Education

Safe Consumption Guidelines

Buy Legal

While cannabis is legal in the state of New Jersey, cannabis consumption is not safe for all New Jerseyans. For all users, understanding how formulations vary in potency and how potency affects the brain and the body is essential for safe and responsible consumption.

Buying cannabis legally ensures you are getting flower or products that have been produced to the highest standards of safety. Cannabis companies in New Jersey are held to some of the most rigorous standards for manufacturing, labeling, packaging, and testing in the country. Packaging is required to be child-resistant and clearly labeled for individuals above 21, with comprehensive product descriptions and recommended usage guidelines. All cannabis products sold at New Jersey dispensaries are tracked “from seed to sale,” ensuring their continued safety through processing and packaging until they reach the consumer and they are all tested to ensure they contain no harmful contaminants. By keeping track of each product, adverse events can be identified and addressed promptly.

Pregnancy and Cannabis Use

Although more scientific research is needed to better
understand how cannabis affects pregnancy, the medical community strongly recommends anyone pregnant, planning to become pregnant, or who is breastfeeding not use any cannabis products. Those who are pregnant and nursing are putting their baby’s health at risk with even the slightest use.

While some view cannabis as a safe, natural way to treat morning sickness, there is no evidence that it is an effective treatment, and its use comes with severe and potentially deadly risks. The chemicals in cannabis – particularly tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC – can pass through the placenta to your baby and put you at risk of pregnancy complications. And it doesn’t matter if you smoke a joint, eat a gummy, vape, or use a tincture. THC use during pregnancy or while breastfeeding will increase the risk of developing anemia for the parent and fetal growth restriction, low birth weight, long-term brain development issues, premature birth, or stillbirth. THC that passes to a baby through breast milk increases the baby’s risk for problems with brain development.

Breathing in secondhand cannabis smoke can also be bad for you and your baby

Impaired Driving

compound that affects movement, balance, coordination, and judgment – all important when you are behind the wheel. Driving while impaired – by anything – is dangerous and illegal. Driving requires our full attention, sound judgement, good bearings, alertness, and often, quick thinking. Using cannabis in any amount and form dulls all of that, just like alcohol does. It distorts perception and slows our reaction times; sometimes so imperceptibly we can’t tell until it’s too late. For your own safety, and the safety of others sharing the roads, don’t drive for several hours after you’ve used cannabis products.

Designated drivers aren’t just for a night at the bar.

Safe & Responsible Consumption

Take your time stepping into cannabis use. If you are new to cannabis or have not used it in a long time, start with a low THC dose and wait a couple of hours to see how your body handles it. Remember cannabis and cannabis products vary in how much time they take to have an effect. A high from smoking will happen faster than a high from having a weed brownie. Do not take more immediately.

Adult cannabis use under safe and normal circumstances can have desirable effects. The goals for many cannabis users
include feelings of well-being, mild disorientation, or increased appetite. The THC in cannabis is a psychoactive compound. It affects movement, balance, coordination, and judgement so safety is key to enjoying recreational cannabis while avoiding negative outcomes. Driving or operating any kind of heavy machinery while impaired is dangerous, and driving under the influence of any substance is illegal.

Keep Children and Pets Safe

Though typically not dangerous to adults, cannabis
products can cause serious harm when accidentally ingested by children and pets. Keep cannabis and cannabis
products sealed and far out of the reach of children. The signs of accidental ingestion in children may be similar to those in adults – altered consciousness, anxiety, drowsiness, and paranoia. In rare cases however – particularly in the event of
ingestion of a large dose – young children may also experience depressed breathing or seizures, which does not typically happen in adult users.

Get medical attention immediately if you suspect your child has ingested cannabis.

Cannabis and cannabis products purchased legally in New Jersey will be in resealable, child-resistant packaging. To keep children and pets even safer, lock away your cannabis out of reach. Keep edibles in clearly marked containers and away from other food to avoid accidental ingestion.

Cannabis Terms You Should Know

THC: the substance in cannabis products that makes you high. The potency of cannabis and cannabis products is measured by the amount of THC it contains.

Terpenes: the compounds in the cannabis plant that determine how it smells and tastes, and what its effects will be.

CBD: The non-psychoactive cannabidiol is the second most prevalent active ingredient in cannabis and cannabis products. Properly packaged cannabis products will include the THC to CBD/CBN ratio, which indicates how much CBD a product contains compared to the amount of THC.

Concentrates: The result of dissolving trichomes in a solvent to produce products with very high levels of THC that can consumed via a vape pen or dabbing.

The Effects of Cannabis on Teens and Young Adults

Cannabis use can have short-term and long-term effects on kids and young adults, and its impact can differ from person to person. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) notes that cannabis “use beginning in teen years or younger may affect brain development which may impair thinking, memory, and learning.’ Additionally, people were more likely to develop cannabis use disorder when their first use of cannabis occurred as an adolescent.

Some of the most severe consequences in the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission’s regulations are for licensed dispensaries that sell to non-patients under 21 years old. Both the CREAMM Act and the Commission’s regulations were written with protecting children as a high priority. Notably, penalties for providing minors with cannabis aren’t just limited to licensed dispensaries. Adults who give cannabis to individuals under the legal age, or help them buy in
any way, are also subject to these penalties.

Start low. Go slow

How You Consume Matters

How quickly and how long you might feel the effects of
consuming cannabis will vary based on the product form
and the method of consumption. Someone smoking a joint may feel the effects within minutes. Since it has to make its way through your digestive system, an edible may take an hour or two to have an effect, but it may result in a longer high.

The effects of cannabis can be amplified by alcohol and other substances, and vice versa. Possible dangerous reactions of using multiple substances are significantly more than using any one substance alone. Greater impairment can result in
physical harm.