I've just been reading a report about cannabis on the 'Schaffer Library of Drug Policy' entitled:
Acute Effects of Marihuana.

This report contains some excellent information on various effects of cannabis. It covers a wide variety of subjects, including physical effects on body organs, cognitive effects, social effects and sections that explain psychosis episodes etc. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about what they are smoking or eating. If you have had a bad experience smoking, or a friend has, check this report out. It covers just about everything. Here is a small sample (this is what I blogged about tonight).

Overdosing

You've probably heard of stories about how much it would take to overdose on THC. Stories like "You'd have to eat a pound to OD" etc. Well, here are some figures from the report, based on research conducted around 1971 using two synthetic THC chemicals and an extract of THC from marijuana. The studies were conducted on rats, dogs and monkeys. These resulting figures gave them an estimate of how much a 70kg(154lb) human would need to take to match the doses administered to the animals:

The non-fatal consumption of 3000 mg/kg A THC by the dog and monkey would be comparable to a 154-pound human eating approximately 46 pounds (21 kilograms) of 1%-marihuana or 10 pounds of 5% hashish at one time. In addition, 92 mg/kg THC intravenously produced no fatalities in monkeys. These doses would be comparable to a 154-pound human smoking at one time almost three pounds (1.28 kg) of 1%-marihuana or 250,000 times the usual smoked dose and over a million times the minimal effective dose assuming 50% destruction of the THC by smoking.

In other words, it would be impossible for humans to ingest enough cannabis by eating or smoking to kill themselves with a THC overdose.

Deaths From THC

I've never heard of nor read, up until I read this report, of any THC related deaths. However, there appears to be some anecdotal reports of deaths from overdosing, but not in the standard sense (links added by Indica Man):

There is no conclusive evidence that short-term marihuana use alone directly results in any physical damage to man. A few scattered fatalities associated with marihuana use are occasionally reported. Most are from 19th century Indian experiences with large oral doses of charas (Deakin, 1880; Bouquet, 1951; Ewens, 1904, Walton, 1938; Indian Hemp Drugs, 1893). Brill et al. (1970) and Smith (1968 have noted that there have not been any reliable reports of human fatalities attributable purely to marihuana, although very high doses have been administered by users. A frequently cited recent report from Belgium by Heyndrickx et al. (1970) describes an essentially negative pathological and toxicological study of a 23-year-old man found dead in the presence of marihuana, and hashish. A cannabinoid was detected in his urine. However, this finding in no way inculpates marihuana as the responsible agent. There are many possible causes of sudden death which are not toxins and do not produce observable pathology; e.g. anaphylactic reactions, insulin shock, cardiac arhythmias, etc.
A case report (Nahas, 1971) of an attempted suicide by smoking hashish, recently in France is even more anecdotal. An individual was reported to have smoked consecutively ten pipes of hashish containing approximately 200 mg of Delta 9 THC each before losing consciousness. But recovery occurred after supportive treatment.
Another case report (Hughes et al., 1970) relates severe diabetic coma with ketoacidosis after the ingestion of huge amounts of marihuana by a mental patient. However, it appears that the pronounced vomiting secondary to the marihuana ingestion caused a severe electrolyte imbalance and alkalosis. Possibly a vulnerable glucose-regulating system responded to the severe stress inappropriately. Retrospectively, there was no history of diabetes noted previously but this was not confirmed or ruled out by lab tests prior to the episode.
Several case reports (Henderson and Pugsley, 1968 King and Cowen, 1970; King et al., 1970; Lundberg et al., 1971; Gary and Keylon, 1970) noted acute severe, physiological disturbances and acute collapse (shock, chills and fever) subsequent to intravenous injection of suspensions of marihuana. These symptoms may have been due to an allergic reaction to injected foreign plant material, to a bacteremia and/or to the injection of insoluble particles which are filtered by the organs. The symptoms may be considered a complication of the mode of use, rather than results of the drug.

Go on, take the time to check this report out. There's a heap more info there on the one page. It'll be time well spent.

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Choofin' on me Billy It's Medicine Jim

what about 8 grams of honey oil? i would imagine the THC content is thru the roof. what if i just swallowed this? i was actually wondering this the day i made it. IMG_6556.jpg

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i'm the guy i've always wanted to be

so were those deaths due to individual characteristics of the people? like their body didn't react right to something that was "mixed" with the marijuana?

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my eyes always look like so if you dont like it! NOT GREED PEOPLE!

i think if pot killed people in ANY way we'd be hearing a lot more about it.

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i'm the guy i've always wanted to be

I guess it'd be much like charas FDD. Tell you what, send half to me over here in Oz. We can both test a half dose and see what happens.

I'd say you'd get really bent, have a few hallucinations and then sleep it off. According to that report, you need to have eleven to fourteen times a 'normal' dose, and that's an individual thing, to start experience anything like hallucinations or complete disorientation. I think (If I recall correctly) an extremely high dose has to be 8mg THC to a kilo of product. But I'd have to check it again to be sure.

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Choofin' on me Billy It's Medicine Jim

well 1 hit of honey will get me pretty ripped. 3 or 4 and i'm done. so i'd say if i ate a gram i'd be good to go.

fuck that.

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i'm the guy i've always wanted to be

Do it , it looks a bit too big to swallow though.. suppository anyone? j/k

Just curious, how are you smoking your honey?

i'm not. my bud gets me so stoned i never make it to the oil.

i'm starting to hijack this thread. GET DOWN EVERYONE, I HAVE A BOMB!!!!!!!!!

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i'm the guy i've always wanted to be

Well, the report says that the 'reported' deaths were from the 19th century (1800's), from extremely high intakes of charas. Charas is an extremely potent hash made around Kashmir (somewhat like GENUINE Royal Nepalese hash). I'd say it would have been some mad European up in the highlands around Kashmir eating the a dozen or more balls of the stuff. I don't think the deaths were confirmed, but the report doesn't state that. It only says 'reports' of deaths. There was a case just recently of a bloke (I think it was over here in Oz) who smuggled 70 condoms of hash into the country in his stomach. Apparently a number of the condoms broke inside his stomach and he was admitted to hospital. He died from toxic shock, but it was not directly related to the hash it seems. I'll hunt the story down if I can find it.

The article at the drug policy site basically debunks any of the sensationalist claims made about the negative effects of pot. It also explains how psychosis events are usually experienced by novice smokers who aren't aware of how it feels to be stoned.

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Choofin' on me Billy It's Medicine Jim

Here you go:

A QUEENSLAND man who tried to smuggle 60 condoms stuffed with hashish inside his stomach has died in a Thai hospital after three condoms burst.
John Paul Jones, 50, was rushed to hospital on April 11 in the southern Thai town of Surat Thani, with doctors finding 60 condoms stuffed with hashish in his intestine.
Three of the condoms had burst.
A total of 800g of hashish was recovered from Jones.
Jones remained in hospital after the condoms were discovered.
He was charged by Thai police with possession of narcotics, which carries a maximum jail term of five years.
But the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed the Queenslander died on Saturday.
"A 50-year-old man who was hospitalised in Surat Thani in Thailand on the 11th of April ... he died on the 19th of April," a DFAT spokesman said, without naming Jones for privacy reasons.
"His family has been advised of his death and, in co-ordination with the Australian embassy in Bangkok, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra is continuing to provide consular assistance to his family."
The spokesman would not say how Jones had died, but the ABC has reported he died of septicaemia and liver failure.
No decision had been made on the return of Jones' body to Australia, with the DFAT spokesman saying it was "a matter for his family to decide".
"We will provide assistance depending on what they decide," he said.
Provincial authorities speculated that Jones had swallowed the goods to get them past port inspectors at the pier to Phangan Island, notorious for its "full moon" parties, drug-fuelled all-night revels that attract hundreds of foreign tourists each month.
Phangan Island, about 400km south of Bangkok, is part of Surat Thani province.

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Choofin' on me Billy It's Medicine Jim