No health agency publishes a cannabis dose for migraine, so the honest answer is a range. A workable starting point: 2.5 to 5 mg of THC inhaled at the first flicker of aura or the moment pain starts. If you go the edible route, cut that to 1.5 to 2.5 mg and wait two full hours before considering more. Pair THC with CBD at roughly 1:1 to 1:4. For prevention, CBD tends to land between 100 and 400 mg a day, split into two doses. Everything after that is titration, and titration is where most people get it wrong.

best cannabis strains for migraines

Why there is no single dose

Migraine varies by person, by trigger, and by phase. A dose that kills an attack at 4 p.m. on a Tuesday may do nothing during a three-day cluster. Body weight matters less than you would think with cannabinoids. Liver enzymes, tolerance, and how much you have eaten matter more. Someone who vapes daily needs far more THC than a person who uses it four times a month.

related article

Starting doses by method

A titration plan that works

  1. Pick one product and one method. Keep it there for two weeks.
  2. Start at the low end of the range above. Log the dose, the time, and your pain score at 30, 60, and 120 minutes.
  3. If you get less than 30 percent relief, raise the THC by 1 to 2 mg on the next attack, never more than once per 48 hours.
  4. If relief comes with anxiety, racing heart, or a fog you hate, drop the THC and raise the CBD instead.
  5. Stop climbing once you hit 10 mg THC per attack. Beyond that, side effects grow faster than benefit.

THC for attacks, CBD for prevention

The pattern I see in headache logs is consistent. Inhaled THC shortens an attack in progress. CBD taken daily chips away at how often attacks show up. Neither is a cure, and CBD will not stop a migraine that is already at full volume. A 1:1 gummy does both jobs at once but makes titration harder because you cannot move one number without moving the other.

read more

What to look for in a strain

Ratios beat names. A 1:1 or 2:1 THC to CBD flower tends to work better for migraine than a high-THC strain with no CBD, which can leave people jittery and clench-jawed. Caryophyllene and myrcene show up often in strains people report as helpful, though that evidence is anecdotal at best. Buy from a brand that prints cannabinoid percentages on the label, not just a name and a pretty jar.

Cannabis Edibles for Migraine Pain: A Comprehensive Guide

When cannabis makes headaches worse

Two traps catch people. The first is medication overuse: using any acute treatment, cannabis included, more than 10 to 15 days a month can flip into daily rebound headache. The second is cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, which shows up as morning nausea and compulsive hot showers after years of heavy use. If your attack frequency is climbing while your dose climbs with it, that is a signal to back off and talk to a neurologist, not to take more.

Safety notes

Cannabis can interact with blood thinners, some antidepressants, and seizure medications through the same liver enzymes. Do not drive while using, especially at the doses that actually stop a migraine. If you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or under 25, the risk profile changes and this is a conversation for a physician.

Track it or guess forever

Two weeks of notes tells you more than any dosing chart. Write down dose, method, time to relief, peak pain, and how you felt the next morning. Patterns show up fast, and they are the only reliable guide you have.