My Green Dragon Experience

[Cachagua]

Ok I am on my 2nd batch of Green Dragon home brew.
I made the first batch last night using 1/8th of pure home grown sativa bud from my first grow.

The first batch I was super cautious with because I did not want to ruin it.

What I did was to weigh out an 1/8th, grind it using my grinder, spread it out on a piece of aluminum foil and place it in the pre heated oven @ 200f for 20 minutes. It did not really turn brownish green but rather stayed fairly green overall.

Then I placed the goods into my double boiler set up which was not pre heated. The water was boiling in the pan but I placed the goods into 2oz. of Everclear 151 proof in a glass container then placed the glass into the boiling water with a meat thermometer and carefully agitated the mixture for 20 minutes carefully staying at 170f.

Next, I filtered the steeped mass through a small metal screen strainer into a wine glass, pressed the remaining mash with a spoon to get as much of the liquid as I could get.

Finally, I filtered the liquid through a coffee filter into a 3rd glass and ultimately poured the liquid into my brown 1oz. bottles (that I bought at Whole Foods which come with an eye dropper and labels). I ended up with 1 and 1/2 bottles full.

The Green Dragon was really an emerald green color and tasted like wheat grass. I self administered a dropper full at about 10PM last night on a full stomach and about half an hour later I felt a mild buzz that lasted until I fell asleep at about 2AM.

This morning (actually noon-ish), on an empty stomach, I took another dropper full and felt a mild buzz about a half an hour later that lasted me until about 3:30 PM.

So, being a little disappointed with the first batch's potency, I decided to give it another go today.

Here is what I did differently after reading as many "Green Dragon" threads/sites/pages I could find both last night and today.

(1) Pre heated the oven to 250f,
(2) Placed the foil with the goods in the oven and cooked it for 20 minutes, then ramped up the heat to 280f and cooked for an additional 20 minutes,
(3) Boiled the water in my pan and pre heated the vessel AND the Everclear.
(4) Simmered the mixture (same 2oz. amount of Everclear) for 25 minutes.

I used the same filtering process.

This time, the bud turned a brownish green with the extended cook time in the oven, combined with the slightly higher oven temps.

The additional 5 minutes in the double boiler allowed 50% more Everclear to evaporate off and I ended up with a nice very nice tan'ish/ultra light green colored Dragon that came out to EXACTLY 1 oz. of finished product.!!!!

I (self) administered the same single dropper full about 20 minutes ago and I can tell you this: It tastes better, I am already buzzing, it is a really neat mostly body buzz with some great heady moments so far, I feel very aware of my surroundings, not paranoid at all but really alert yet stoned like I would be if I took 2 decent sized hits off a joint of the same stuff.

This seems like it will be a really good delivery method for me as I really prefer not to smoke it if possible, and vaporizing is not always convenient (like at work for example).

I am a little concerned based on what I have read that I may actually develop a tolerance which would be a bummer in a way and in a way not depending on the pain relieving effects.
If I get the pain relief I need yet don't get stoned, then I am fine with that really, I can always take a hit when convenient if I want to clear some head space, this is primarily for pain relief.

Right now, I feel like I have been writing this post for about an hour lol, yet I know I have only been sitting here for a few minutes, but when I looked down at my hands while typing, I feel like I went through a space/time "thing" hahaha! this stuff is good!

So there ya have it, my Green Dragon method, experience so far and contribution (hopefully).

I really need to thank FreakNature for his post as it was that post that convinced me to try this out.

Ultimately, I believe that an oral delivery method is the best thing for me, eating fat/oil derived canna-foods has ALWAYS ended up in disaster for my wife and I, we both had scary trippy experiences on foods that have all but steered us away from edibles at this point. I feel really quite good right now and it is just past half an hour since I took my shot.....This is good!

[FreakNature]

It really is different from smoking. I think you get everything inside your body and your body puts it all where it needs to be to give you the very best effects. I've had more of an uncontrollable grin per gram with Green Dragon than any method of ingestion. Congrats on a successful run, and thanks to Master Wu and others that advocate this method.

[Cachagua]

Yeah man! I agree with you so far bro!
Here it is 9:30 PM and I have since taken an additional dropper full and I am feeling fantastic!
Washed the car, watched some of the Emmy's with my wife, ate some good food, now i am just chilling out, it is wonderful.

I must add this, I am a HUGE lightweight when it comes to THC of any kind, a little goes a LONG way with me, my wife is even worse (or better depending on which way you look at it! lol) and generally a single hit of anything decent is perfect for me and usually lasts most of the day, I end up taking 2 hits from a joint per day, just about every day for pain.

When I say eye dropper "full", what I really mean is about half an eye dropper full as that's what my dropper sucks up when I do a full squeeze on the bulb.

Now that I have identified what seems to be a Panacea for me as far as delivery is concerned, I really need to figure out how to get rid of most of the alcohol as it does sting a bit and I just don't like ingesting alcohol, never have really.

So, if you figure out a way we can reduce this even more, make it a bit more palatable, which of course will require a reduction in dose since it will be more concentrated? I would love to know about it.

It needs to be liquid, fast absorption like the dragon is and give me the ability to "ramp up" to the level I am comfortable with which the dragon most certainly seems to deliver.

I love this feeling right now, what a wonderful find bro.

[FreakNature]

I'm the same way...2 or 3 hits a day of da kine is all it takes.

Check out Rick Simpson's (Running From the Cure) video found on this site...number 4 of 7. He mentions a way of adding a few drops of water as you boil off the alcohol. Because of the higher boiling point of water it allows the alcohol to vaporize off. Haven't tried it personally. From what I've read (without doing tests myself) the alcohol may aid in the delivery. And yeah...the speed of delivery and head and body combination of tincture is amazing. Best wishes brother.

[Propa Gator]

Everclear or other not denatured ethyl alcohol is OK for a tincture.
Naptha as Rick Simpson uses or other solvent ie isopropyl alcohol must be completely removed from MJ oil.
Run From The Cure- The Rick Simpson Story