regimen.
The major steps in self-titration are to find your ratio, and to find your dose. A guiding principle is “start low and go slow,” gradually building up to a portion size that gives you the effects you’re seeking — particularly when THC is involved.
Find Your Ratio
A cannabis product ratio can vary from THC-dominant to CBD-dominant, as well as some products that are focused on relatively rare cannabinoids such as CBG and THCV.
The major chemical profiles (“chemotypes”) of cannabis and hemp plants and products are categorized as:
Type I (THC-dominant)
Type II (Mixed-Ratio THC and CBD)
Type III (CBD-Dominant)
Type IV (Dominant in a Minor Cannabinoid)
In determining one’s own appropriate ratio, consumers should consider what effects they're looking for and which cannabinoids would support those effects. A big factor for many people is their amount of THC that will be helpful to them or not, and that they experience with little to no unwanted side effects.
For example, a consumer dealing with anxiety would likely want to find a CBD-rich product with minimal or even trace levels of THC. Whereas for managing pain, products with a 1:1 ratio of THC to CBD have been reported to be especially helpful.
There is no reason to push your comfort level with THC, but rather to find the ratio that best suits your needs and existing situation. In fact, some studies indicate that THC could have beneficial effects even at a sub perceptual level — a microdose that can't be felt (Steffens et al, 2005).
Find Your Dose
For dosing, health professionals and researchers encourage new cannabis consumers to "start low and go slow" in increasing the amount of THC they consume, in particular.
Doctors MacCallum and Russo (2018) recommend using the smallest portion that is effective for one's needs, as overconsumption can have negative effects.
For example, if a patient new to cannabis is going to smoke or vape THC-rich cannabis, the physicians recommend that they start with a single inhalation and wait 15 minutes before inhaling again. As needed, they can take one more inhalation every 15 to 30 minutes “until desired symptom control is achieved.”
For oral or edible THC-rich cannabis products, MacCallum and Russo recommend that people new to cannabis should start by taking no more than 1.25 to 2.5 mg of THC shortly before bedtime for two days. If there are no unwanted side effects, they can increase the bedtime dose of THC by another 1.25 to 2.5 mg for the next two days, and continue that increase every other day as needed until they reach their desired effects.
If at any time a consumer feels unwanted side effects, they should back off to the last portion or dose that didn't give them those effects, and that might be their optimal portion size.
The cannabis clinician Dr. Dustin Sulak also offers a set of free Dosage Programs and a wealth of other educational material on his website, Healer.com.
Further Reading:
MacCallum, C. A., & Russo, E. B. (2018). Practical considerations in medical cannabis administration and dosing. European journal of internal medicine, 49, 12–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejim.2018.01.004
Steffens, S., Veillard, N. R., Arnaud, C., Pelli, G., Burger, F., Staub, C., Karsak, M., Zimmer, A., Frossard, J. L., & Mach, F. (2005). Low dose oral cannabinoid therapy reduces progression of atherosclerosis in mice. Nature, 434(7034), 782–786. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature03389
Sulak, Dustin. (2018). A physician’s perspective on optimal cannabis dosing. Leafly. Retrieved from: https://www.leafly.com/news/health/a-physicians-perspective-on-optimal-cannabis-dosing
