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The concentrate and vaporizer brand Buddies is making a go for the edible market—just not with anything edible.
That's right, there is a state-licensed weed toothpick now on the market. What a time to be alive.
Though it's amusing to see desperate, cannabis-infused invention reach new highs—or lows, depending on your perspective—this seemingly superfluous item just might end up filling a weirdly pragmatic hole in the market: an edible you don't have to eat, just hold in your mouth, Diddy-style, absorbing the THC sublingually. Be forewarned: Despite the artisanal quality of the toothpick, at no point should you use it in the traditional manner.
Think of it as an "edible" that takes discretion to a whole new level, allowing you to consume virtually anywhere—with any kind of company. The question is: Does it work as well as a 5 mg lozenge?
The High
Each conveniently packed pop-top contains 10 toothpicks, each infused with a little over 4 mg of THC. The picks themselves are made with thicker, stronger wood than the usual restaurant freebies, and in a darker hue that succeeds in making you feel more comfortable about paying more than $1 per stick. I opted for the mint flavor, which ended up tasting a bit more like Listerine than I'd like. That said, I'd still choose mouthwash over the strawberry limeade alternative.
The flavoring had a weirdly salivating effect that resulted, in my case, in a lot of swallowing and messing around with the toothpick in my mouth. In other words, it's not a "pop it in and forget it" kind of application. The flavoring also makes its way to your lips, bringing me back to the days of flavored Lip Smacker lip balm—not in a good way.
The directions recommend eventually chewing the stick a bit to "release the ingredients," so I turned the toothpick around when the minty flavor began to fade, about eight minutes in. It never got soggy or splintery, and probably could've sat in my mouth for an hour if I was feeling particularly rural. The box stated an activation time of 10 minutes, and I indeed felt that miniature whoosh of the handful of milligrams about 15 minutes into my walk home from work.
My mouth felt numb more than I felt stoned, but 4 mg is, after all, 4 mg—heavy users will be fine sucking on toothpick after toothpick for a few rounds to find the right dose for them.
The Takeaway
Besides awkwardly swallowing more than normal on my walk home from work, this was the easiest low dose I've ever consumed—no fussing with wrappers or measuring a safe chunk to bite off, no paranoia about my breath smelling like weed chocolate. Most significantly—I didn't have to eat candy or baked goods when I didn't feel like it.
There is a large group of consumers eating edibles merely as an alternative to smoking or vaping. And if you want to get high on the regular and don't have a sweet tooth, the menu narrows significantly. Toothpicks offer a novel way to get stoned without eating food or candy, and since you absorb the THC sublingually rather than digestively, it's a more efficient high that comes on fast, regardless of what you've eaten that day.
The Bottom Line
As long as you're open to incorporating a toothpick into your personal style, this is the quietly flippant, zero-calorie edible made for low dosing on the go, and in public.
BUY IT: Buddies THC Toothpicks are available at Serra, 220 SW 1st Ave. and 2519 SE Belmont St., shopserra.com.