The first time I used cannabis after fifteen years of nothing, my buddy Travis handed me half a gummy in his kitchen in Missoula and said, “Sit on the couch and don't make any plans for three hours.” That was good advice. It was also the beginning of about eighteen months of figuring out which way of using cannabis actually fit my life — which is not the same thing as which one works best in some abstract sense. They all work. The question is whether they work for you, on a Tuesday, at 6 AM, with two kids asleep down the hall.
I'll start with what I know best.
Edibles
An edible is cannabis processed into food — gummies, mostly. You eat it, wait, and it hits. The wait is the thing people underestimate. For me it's sixty to ninety minutes. For some people it's two hours. You're not in control of the timeline the way you are with smoking.
What I like: the dosing is exact. A 5-milligram gummy is 5 milligrams. I take between 5 and 10 milligrams of THC before bed and I know what I'm getting every time. After seven years of the VA deciding my chemistry, that precision matters to me. I also like that there's no smell. I can take an edible at 9 PM and my kids don't know anything about it. It's private.
What I don't like: you have to plan. If my back locks up at 2 PM, an edible isn't going to help me at 2 PM. It's going to help me at 3:30. The effects last four to six hours, which is fine at bedtime but not always what you want midday.
Edibles are what I use most. They're what I'd recommend to someone who's never tried cannabis before, because the dosing is clear and the experience is predictable once you figure out your number.
Tinctures
A tincture is a liquid — usually oil-based — that you drop under your tongue. It absorbs faster than an edible, usually fifteen to thirty minutes for me. You measure the dose with a dropper, so you can dial it in pretty tight.
I use a high-CBD tincture during the day for back and knee pain. The CBD doesn't get me high. It loosens things up enough that I can work in my shop or split wood without locking up by noon. Some tinctures have THC, some have CBD, some have both. You can find what fits.
What I like: faster than edibles, still precise, no smell, easy to carry. I keep mine in the medicine cabinet like everything else.
What I don't like: the taste. Most tinctures taste like you're drinking lawn clippings steeped in olive oil. You get used to it. It's not a reason to avoid them.
Flower
Flower is the plant. You smoke it or vaporize it. It works fast — within a few minutes — and wears off in one to three hours. That fast onset is the main advantage. If you're in pain right now, flower addresses right now.
I tried flower when I was first figuring all this out. It worked. My back pain dropped noticeably within five minutes. But I stopped using it for a few reasons.
First, the dosing. When you smoke, you're guessing how much you're taking based on how deep you inhale and how strong the flower is. I never knew if I was getting 5 milligrams or 15. That guesswork didn't sit right.
Second, the smell. I've got two kids and I didn't want my house or my clothes smelling like smoke.
Third, the ritual. Grinding, packing, lighting — I wanted medicine, not a hobby.
None of that means flower is wrong. For some people the fast onset is the whole point. If you're dealing with acute pain or a panic attack, waiting ninety minutes for an edible isn't realistic. Flower meets you where you are.
Concentrates
I haven't used concentrates. I'll be honest about that. They're highly potent extracts — wax, shatter, oils — with THC percentages well above flower or edibles. I've talked to people who find them effective for severe chronic pain. But my goal was always the minimum effective dose. Concentrates felt like the opposite direction.
If you're experienced and your tolerance has built up, they might make sense. If you're new to this, they're not where I'd start.
The Real Question
There's no best delivery method. There's the one that fits your life. Ask yourself three things: How fast do I need relief? How precisely do I need to control the dose? And what's practical for where and how I live?
For me the answer was edibles at night and a tincture during the day. Your answer might be completely different. That's fine. The goal isn't to do what I did. It took me eighteen months of getting it wrong before I got it right, and the only thing I'd change is the time I spent assuming I already knew.