Trend Report: Being Less High, Faster

Floating in a most peculiar way.

The Broccoli Report
Friday, June 23, 2023
Time to read: About 6 minutes. Contains 1,190 words.

“Greened out” in a different way here. (Anyone who’s run a harvest with too few of trimmers can relate).

Among the usual flow of product launch announcements throughout my inbox and Google alerts this past week, one stood out. It was about a mother and son duo developing a sort of anti-edible in Massachusetts—a chocolate bar called that helps you come down from a THC high faster. These Soft Landing chocolates remind me of Green Out, a product sold in groceries and licensed dispensaries in Oregon that aims to fade your high faster when you feel too high. 

I was really fascinated when Green Out launched, all too aware of the common problem of accidentally consuming too much THC; how so many of us have at least one nightmare story of getting way too high on too strong of an edible or oil dab. Mine took place during a 3D screening of the off-putting 2010 version Alice in Wonderland, and if there had been something available to help me sober up in time to enjoy In and Out on the way home with my friends, I would’ve paid triple the cost of that 3D IMAX movie ticket for it to fade more quickly.

Do these products actually work? We’ll get to that in a minute. What’s more interesting to me is that they exist at all. This is a new category in the cannabis realm; a totally different kind of product aiming to serve a novel purpose in cannabis consumers’ cabinets. And while there may not be one of these high halters for sale in every state right now, as more states kick off legal sales and more people try out these products for the first time—not to mention higher and higher THC contents driving dispensary inventories—you can bet these types of products are set to trend coast-to-coast. 

Today’s newsletter digs into the market state that got us here and what the proliferation of anti-high products says about the average consumer’s experience.

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Higher & Higher

There was a time when a strain labeled with 25% THC would shock me. I’d demand an explanation from the highest-ranking budtender on the premises and/or write it off as numbers from the kind of loose lab that let people pay to retest until they got the results they wanted. These days, it’s not unusual to see 30% flower and higher, plus 80–90% THC concentrates in vape pens and rosin-infused gummies that can hit a lot harder than some distillate-made edibles. Infused pre-rolls have been one of the fastest-growing segments for the past couple of years—remember when the biggest complaint was not being able to finish a joint without getting too high? More and more brands are drizzling potent cannabis concentrate inside and outside of joints.

The state of the general economy and inflation of the cost of everything is pushing consumers to buy in bulk and seek out the best bang for their buck, and, due to the way cannabis products are presented, the average person believes that it’s wiser to buy the strongest stuff to get the best value for the expense. The average shop reacts to that by catering to sky-high tastes, creating an unreasonably high average of THC contents on menus. 

It makes sense to start developing products to help the rest of the population—the majority of the population—that can’t handle such high THC offerings.

Ok, But Do They Work?

I interviewed Green Out’s founder, Megon Dee, for a Thrillist feature about the product’s launch last November (then called Hi-Ject, it’s since been renamed to Green Out—a term used to describe the weed version of an alcohol-induced blackout). She developed this mouth spray containing “a proprietary blend of cannabinoids and herbs” based on her own research and testimonials from friends and family trying the product, but she hopes to refine the formula in the future with clinical tests, as well as get it patented. When I tried Green Out, I’d say I felt a little less high a little sooner than usual. I acknowledge that the placebo effect can play a role here, and also that I wasn’t fully “greened out” at the time of sampling. Maybe if I’d been more zooted, I would’ve noticed a bigger difference. 

Soft Landing’s chocolates are made with an unnamed “naturally occurring molecule found in a number of herbs and spices.” I imagine they’ll reveal a bit more once they launch—this recent press blitz is about rounding up investors to scale production and hit the market. My bet is they’re made with black pepper or citrus extracts—both contain high concentrations of terpenes like beta-caryophyllene or alpha-pinene, which are often recommended in smoking circles as a remedy for when you get too high. They might contain hemp CBD as well, which can potentially have a sort of “dimming effect” on any intoxicating sensations.

Other than those one-off white papers, there is no official, FDA-approved medical consensus on curbing a cannabis high. I think more research and more beta testing are likely needed to gauge the most effective formulations of these products, but I definitely think there’s a place for these in harm-reduction kits. Dee dreams of Green Out being a part of emergency kits in ambulances like Narcan, the naloxone nasal spray that can reverse a narcotic overdose.

What I know for sure, though, is that their existence reveals the ongoing need for smaller doses throughout the industry. 

We’ve Barely Developed The Low Dose Realm

The fact that people are still getting uncomfortably high when there are a variety of hemp and 5 mg dosed products across the market shows that the average offering is still too high. There are not enough truly low dose, ~1-2 mg experiences readily available for all adults. I know what many of you are thinking: “But high THC is what people want!” And I hear you. I hear from colleagues in retail often how the only way to get people in the door right now is insane discounts on high-potency goods. However, that comes down to education and experience. In the alcohol realm, the strongest stuff isn’t what drives the market. No one’s out here leaning on Everclear to make a profit. 

If we want to transcend this THC-dependent place the market has found itself in, we’ve got to zoom out and look to the long term. It’s up to us—the storytellers; CEOs; marketers; shop managers—to guide people to the best products to suit their needs, not just the highest numbers on the shelf, and help them understand why.

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At this rate of THC content, more people will have nightmarish highs as more states come online, at best giving them one more hurdle to overcome before opening their minds to cannabis as a part of their ongoing wellness or recreation rituals. At worst, people will have such a terrible time that they never give cannabis a chance again, recommend their loved ones do the same, and/or seriously hurt themselves and others by accident.

This higher and higher-THC approach is a dangerous game to play, and products like Green Out and Soft Landing indicate that people are no longer feeling comfortable playing without safety bumpers.

Back to reading the weed leaves,
Lauren Yoshiko