So, do you have to heat marijuana before you eat it?

Dunlap

New Member
I've heard a couple people say something along the lines of you have to heat your marijuana above a certain temperature to activate the cannibinoids, or something? Obviously that temp is reached when smoking, and supposedly it is reached when making butter, but if thats the case, then how do tinctures (alcohol extractions) work, since you don't apply heat to them?
 
Your correct heat has to be applied to extract the THC from MJ. I doubt you can use alcohol to extract THC, unless you did while you were making the alcohol. If I really wanted to try it I would heat up some liquor with weed in it and then strain it out. I've never tried it and prolly won't I don't think the liqour will hold the THC. If you ever make canna-butter(like Hash's receipe a few posts down) I'd try drinking the excess water when you seperate the butter and water. I figure if the water will get you high why wouldn't liquor.
 
Well, Alcohol will pull and hold the THC, this much I know. I knew a guy who used to do it all the time, plus you can find hot-to's all over the place. So I'm fairly certain that tinctures are possible, and they don't required heat (as liquor + heat = Easy Fire).

I'm not talking about heating it up to help extract it, I'm talking about converting THC into something the body can process and use properly.

Found this out and about on the net...

"In whole-plant cannabis, THC content is expressed as THCA (tetrahydrocannabolic acid) prior to decarboxilation into THC, which takes place when cannabis is heated during cooking, and smoked or vaporized ingestion. THCA is a mild analgesic and anti-inflammatory but does not have good affinity with our CB1 receptors, so in order to make a THC-rich tincture that has many of the same therapeutic effects as smoked ingestion (including rapid absorption, quick relief and ease of self-titration), we must convert the THCA in the plant matter into THC prior to extracting it through an alcohol soak."

Now I'm finding mixed reports. Some are saying that cannabinoids break down above 300ish degrees, and some are saying you have to heat them up to 350 just to activate them. One site says bake the weed in the oven for a few minutes at 315 degrees, another says just soak it in the alcohol.

Does anybody have any knowledge of this and how it does or should work?
 
lol thank you. THC is entirely active. Combustion causes reactions which heightens the potency and effectiveness of marijuana, yes. But this isn't required to "activate" it.
 
Well, wouldn't you want the weed to be more "potent and effective" even if you're going to eat it? Activate was the word I guess, but I mean, to maximize potential...

I was reading earlier today that a lot of the decarboxylation happens during curing, but that just leaving the weed out someplace warm will help too.

I don't know, I've found enough stuff out there to make me think theres gotta be some amount of truth to this, but maybe with proper curing, it doesn't really matter?
 
This comes up periodically on these threads, we really need to make a sticky about it in the FAQs section. Anyway, it goes like this: THC does not need to be "activated." Heating it actually creates more active THC from the inactive carboxylic acid THC derivatives. I guess you could consider that "activating" the THC, but if you had pure THC you wouldn't have to activate it. If you had a bunch of carboxylic acid THC derivatives (literally different, yet similar chemicals that are very present in the raw plant) heating them causes the extra carboxlic group to be removed as CO2. I hope you see the difference between this and the actual, Delta-9-THC having to be activated.

And it is a well known fact that THC is soluble in fat and alcohol.

EDIT:
Read more about it here:
Leary biscuit at AllExperts
 
Well, wouldn't you want the weed to be more "potent and effective" even if you're going to eat it? Activate was the word I guess, but I mean, to maximize potential...

I was reading earlier today that a lot of the decarboxylation happens during curing, but that just leaving the weed out someplace warm will help too.

I don't know, I've found enough stuff out there to make me think theres gotta be some amount of truth to this, but maybe with proper curing, it doesn't really matter?

dude were stoners use smaller words...
:hmmmm: :hmmmm: :hmmmm: :hmmmm:
 
You dont have to do anything to weed to eat it, unless you want it to taste better. I ate a quarter once with my friend. It didnt kick in for about 5 hours but when it did i was royally fucked.
 
So I don't have to make brownies with my Butter ?!?
I can just like ah,
dump it in my hot chocolate
slap it on pancakes
make rice with it
(smrk)

Oh da'hell with it, I'm bongin' kif ;-)

dude once you have made your cannabutter properly no...you dont have to make just brownies...you can spread it on toast...make cookers...you could actually just eat it by itself...although i HIGHLY DONT recommend it...the heat you used to get allt he thc out of the buds when making the cannabutter is all you need...you do not need to reheat the cannabutter for it to work in reality
 
Your correct heat has to be applied to extract the THC from MJ. I doubt you can use alcohol to extract THC, unless you did while you were making the alcohol. If I really wanted to try it I would heat up some liquor with weed in it and then strain it out. I've never tried it and prolly won't I don't think the liqour will hold the THC. If you ever make canna-butter(like Hash's receipe a few posts down) I'd try drinking the excess water when you seperate the butter and water. I figure if the water will get you high why wouldn't liquor.

Actually alcohol is a solvent and it washes the THC off the cannabis;the oils are then in the alcohol, that is how you make a tincture.
 
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