How to Dose Hemp Products - Understand Dosing Clearly and Improve Results!
What is Dosing?
Dosing involves the determination and consumption of specific amounts of compounds. The most common unit of measurement for pharmaceuticals and cannabinoids alike is the milligram (mg). The information on this page will enable you to achieve any target dose of THC, CBD, or other cannabinoids, regardless of what product type you have. Knowing how to dose cannabinoids properly will improve your journey!
Infused Oils/Tinctures
Infused oils, often called tinctures, are dropper bottles with cannabinoids suspended in a vegetable oil, mainly olive oil or medium-chain triglyceride (MCT) oil, mainly derived from coconut or palm. Infused oils are the best option for quickly and easily achieving any dose you desired.
The potency, or concentration, of infused oils is presented as how many milligrams of cannabinoids are in 1 milliliter – mg/mL. For example, a CBD oil with 30 mg/mL CBD delivers 30 mg CBD in a volume of 1 mL.
The key formula for achieving any target dose is:
Target Dose / Concentration = Volume Given
For example, if you have a target dose of 15 mg CBD, and your CBD oil is 30 mg/mL, then:
15 mg / 30 mg/mL = 0.5 mL. It would take 0.5 mL of the 30 mg/mL oil to achieve 15 mg.
Most infused oils have graduated droppers with 0.25 mL, 0.5 mL, 0.75 mL, and 1 mL markers. This helps with precision.
Furthermore, there are about 30 drops in 1 mL. Therefore, you can calculate the mg/drop by dividing the potency by 30. A 30 mg/mL CBD has 1 mg/drop CBD, while a 60 mg/mL CBD would have 2 mg/drop CBD.
Some bottles don’t say the potency directly, but say the total amount of CBD along with the size of the bottle. For example, if a bottle contained 600 mg CBD, and had a 30 mL size, then it has a concentration of (600 mg/30 mL) = 20 mg/mL.
Knowing the Target Dose / Concentration = Volume Given formula, combined with knowledge of the mg/drop value if needed, allows you to achieve any target dose regardless of your product’s concentration!
Dosing FECO/RSO
Full-extract cannabis oil (FECO), also known as Rick Simpson Oil (RSO), is a highly concentrated cannabis product that comes in oral syringes. While FECO is normally rich in THC, there are CBD-dominant versions available. FECO is especially useful for patients who need high doses with a low volume of product.
For example, if a patient wanted 300 mg of CBD using an infused oil with 30 mg/mL CBD, it would take 10 mL of oil to reach that dose. Conversely, if they had a FECO product with 60% CBD, the amount required would be far lower.
To dose FECO, first convert the percentage number to milligrams/gram by multiplying by 10. So a 60% CBD FECO would be 600 mg/g CBD.
Notably, FECO is generally measured in grams because it is a solid product, whereas infused oils are measured in milliliters because they are liquids.
The same dosing formula for infused oils applies to FECO.
Target Dose / Concentration = Volume Given
With a 300 mg CBD target and a concentration of 600 mg/g CBD, it would take:
300 mg / 600mg/g = 0.5 g. It would take 0.5 g of the 600 mg/g FECO to achieve 300 mg.
Most FECO products have graduations on them indicating 0.1 g increments. FECO can also be measured on a scale (that measures to 0.001g), first by placing a piece of food, using the TARE function, then applying the FECO on top of the food.
Patients often dose FECO according to rice grain increments. While this strategy cannto ensure fully accurate dosing, it’s close enough for some. A rice grain is about 0.03 g, so multiplying 0.03 g by the concentration gives mg/rice grain.
In the above example, 0.03 g x 600 mg/g = 18 mg. Therefore, in a 600 mg/g FECO, there are about 18 mg/rice grain. Of course, because of the natural variance in rice grain sizes per dose, the actual dose will vary. The only way to be fully certain about a dose is to use the scale method.
Dosing Edibles
We got through the hard stuff above! Edibles are generally the easiest to dose, so there’s not much to explain here.
Edible packages list the total amount , as well as the serving size per piece. A very common package/serving size is 100 mg total, 10 mg per piece. The same formulas described above still apply here.
Target Dose / Concentration Per Serving = Number of Servings
So if you have a target dose of 20 mg CBD, and there are 10 mg per serving, it would take 2 servings. If you only wanted 5 mg, it would take half a serving.
As another example, if you wanted 200 mg CBD and had 25 mg edible servings, it would take (200 / 25) = 8 servings to achieve the 200 mg target.
