Edibles are food products, such as gummies or baked goods, infused with cannabinoids like delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) or cannabidiol (CBD). The visibility of any ingested item on an X-ray depends entirely on the physical characteristics of the material, not its chemical properties or psychoactive effects. Understanding the basic science of radiography is necessary to determine what a medical professional would see.
Understanding How X-Rays Work
Standard radiography, or X-ray imaging, produces a picture based on how different materials within the body absorb or block the X-ray beam. The resulting image is essentially a shadow map of the body’s internal structures. This process relies on density contrast, where materials of varying densities appear as different shades of gray, black, or white.
Materials that are dense and have a high atomic number, like bone or metal, absorb a significant amount of the radiation. Because fewer X-ray photons reach the detector, these areas appear bright white on the final image and are described as being radiopaque. Conversely, materials with low density, such as air, fat, and soft tissues, allow most of the X-rays to pass through them easily. These areas appear dark or black on the image and are known as radiolucent materials.
The contrast between these radiopaque and radiolucent structures allows doctors to distinguish between different tissues, such as seeing a white bone clearly against the darker surrounding muscle. The imaging is designed to highlight significant differences in physical density, not subtle chemical variations. The general rule is that the denser the material, the whiter it will appear on the radiograph.
The Chemical Composition of Edibles
Edibles are fundamentally food products, and their main ingredients are organic compounds similar to those found in everyday snacks. A cannabis brownie, for instance, is primarily composed of flour, sugar, water, and fats. A gummy consists mainly of gelatin, pectin, sweeteners, and various flavorings.
These ingredients are organic materials, built from elements with low atomic numbers, primarily carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Cannabinoids themselves, such as THC or CBD, are large organic molecules present only in trace amounts within the bulk product. The overall physical density of the edible is comparable to any other soft food item.
Whether solid or semi-liquid after being chewed, the bulk of the edible remains a low-density organic mass. This low-density composition determines how the item will interact with the X-ray beam. The presence of the cannabinoid compounds does not alter the physical density enough to make a difference on a standard radiograph.
Visibility on Radiographs
Edibles are generally not visible on a standard X-ray because their composition is radiolucent. Once ingested, the edible mixes with other stomach contents and soft tissues, all of which have similar, low densities. The X-ray beam passes through this mixture with minimal absorption, causing the area of the stomach and intestines to appear as a uniform gray, the same shade as the surrounding soft tissues and organs.
A radiologist’s primary use for an X-ray of the abdomen is to identify highly dense objects, such as swallowed coins, metal fragments, or sharp bone splinters. Because an edible is essentially a food bolus, it does not provide the necessary contrast against the background of the body’s soft tissues to be individually distinguished. Therefore, an X-ray cannot confirm or deny the ingestion of a cannabis edible.
A rare exception would be if the edible contained a foreign, dense object that was accidentally incorporated, such as a piece of metal packaging, a small battery, or a dense plastic fragment. In such a scenario, the dense object would be radiopaque and appear as a white spot, but the organic edible material surrounding it would remain invisible. The X-ray is a tool for finding density, not for identifying specific organic compounds like THC.