Pot edibles will soon be legal, but this woman will continue to make her own. Here’s why

That’s because Health Canada has capped the amount of THC allowed in food and drinks to 10 milligrams — a restriction that Copus said won’t meet the needs of some users.

“So for a person who has to take more of a higher dosage, that would be so expensive for them. They couldn’t even afford it,” said Copus, explaining that cost is one of the reasons she makes her own edibles.

“People approach me all the time [to buy cannabis edibles], but I tell them I’ll show them how to do it,” she said. “I’m an educator.”

Watch as Patsy Copus shows how she makes cannabis edibles: 

Self-taught cannabis baker

Copus lives with multiple sclerosis and arthritis, and grows her own cannabis plants for medical purposes. Making and baking cannabis edibles is like a science she’s taught herself over the years through research, as well as by attending cannabis events and speaking to people in the industry.

One thing she’s learned, and cautions anyone who plans to create their own pot-infused foods, is that “it’s very difficult to know how strong they are.”

‘Go low and slow’

“You go low and slow,” Copus said. “In other words, instead of eating all of these strawberries that I’m going to coat in the medicated chocolate, I’m going to have one. And I’m going to wait a couple of hours and see how I feel.”

Government caps on THC in recreational cannabis edibles “prevent over consumption,” which Dr. Christopher Blue, a physician in Windsor who prescribes pot to his patients, views as a necessary measure.

“You go to some places in the States [where] you can go buy a cookie and in that entire cookie will be 200 milligrams of THC, which is just a ridiculous amount,” said Blue.

“Of course when you read the fine print, it obviously says ‘Consume a fraction of this cookie, don’t eat the whole thing,’ and that’s where you run into problems … people don’t read the fine print, they just consume.”

‘That’s a problem as a physician’

Cannabis is one of the only substances that’s available for both medical and recreational use. And Blue said that’s where things can sometimes get tricky, because people may self-medicate or consume more cannabis than they should.

“That’s a problem as a physician,” said Blue. “As physicians we always want to know if a patient is self-medicating.”

When it comes to prescribing cannabis to his patients, Blue said it can range from 2.5 milligrams of THC up to 40 milligrams or 50 milligrams at one time. But that’s not the way a medical prescription for cannabis works.

“As a prescriber, we authorize up to a max amount that they’re allowed to purchase for medical reasons on a monthly basis,” said Blue, who can also prescribe a certain percentage of THC concentrate.

At this point, Blue said he’s unsure if he’ll be able to prescribe cannabis edibles created by a licensed producer when they are put on the market in December.