Weed and chocolate go great together for Valentine's Day — just be careful not to get too high

As many stoners already know, chocolate and weed go together like, well, chocolate and peanut butter. Except it gets you high.

Natalia Cardenas, the merchandising manager at New Standard in Hazel Park, says that the dispensary has created a special bundle box containing five cannabis-infused edibles in time for Valentine's Day.

The package includes a variety of sweet treats, like a Raspberry Peanut Butter Chocolate Bar from High Life Farms, gummies from Funky Extracts, a Fruity Crispy Rice Square from Treetown, and caramels from Dream Edibles.

But before you and your sweetheart dig in, Cardenas urges caution when consuming edibles. Dosage is key.

"Definitely plan ahead," she says. "I always let people know to be in a nice environment where you're comfortable — like at home, and with people that you definitely like, because cannabis heightens your experience. So if you're taking too much edibles, what it can do is it can put you in almost a state of complete 'couch lock,' where some folks will get anxiety."

She recommends new users err on the side of caution and start with less than the recommended dosage. So if the chocolate square is 10 mg of THC, break it in half and try 5 mg, and wait an hour before taking more.

Other products in the box are contain high levels of THC. For example, the Dream Edibles caramels are 25 mg of THC each.

"I definitely always suggest for people to cut it in half or cut it into fourths, especially if they're not an experienced user," Cardenas says.

Same goes to the Treetown Fruity Crispy Rice Square: this treat packs a whopping 100 mg of THC. Do not eat this all at once, or you'll have a weird Valentine's Day. The package has a dosing chart on the back to help customers moderate their dosage.

Cardenas says she recommends people eat something ahead of time. "Cannabis tends to activate a little bit better when there is food in your stomach," she advises. Everyone's tolerance is different, so not everyone will have the same experience.

With that said, Cardenas says users can get creative with how they dose.

"A couple of folks that come in say they'll get a chocolate bar and mix it into a milkshake, which I think is like a really cool thing to do," Cardenas says. "With just like a couple 10-milligram pieces you can have yourself a really good milkshake, especially if you're with your loved one. You could have a little milkshake to share and watch a movie together."

Cardenas says the high is different when drinking cannabis.

"Essentially, the effect is takes effect a little bit quicker because your body is able to process it faster," she says. "You almost get kind of like a floaty, like surreal feeling when you drink cannabis versus when you eat it."

High Life Farms co-owners and brothers Ben and Vinnie Celani have also developed a special Valentine's Day product — a Royal Chocolate Bar Red Velvet bar.

"It's something that we thought was very iconic with on Valentine's Day," Ben says. "It's definitely one of the best flavors we've ever put out."

The company operates out of a former dairy farm in Chesaning. In the past, they've also created Pumpkin Spice Latte-flavored chocolate bars for the autumn and a white chocolate sugar cookie-flavored chocolate bar for Christmas.

"We're going to keep coming out with new ones for each season that comes up," Ben says.

The chocolate bars contain 100 mg of THC, but are divided into 20 smaller squares like a Hershey's Bar, which contain 5 mg each.

What goes together better than chocolate and weed? Chocolate, weed, and sex, according to a Stanford University School of Medicine, which found cannabis consumers reported having about 20% more sex than those who don't toke. The researchers found that women who used cannabis daily had sex an average of 7.1 times in the previous four weeks, compared with 6.0 times reported by those who say they don't use cannabis.

"Using cannabis as recreational product, just like other recreational things, it's a social lubricant in some ways and definitely in a sexual way," Vinnie says. "If you're having an intimate moment with your partner, and you two are both enjoyers of cannabis, it's definitely a way to kind of amplify those feelings."

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