SweetSue's Cannabis Oil Study Hall - Dosing considerations: keeping a log

SweetSue;3363477 said:

Dosing considerations: Keeping a log

Cannabis expresses its effects in very individual ways, patient to patient. There is no set dose with this plant. Young children often require doses that would be over the top for elderly patients. There is no real correlation between weight and optimal dose, or at least none anyone working in the field feels confident in stating.

The policy is the same with each patient - start sub-therapeutic and titrate slowly until you hit the optimal therapeutic dose, that point where the patient is tolerating the medication's euphoric effects and getting the medicinal values that are shifting the internal energies towards healing as the default.

It becomes helpful to keep some sort of log of your use when treating yourself with cannabis. This way you'll have a record of what does work and what didn't. This set of guidelines is from ASA - American's for Safe Access. If I were to suggest any additions it would be to list the terpene profile of your meds, if possible. That wouldn't have to be with every entry, but we now understand that it's the terpenes that direct the action of the cannabinoids, in much the same way the steering system directs the engine in a car, so this bit of knowledge will serve you well as you fine tune your personal protocol.

Keeping a Cannabis Log - from Americans For Safe Access Guide to using medical cannabis

To establish an optimal treatment regime with cannabis, you will need to balance the effects of different strains, doses, and methods of ingestion. It may be helpful to record your therapeutic relationship with cannabis on an ongoing basis. One method is through keeping a cannabis-use log that captures your experience, including thoughts, feeling and behaviors. Periodically reviewing the log can help both you and your doctor make decisions about what works best.

To start, keep a detailed log, as described below, for at least one week. Once you've got a week's worth of information, complete the self-assessment worksheet that follows. This worksheet will help you better understand many things about yourself, including: your ailments and symptom patterns, your treatment behaviors, and the efficacy and side effects of the cannabis medicines you use.

In keeping a medication log, try to keep things standardized, and be as consistent as possible. Here are some logging tips on useful information to collect:

1. Date/Time: Record every time you consume cannabis with the current date and time of day.

2. Amount: The amount of cannabis used (gram estimate or other consistent measure).

3. Strain: The name, strain or variety of the cannabis strain or variety of cannabis medicine used. If you don't know the name, write a detailed description of the medicine.

4. Code: Strains are generally described as Indica, Sativa, or hybrid. You may want to code your entries: I=Indica, S=Sativa, S/I=Sativa-dominant Indica Cross, and I/S= Indica-dominant Sativa Cross.

5. Type is the form of cannabis consumed: dried bud flower (most common), concentrates, tincture/sprays, edibles/drinks or topical. You may want to use: F=flower, C=concentrate, T=tincture/spray, E=edible, TO=topical.

6. Cannabinoid Content: refers to the percent of THC, CBD and/or CBN. If you have this information available to you, write down percentages of each cannabinoid. If you're using edibles or similar, a description of potency and preparation is helpful.

7. Mode: Write down how you used your medication. Either inhale via S=smoke or V=vaporize, E=eat/digest, T=tincture or spray, TO=topical.

8. Therapeutic Effects: List any positive effects you experience (physical, mental, social, behavioral, etc).

9. Negative Side Effects: List your negative effects

10. Timing: How quickly did you experience the first therapeutic effects? When did you feel the peak of relief? When did it start to noticeably dissipate? How long until effects were gone?

11. What prompted your cannabis use? List the specific factors that told you it was time for medicine, as well as the general symptoms or conditions being treated (e.g. pain, nausea, anxiety, etc.

12. How did you feel (mindset)? Record your mood and feelings before and after you used cannabis.

13. Where were you (setting)? Were you at home, at a collective, in your office? Sitting, standing, lying down?

14. Who were you with? Were you by yourself, with a friend, a large group, among other cannabis consumers, etc?

15. What were you doing? Just before you used cannabis, what was going on? What were the activities or circumstances leading up to it?

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So I wondered, what would this look like on paper? That's where it's gonna be used, right? I'd think that'd depend on who you were keeping it for, but a journal-type entry of some sort would seem to be the most possible, and might encourage a bit of introspection and letting go in the process. Writing has a way of getting things out in the open.

This is a lot of information to track. In reality you'd find ways to condense the entries. For example, you'd be using a standard strain or two, so it'd only be necessary to list that at the start of the new meds. Unless you were a data nerd, this would drive you nuts.

Maybe we could get an app for this?

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