Smokin Moose
Fallen Cannabis Warrior & Ex Moderator
Directions on making Cannabis capsules.
1. Preheat oven to 225F in BAKE mode and let the temperature stabilize. It is important to make sure your oven is at the proper temperature before adding the cannabis. WARNING: If the oven gets too hot, you will vaporize your cannabis, which removes the medicine, so keep it below 250F always. If you are not sure about your oven temperature, then you can put an oven thermometer in a dish and check.
2. Dry cannabis thoroughly before grinding — a paper bag works fine. A tip is to use leaf/trim/shake or immature/harsh bud for capsules and save good bud for vaporizing.
3. When dry, then grind to the max in a food processor. This rougher grind allows for .2 or .3 gram into each capsule. There is a little more capsule making failure because pieces get caught between the top and bottom capsules when reassembling capsules. However, this still works if you don't have a coffee grinder and you skip step 4.
4. If you take the rougher grind out of the food processor and pulverize it to dust in a coffee bean grinder for 15 to 30 seconds you can put about .4 gram in a double 0 (00) capsule and it is easier to get the caps back together because the fine dust doesn't get caught between the capsule parts. Some think pulverizing to dust may improve digestion particularly in persons with irritable bowel or malabsorption problems.
5. Transfer the dust to an oven-worthy dish (like a casserole dish with or without cover). Rake the cannabis dust with a fork to get it evenly distributed on the bottom of the dish to improve heat distribution.
6. In the pre-heated to 225F oven, place the cannabis for 20 to 40 minutes or longer. Sources say 10 minutes at 210 to 220F will decarboxylate (remove the carbon dioxide or -COOH or -CO2) from the raw cannabis and make it more potent. The extra time is so all the cannabis (even the material insulated in the middle) gets hot. There is no cannabis smell in the kitchen except a little vaporized terpene. Cover the dish to eliminate any smell or if using a convection oven.
7. While the cannabis is activating, set up your capsule rack. I use one from Empty Capsule Filler, Empty Capsule Filling Machine from Cap-M-Quik® but they are sold at health food stores where natural herbal medicine is offered. My capsule rack is for 50 double-0 (00) capsules and this seems a good size. One can use a smaller capsule like a single 0 (0) capsule to make pills easier to swallow if necessary. The vegetarian capsules work fine because there is no oil.
8. Remove the hot activated cannabis from the oven and pour or spoon it into a room temperature (not hot) dish that won't burn you (a glass serving dish is fine).
9. Make the capsules from the dried activated ground cannabis just like you would from any dried herb. The instructions for legal herbs are at Empty Capsule Filler, Empty Capsule Filling Machine from Cap-M-Quik®. Use the tamping tool to pack if you want to raise the amount of cannabis contained in the 00 capsule from about .2 grams to .4 grams. Also, the finer you grind the cannabis, the more you can pack into the capsule.
10. The ideal dose one swallows will depend on the quality of the cannabis. It is always easier to add more medicine than it is to take it out once you swallow it, so "start low and go slow". An average dose might be one or two capsules every 4 to 6 hours as needed for pain or spasm. They work faster (30 to 60 minutes) and better if taken on an empty stomach (1 hour before eating or 2 hours after eating). With a big glass of water and empty stomach it gets into the small bowel rapidly without belching or bad aftertaste issues like some mention with oil capsules.
If you live in a med mj state and use shake, these are cheap and eliminate the need for expensive Marinol, up to $25 for a 10 mg capsule. Oral cannabis capsules can cause sleepiness but there seems to be less adverse effects, such as anxiety, with oral cannabis than with oral pure THC (like Marinol). Otherwise, adverse reactions for new users approximate those described at MARINOL® (dronabinol) Capsules
1. Preheat oven to 225F in BAKE mode and let the temperature stabilize. It is important to make sure your oven is at the proper temperature before adding the cannabis. WARNING: If the oven gets too hot, you will vaporize your cannabis, which removes the medicine, so keep it below 250F always. If you are not sure about your oven temperature, then you can put an oven thermometer in a dish and check.
2. Dry cannabis thoroughly before grinding — a paper bag works fine. A tip is to use leaf/trim/shake or immature/harsh bud for capsules and save good bud for vaporizing.
3. When dry, then grind to the max in a food processor. This rougher grind allows for .2 or .3 gram into each capsule. There is a little more capsule making failure because pieces get caught between the top and bottom capsules when reassembling capsules. However, this still works if you don't have a coffee grinder and you skip step 4.
4. If you take the rougher grind out of the food processor and pulverize it to dust in a coffee bean grinder for 15 to 30 seconds you can put about .4 gram in a double 0 (00) capsule and it is easier to get the caps back together because the fine dust doesn't get caught between the capsule parts. Some think pulverizing to dust may improve digestion particularly in persons with irritable bowel or malabsorption problems.
5. Transfer the dust to an oven-worthy dish (like a casserole dish with or without cover). Rake the cannabis dust with a fork to get it evenly distributed on the bottom of the dish to improve heat distribution.
6. In the pre-heated to 225F oven, place the cannabis for 20 to 40 minutes or longer. Sources say 10 minutes at 210 to 220F will decarboxylate (remove the carbon dioxide or -COOH or -CO2) from the raw cannabis and make it more potent. The extra time is so all the cannabis (even the material insulated in the middle) gets hot. There is no cannabis smell in the kitchen except a little vaporized terpene. Cover the dish to eliminate any smell or if using a convection oven.
7. While the cannabis is activating, set up your capsule rack. I use one from Empty Capsule Filler, Empty Capsule Filling Machine from Cap-M-Quik® but they are sold at health food stores where natural herbal medicine is offered. My capsule rack is for 50 double-0 (00) capsules and this seems a good size. One can use a smaller capsule like a single 0 (0) capsule to make pills easier to swallow if necessary. The vegetarian capsules work fine because there is no oil.
8. Remove the hot activated cannabis from the oven and pour or spoon it into a room temperature (not hot) dish that won't burn you (a glass serving dish is fine).
9. Make the capsules from the dried activated ground cannabis just like you would from any dried herb. The instructions for legal herbs are at Empty Capsule Filler, Empty Capsule Filling Machine from Cap-M-Quik®. Use the tamping tool to pack if you want to raise the amount of cannabis contained in the 00 capsule from about .2 grams to .4 grams. Also, the finer you grind the cannabis, the more you can pack into the capsule.
10. The ideal dose one swallows will depend on the quality of the cannabis. It is always easier to add more medicine than it is to take it out once you swallow it, so "start low and go slow". An average dose might be one or two capsules every 4 to 6 hours as needed for pain or spasm. They work faster (30 to 60 minutes) and better if taken on an empty stomach (1 hour before eating or 2 hours after eating). With a big glass of water and empty stomach it gets into the small bowel rapidly without belching or bad aftertaste issues like some mention with oil capsules.
If you live in a med mj state and use shake, these are cheap and eliminate the need for expensive Marinol, up to $25 for a 10 mg capsule. Oral cannabis capsules can cause sleepiness but there seems to be less adverse effects, such as anxiety, with oral cannabis than with oral pure THC (like Marinol). Otherwise, adverse reactions for new users approximate those described at MARINOL® (dronabinol) Capsules
