Can someone describe how eating X amount of cannabis differs from smoking X amount? Even though it's the same amount in both cases, I would guess there would be differences in the effects you'd feel. How much longer would it take to feel the effects and how different would the effects be?
confusion on the topic is rampant, as you could probably tell since i feel like you did some research before asking here. people often report needing to eat more cannabis than they would have to smoke in order to get the same effect, but people also often report eating too much and freaking the fuck out.
generally you will need larger doses than you would smoke, but it's realistically more in the 1.5x-3x higher range than the large amounts most people report.
eating on a relatively empty stomach with a small amount of an oily food helps absorption. part of why cannabutter is more effective than straight up eating weed.
there is a myth that floats around that you need to heat weed to "activate" the THC via decarobxylation. this is a bit false. heating the weed prior to consumption will increase the speed at which you feel the effects, but your digestive system is fully capable of decarboxylating weed on its own. i've straight up just stuffed ground up marijuana into a gel cap and swallowed it and gotten good effects.
the gradual comeup is one of the reasons that eating weed is a qualitatively different experience than smoking it. the other reason is that eating it produces more 11-hydroxy-THC than smoking it. there isn't a lot of easily digestible science out there about why, but the common belief is that 11-OH-THC crosses the blood brain barrier more readily than regular THC. this is part of why edibles are often an experience of "i'm not feeling anything.... i'm not feeling anything... OH FUCK I'M FEELING IT." your body takes a bit longer to process the THC this way, but once it does it enters your CNS pretty fast.
ultimately, tho, everyone has slightly different biology and reacts to edibles in a different way. if you have enough to play around with, then i'd suggest playing around with the dosage a bit, just like responsible use of any drug -- starting with a low dosage and gradually working your way up every few days (no redosing if you think you're not feeling it). people tend to shy away from this method, because they don't want to end up wasting a day to a dose so low as to be a dud. but if you want to truly find out what's best for you, it's best to use this semi-scientific rigor in your self-experimentation.
if you don't feel like fucking around with cannabutter or baking, but still want to try heating before eating, you could just pop it in the microwave for a few secs. Timothy Leary (yeah, the Harvard guy that got famous for proselytizing LSD in the hippie era) used to make "Firecrackers" by making a mini sandwhich out of two crackers, peanut butter or cheese, and a sprinkle of marijuana, popped in the microwave just long enough to get the peanut butter/cheese a bit gooey (the oil in the PB/cheese helps absorption)
an appropriate place to start for an oral dose would probably be about 1 gram.