What the words on a menu mean, written for someone choosing in an unfamiliar country.
Strengths vary enormously between products and countries, and the numbers below are typical ranges rather than promises. A menu always beats a guide: read the label, and ask staff what a serving is.
The dried flower of the plant, sold loose by weight and usually smoked or vaporised.
Sold by the gram almost everywhere. The strain name tells you far less than the tested percentage on the label.
Flower already rolled and ready to smoke.
Convenient, and the easiest way to buy a small, known amount. Some are infused with concentrate and are far stronger than they look.
Food or drink containing cannabis — gummies, chocolate, baked goods, drinks.
The one category people most often get wrong. The delay tempts a second dose before the first has arrived. Take one serving and wait two hours.
Cannabis resin extracted into wax, shatter, rosin or live resin.
Intended for experienced use and specific equipment. A portion looks tiny compared with flower because it is.
A cartridge or pen holding cannabis oil, heated rather than burned.
Discreet and easy to over-do, because a draw takes a second and there is no visible amount to gauge. Note that vaping is banned in some places where smoking is not.
Compressed resin, traditional across Morocco, Spain, the Netherlands and South Asia.
Traditional hash and modern extracts differ enormously in strength — ask which you are being sold.
Measured oral doses in a pill, common in medical programmes.
The most predictable format, because the dose is fixed and stated.
Liquid cannabis extract taken by dropper, usually under the tongue.
The dominant medical format in many countries, and often the only legal one.
Creams, balms and patches applied to the skin.
Usually the least restricted category, and the only one that is not intoxicating when used as intended.
Products with cannabidiol and little or no THC.
Legal in many places where THC is not — but the threshold differs by country, and a product legal at home may not be legal on arrival.
This page explains terminology only. Whether any of these may be bought, carried or consumed depends entirely on where you are — check the rules for that place first.