Leary biscuit

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A Leary biscuit is a snack consisting of a cracker, cheese, and ground up marijuana bud. It is heated in a convection oven and causes a cannabis "high" in the eater. The heating is said to activate the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in cannabis. In actuality, the heating simply increases the solubility of the THC in the fats and oils in the cheese. The plant material of cannabis is not easily digested, and so the THC is not readily absorbed into the bloodstream unless it is first dissolved in some kind of fat, oil, or alcohol. This is why cheese is used for the Leary biscuit - cheese has a high fat content, suitable for dissolving THC and making it more readily available for digestion.

THC and other cannabinoids are hydrophobic oils. They are insoluble in water but soluble in alcohols, fats, and other oils. As cannabinoids are insoluble in water alone, they suffer from low bioavailability when eaten. By dissolving the cannabinoids in alcohol, fats, or oils (such as the fat in butter and cheese), their ability to be absorbed by the body is increased. Heating the THC in the presence of fats or oils simply accelerates the process of dissolution in the fats, from some hours at room temperature to minutes in the microwave.

Timothy Leary was reportedly fond of these concoctions, especially in the later years of his life (allegedly because his physician asked him to quit smoking ^{[citation needed]}) and thus they are named for him.