I Took Too Much. What Do I Do?

You are not in danger. There is no known lethal dose of THC in humans, and no recorded death from a cannabis overdose alone. What you are feeling is unpleasant and it is temporary. It will pass on its own.

If you are reading this while it is happening, skip to the next section. The rest can wait.

Why it feels like this

Two things are happening, and understanding them genuinely helps, because most of what makes a high dose frightening is not knowing whether it is going to stop.

Your receptors are saturated. THC works by binding CB1 receptors. Past a certain point, more THC does not produce more of the pleasant effects — it produces different ones. Anxiety, a racing heart, distorted time, and the sense that this might not end are all well-documented at higher doses. They are dose effects, not signs of damage.

Edibles hit harder than the number suggests. When you swallow THC, your liver converts a large share of it into 11-hydroxy-THC, a metabolite that crosses into the brain readily and is generally considered more potent than what you took. That is why 25mg eaten is not the same experience as 25mg inhaled, and why people who are comfortable smoking are often caught out by edibles.

The fear itself then amplifies everything. Anxiety raises heart rate, a raised heart rate feels like evidence something is wrong, and that feeds back. Breaking that loop is most of what the steps above are doing.

The timeline

Knowing roughly where you are in it helps more than it sounds like it should.

• Peak: 2 to 4 hours after the dose. If you are past that, you are on the way down.
• Main effects ease: 4 to 8 hours.
• Residual fog: up to 12 hours, sometimes into the next morning at high doses.

Nothing you do will shorten this by much. Your liver is metabolising at its own rate. What you can change is how the time feels, which is not nothing.

What actually helps

Setting

Somewhere familiar, dimly lit, not too warm. Unfamiliar places and unfamiliar people make this considerably worse. If you are out, going home is worth the effort of getting there — but not by driving.

Distraction that does not demand anything

Something you have watched before, or music you know well. Not a film with a plot to follow, not doom-scrolling, and not anything frightening. Familiarity is the active ingredient.

Sleep, if it comes

Sleeping through it is the cleanest exit, and THC often makes that easier at high doses. If you can sleep, do.

Someone with you

Being told "this is normal, it will pass, I am here" by an actual person is more effective than reading it. If you are alone and it is bad, phone someone and say plainly what has happened. It is not an emergency call and they will not be alarmed by it.

Food and water

Neither speeds up metabolism much, but low blood sugar and dehydration both make anxiety worse, and both are easy to fix.

What does not help

Being honest about this matters, because the internet is full of confident advice that does nothing.

• Cold showers. A brief distraction at best. Some people find the shock unpleasant enough to make things worse.
• Coffee or energy drinks. Stimulants on top of anxiety and a raised heart rate is the wrong direction.
• More alcohol. Alcohol appears to increase THC absorption. It is likely to extend this, not end it.
• Exercise. THC is stored in fat, and mobilising it can briefly raise circulating levels.
• Inducing vomiting. By the time you feel effects, absorption has already happened. You would be adding distress for no benefit.

Two folk remedies deserve a more careful answer. Black peppercorns are widely recommended on the basis that beta-caryophyllene interacts with CB2 receptors. The mechanism is real; whether chewing pepper delivers enough to matter is unstudied. It is harmless, so if it helps you feel like you are doing something, it costs nothing. CBD is often suggested as a counter to THC, and the evidence here is genuinely mixed — some studies find CBD reduces THC's anxiety effects, others find no effect or the opposite depending on ratio and timing. We would not tell you it reliably works.

When to seek medical help

Rare, but real. Get medical attention for:

• Chest pain, or a heart rate that stays very high and does not settle
• Difficulty breathing
• Fainting, or being unable to stay conscious
• Persistent vomiting that will not stop
• Seizure
• A pre-existing heart condition and symptoms that concern you

If you go, tell them exactly what you took and how much. They are treating you, not reporting you, and it changes what they do. Bring the packaging if you can — ours states the cannabinoid content precisely.

One condition worth naming because it gets missed: cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome causes cycles of severe vomiting in some long-term regular users, often relieved temporarily by hot showers. If that pattern sounds familiar, it is a medical issue rather than a one-off, and it warrants a doctor.

If it was a child or a pet

Different situation entirely, and the advice reverses: do not wait to see whether symptoms develop.

Contact Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222 immediately, or a veterinarian for an animal. A 100mg COMET is a large dose for a small body. Dogs are considerably more sensitive to THC than humans and ingestion warrants prompt veterinary attention. Take the packaging with you. We wrote this up in full in pets and THC.

Afterwards

You will be fine tomorrow, possibly a bit foggy. When you feel like it, work out what happened, because it is almost always one of three things.

You redosed too early. By far the most common cause. Onset runs 30 to 90 minutes and peaks at two to four hours, so a second dose at the 45-minute mark lands on top of a first that had not arrived. The timeline is here.

You took a whole piece. A COMET is 100mg — ten servings, not one. The facets exist so it can be divided.

You misjudged your tolerance. Someone else's comfortable dose is not a guide to yours, and inhaled tolerance does not transfer to edibles.

Next time, 2.5mg and two hours. That is not us being cautious for legal reasons — it is the dose most people should actually start at, and we would rather you got there without this happening first.