VICE News traveled to Portland, Oregon, to meet Ethan Ernest, creator of marijuana microdose pills called Mirth Control, which contain a fraction of the THC found in a typical joint or batch of edibles. Earnest compares Mirth Control to “open-source Xanax.”auren lefranc Other products in the new weed microdosing category push the envelope even further with suggestions about purported medical uses.

The creator of LSD, Dr. Albert Hofmann, believed that ingesting tiny amounts of the drug could have therapeutic value, and so-called “microdoses” have since been proposed as a substitute for everything from Adderall to marriage counseling. Now, as more states legalize marijuana, the trend that began with hallucinogens has grown to include microdoses of THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in weed.