WINNIPEG -- Cannabis edibles have arrived on Manitoba store shelves just in time for the holidays, but there are precautions users should take to avoid a bad trip or having the psychotropic goodies fall into the wrong hands.

Lynda Balneaves, a registered nurse and associate professor at the University of Manitoba, spoke with CTV Morning Live’s Nicole Dube about the potential pitfalls of cannabis edibles.

GO SLOW TO AVOID GETTING SICK OR PARANOID

Balneaves brought with her a chocolate bar containing 10 mg of THC, which is the chemical in cannabis that gets you high. Each square of the chocolate bar contained 2.5 mg, which Balneaves said is as much as a beginner should start with.

“With anything related to cannabis, you need to start low and go slow,” she said.

“If you’re not used to using cannabis, especially edibles, you should start with perhaps one square of chocolate, wait an hour, hour and a half, to see what the effect is before consuming more.”

Balneaves said it’s important to exercise patience.

“We’ve seen people consume one gummy, not feel anything in ten minutes, and then eat the whole bag,” she said.

While rushing won’t cause the kind of overdose narcotic drugs would, the consequences of overdoing it can still be serious.

“And that’s where they get the paranoia, they could feel very sick, they could end up in the emergency room as a consequence,” Balneaves said.

“You could be throwing up, you could be very impaired, it’s not a great feeling.”

SAFE STORAGE

Legal edibles come in packages with locking mechanisms that make them difficult to open. Balneaves said it should stay in that package if it’s being stored in a home.

“Obviously, when this is out of the package and laying around, it can be very attractive to children. It looks like a chocolate bar,” Balneaves said, advising parents store it like medicine.

“Or consider using, maybe, a locked box. Because we know kids can be really innovative in terms of trying to get access to things that are maybe tucked behind or set up high,” she said.

CANNABIS FOR CHRISTMAS

With the cannabis 2.0 rollout coinciding with the holiday season, Balneaves said people should be aware it wouldn’t make a great gift for everyone.

“We have to be conscious that certain people with mental health issues like schizophrenia, people who have unstable cardiac disease, this is not a great gift, because cannabis could make their condition worse.”

She also emphasized the legal age for cannabis is 19 – so no one younger than that should receive edibles as gifts.

As for holiday parties, hosts are advised to make sure unlabeled edibles aren’t left out for unknowing guests.