Cannabis Cooking Dosage

Cannabist

PUBLISHED: JUL 7, 2014, 5:50 PM

By Susan Squibb, The Cannabist Staff

Welcome to our Ask The Cannabist column. Clearly you have questions about marijuana, be it a legal concern, a health curiosity, a Colorado-centric inquiry or something more far-reaching. Check out our expansive, 64-question Colorado marijuana FAQ first, and if you’re still curious, email your question to Ask The Cannabist at askthecannabist@gmail.com.

Hey, Cannabist!
I’m a recipient of a quarter-ounce of weed given to me by a friend. I’m an old guy and haven’t used weed in many years. I’d like to use it for cooking and I’m encouraged by the recipes on this site. However, I can’t find a way to convert what I have into practical use. My friend told me it is a strain called Chem 91 but I can’t find more information. I keep reading how much stronger today’s strains are compared to the varieties available twenty years ago. I need details on how much to use in a specific recipe and how to prepare the weed before use.  How do I adjust for this increased potency when I get in the kitchen? –Cannabis Cooking Codger

Hey, Cannabis Cooking Codger!
Your sense of precaution is good. Definitely take notes and prepare, you don’t want to make edibles too strong. No one likes to overdose, or as I like to say, “overdowd” on edibles and have a bad time.

Here’s a link to The Cannabist’s cannabutter recipe from chef Laurie Wolf. Basically, you melt butter in a double boiler, add pre-measured, ground marijuana and cook for a couple of hours at low heat. Strain with a cheesecloth or fine mesh strainer.  Whether you make up a batch of box brownie mix or your favorite cookie recipe, pick a box mix or recipe that uses at least a half-cup to one cup butter.

The new cannabis lexicon: Dabs, fatties, trichomes and beyond — we’ve got all the lingo, from alcohol extraction to zips.

I talked with Jessica Catalano about home cannabis cooking recommendations and THC dosage. Catalano is the Summit County-based author of “The Ganja Kitchen Revolution” and chef for Cultivating Spirits, a mountain retreat cannabis tour company.

First, identify the percentage of THC in the strain you’re cooking with. Catalano says on average, most strains have about 10 percent THC.  Strains that have 15-20 percent THC are above average, and those with 21 percent THC or higher are exceptionally strong. If you can’t find online plant breeding information or cannabinoid lab tests for the strain, estimate at 10 percent THC.

You are starting out with a quarter ounce of marijuana, that’s 7 grams. An eighth would be 3.5 grams.

Every 1 gram of cannabis bud has 1,000mg of dry weight. If a strain has about 10% THC, ten percent of 1,000mg would be 100mg. So for cooking or baking at home, it is safe to assume that a gram of cannabis contains at least 100mg THC.

Using Catalano’s dosing measurement formula, you do the math accordingly to find out how much THC per serving. Take the amount of ground marijuana, convert it to milligrams and divide it by the recipe yield to determine a per-serving dose of THC. A starting dosage for beginners is 5 milligrams per serving (the Colorado-mandated serving size for marijuana-infused edibles is 10mg THC). Three grams of ground marijuana equals 300mg THC. 300mg divided by the recipe yield, (a classic cookie recipe makes 60 cookies) equals 5mg per cookie.  If you want to be even more cautious with your at-home cannabutter cooking, 1.5 grams (150mg) marijuana divided into a 60-cookie recipe will yield 2.5mg a serving.

How much is enough? Get educated about edibles. Here are eight tips for getting the right dose

Julie Dooley from Julie & Kate Baked Goods has a few recommendations for prepping your kitchen area before making your butter. Use commonsense kitchen rules and take safety precautions. Have some dedicated pans and utensils so you don’t cross-contaminate. Have proper ventilation because it is an aromatic process.

Some notes about edibles: Dooley says if you eat cannabis with fatty and protein rich foods, the effects of marijuana last longer in the body. If you eat cannabis in sugary candy form, the high doesn’t last as long.  After eating an edible, Dooley recommends waiting 2 hours. If you don’t feel high enough, don’t consume another edible, eat something fatty instead to increase the effect of the marijuana.  If you feel too high, Catalano recommends drinking orange juice or fruit juice to raise your blood sugar. XO

New Strain: Girl Scout Cookies

Girl Scout Cookies, or GSC, is an OG Kush and Durban Poison hybrid cross whose reputation grew too large to stay within the borders of its California homeland. With a sweet and earthy aroma, Girl Scout Cookies offers a  full-body relaxation that includes a  time-bending cerebral space. A little goes a long way with this hybrid, whose THC heights have won Girl Scout Cookies numerous Cannabis Cup awards. Patients needing a strong dose of relief, however, may look to GSC for severe pain, nausea, and appetite loss.

New Strains

We have some new strains that should be available within the next month:

Cheese Candy

Named for its sharply sour aroma, Cheese is an indica-dominant hybrid from the U.K. that has achieved widespread popularity for its unique flavor and consistent potency. With origins that stretch back to the late 1980s, Cheese is said to descend from a Skunk #1 phenotype whose pungent aroma made it stand out. Breeders like Big Buddha Seeds later introduced Afghaniindica genetics to increase Cheese’s trichome production and yields. The resulting hybrid is now well-known for its relaxed, happy effects that gently ease you into a blissful state of mind. For more information: Cheese Candy

Cheese Candy

Blueberry

A true A-List cannabis strain. Blueberry’s legendary status soared to new heights after claiming the High Times’ Cannabis Cup 2000 for Best Indica. The long history of the stain is traced back to the late 1970s when American breeder DJ Short was working with a variety of exotic landrace strains. However, throughout the decades of Blueberry’s cultivation the genetics have been passed around, due in large part to DJ Short working with multiple seed banks and breeders. The sweet flavors of fresh blueberries combine with relaxing effects to produce a long-lasting sense of euphoria. Many medical patients appreciate Blueberry for its ability to suppress pain and relieve stress, while connoisseurs and growers admire the strain for its colorful hues and high THC content. For more information: Origins of Blueberry

Blueberry Strain

Amnesia

Amnesia is typically a sativa-dominant cannaibs strain with some variation between breeders. Skunk, Cinderella 99, and Jack Herer are some of Amnesia’s genetic forerunners, passing on uplifting, creative, and euphoric effects ideal for treating mood disorders. Growers should expect a 9-10 week flowering period with moderate yields. This strain normally has a high THC and low CBD profile and produces intense psychotropic effects that new consumers should be wary of. For more information: Amnesia

Amnesia

Current Legislation

There are a number of very important bills that are coming to the Maine State House.  It is important that you as a patient or a caregiver pay attention to these bills as their passage could signifigantly alter medical marijuana in Maine.  To follow these bills, go to Medical Marijuana Caregivers of Maine

Decarboxylating Cannabis: Turning THCA into THC

RAMBO AUGUST 14, 2012 222

The other day I was asked by an acquaintance why the tincture they were making had very little, if any, noticeable medicinal or psychoactive effect. They swore they followed the same process found in a book on making edibles and soaked the cannabis in high proof for weeks but the tincture just didn’t work.

The answer was simple but one that many in the cannabis industry don’t understand. One very important and necessary extra step had been overlooked. Cannabis used to make tinctures as well as other edible cannabis products requires decarboxylation. From asking around I have a feeling a lot of you just blurted out “Say What?”

So here is the deal. THCA (Tetrahydrocannabinolic Acid) is found in abundance in growing and harvested cannabis and is a biosynthetic precursor of THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol). Wow, this sounds scary like organic chemistry, doesn’t it? It is, so for both of our benefits, I’ll give you the dumbed down version.

Research suggests THCA has anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effects but does not produce the psychoactive effect that make you feel “high”. This “high” is from the cannabinoid THC, of which little if any is found when cannabis is growing or recently harvested.

Decarboxylation is a chemical reaction that releases carbon dioxide (CO₂). This means a chemical reaction takes place in which carboxylic acids loose a carbon atom from a carbon chain. This process converts THCA to THC, the much loved compound with many medicinal and psychoactive effects. When the cannabis drys, it very very slowly begins to decarboxylate and converts THCA to THC.

The good news is we don’t have to wait years for cannabis to decarboxylate. We can speed things along with a process that is a lot simpler than you might expect. Simply heating dried cannabis to the correct temperature for enough time releases that carbon dioxide and creates THC. Why have so many of you never heard of this before? Decarboxylating takes place without extra effort when cannabis is heated during the act of smoking or vaporizing. It also takes place to some degree when cannabis is cooked into butter or when hash and kief are added to a favorite recipe and then cooked in the oven.

When making tinctures, cannabis is not heated or baked, it is simply soaked in high proof alcohol. Decarboxylation never takes place and you end up with a product with a lot of THCA and very little THC. This may be a good for some symptoms but will not produce the results most expect.

Setting Up The Experiment

After explaining decarboxylation it became clear why the tincture was ineffective. Naturally they wanted to know how to decarboxylate cannabis quickly and easily so they could get on with making their tincture. I knew how to do it, but I really needed to nerd out for a bit so I could give them the best possible answer.

It really is as easy as heating the cannabis, but for how long and at what temperature? If the cannabis is heated to much, we run the risk of vaporizing and losing some of the important cannabinoids, terpenes and flavonoids which have medicinal properties. At the same time we want remove the CO₂ as quickly and effectively as possible.

According to a report published by John M. McPartland and Ethan B. Russo “Cannabis and Cannabis Extracts: Greater Than the Sum of Their Parts?”, the boiling points, and hence vapor point of the major cannabinoids, terpenes, and flavonoids range from 246.2° and 435.2° Fahrenheit. I have included a substantial list taken from this report in the appendix of this article. This indicates that by staying under 246.2° Fahrenheit there should be little if any inadvertent vaporization of plant compounds that might produce medicinal benefits. I do need to qualify the above statement by saying that some terpenes actually evaporate to some degree while the plant is growing and there is not much that can be done about it.

I decided to conduct a bit of an experiment to see if my hypothesis was correct. I had some extra kief and trim that I had been keeping in storage for a rainy day. They would work perfect for the experiment and there would be no great loss if things didn’t go as planned.

Easy Steps to Decarboxylation

Consumer grade ovens are not always exact so I decided to shoot for a decarboxylation temperature of around 240° Fahrenheit. This should produce quick results without losing any medicinal potency. 30 minutes seemed like a nice round number for a first test and should give the kief and trim plenty of time to come up to temperature.

Kief has a tendency to ball up in the bag which could lead to uneven temperatures and possibly uneven decarboxylation. Before I put it in the oven, I loosened up the clumps with a fork. While most of the trim was already fairly broken up from its time in the kief tumbler, there were still some budlets in the trim that I wanted to break apart.

A few minutes in the Cuisinart works great for breaking up trim and also works well on buds if you have a bunch of joints to roll. The static from the plastic separated out some low grade kief which loosely clung to the lid of the Cuisinart. I brushed this back into the trim.

I placed a pizza stone on the middle rack of the oven and set the oven dial to bake at as close to 240° Fahrenheit as possible. Ovens lose a lot of heat when the door is opened and sometimes the temperature spikes with little explanation. The pizza stone absorbs the heat and helps maintain a constant temperature. In order to track my temperature accurately I used a thermometer with a heat resistant cord. I placed the thermometer on the pizza stone and the digital readout on the counter next to the oven where it could be monitored.

Once the temperature reached about 240° and did not appear to be increasing I placed a small Pyrex bowl of kief and another of the trim on the pizza stone. I set my timer for 30 minutes and continued to monitor the temperature. A Pyrex lasagna dish would be perfect for larger quantities. As expected, the temperature fell a few degrees from opening the door and then came back up to temperature. Throughout the half hour the temperature rose and fell several times for no apparent reason but stayed between 229° and 245° Fahrenheit.

After 30 minutes I removed both Pyrex containers with an oven mit and placed them on the counter to cool. Both the kief and the trim had noticeably fluffed up and gave off a slightly roasted scent. I took a few grams of each and packaged them for lab testing.

I returned the Pyrex dishes to the oven and set the timer for another half hour. I was pretty sure that 30 minutes had been enough to mostly decarboxylate the kief and trim, but just in case I wanted a backup test at a full hour. Either way I had to be patient and wait a few days for the test results to come back.

Results of Decarboxylation Experiment

The following charts show the results of the 30 minute and 60 minute decarboxylation experiments. Also included are the lab results from testing done prior to any artificial decarboxylation to establish a starting point. Note that because of the age of both the kief and the trim, decarboxylation had begun to take place to some degree naturally. This may not be your starting point, but should not affect the results of the experiment much.

Kief

Compound	Before Decarb	30 Min Decarb	60 Min Decarb
THCA	24.5%	2.6%	.1%
THC	3.8%	25.4%	25.5%
CBDA	.6%	.3%	.3%
CBD	0%	1%	.1%
CBN	.4%	1%	1.4%
Moisture	0%	0%	0%
Total Cannabanoids	29.3%	30.3%	27.4%

Cannabis Trim

Compound	Before Decarb	30 Min Decarb	60 Min Decarb
THCA	6.5%	2.9%	.2%
THC	.6%	4.8%	6.9%
CBDA	.2%	.2%	.1%
CBD	0%	0%	.1%
CBN	0%	0%	0%
Moisture	3.4%	4.5%	0%
Total Cannabanoids	7.3%	7.9%	7.3%

Testing provided by SC Labs

As you can see from the two charts, 30 minutes was not quite enough to completely decarboxylate either the kief or the trim. At 30 minutes the kief was about 90% decarboxylated but the trim was only about 60% decarboxylated. This difference is likely because the trim had a higher starting moisture content. After 60 minutes however, both keif and trim samples were close enough to 100% decarboxylation for my satisfaction.

So there you have it. 240° F for 60 minutes should be enough to decarboxylate any cannabis with a reasonably low moisture content. For material with higher moisture content, the time can be extended but the temperature should not be increased. If you are concerned about losing organic compounds, lower heat can be used but the time should be extended to compensate.

Interesting Findings

As with most experiments, the results often lead to new questions. Here are a few unexpected finding that may lead to future experiments.

The kief and trim both appear to have lost some total cannabinoids after the second 30 minutes in the oven. Some of you might suggest this is from vaporization from being at temperature for too long. This could be true, thought they were from the same plant they were not the exact same samples. Additionally lab tests do have a margin of error, so I’m not sure that is a safe assumption. This would need to be tested with more samples to have a solid verdict.

For some reason the moisture content of the trim tested higher after the first 30 minutes in the oven. I have no idea why this would be. It could just be a fluke.

Tbe CBDA did not appear to convert to CBD during the decarboxylation of the THCA. Some further research might shed some light on this.

Appendix – Cannabis Cannabinoids, Terpenes and Flavonoids

As I mentioned above, here is the list of some commonly found cannabinoids, terpenes and flavonoids that I used to pick my decarboxylation temperature. This is by no means a complete list but it’s the best I could find.

Phytocannabinoids

THC (Δ-9-tetrahydrocannabinol)
Boiling point: 157° C / 314.6° Fahrenheit
Properties: Euphoriant, Analgesic, Anti Inflammatory, Antioxidant, Antiemetic

CBD (cannabidiol)
Boiling point: 160-180°C / 320-356° Fahrenheit
Properties: Anxiolytic, Analgesic, Antipsychotic, Anti Inflammatory, Antioxidant, Antispasmodic

CBN (Cannabinol)
Boiling point: 185°C / 365° Fahrenheit
Properties: Oxidation, breakdown, product, Sedative, Antibiotic

CBC (cannabichromene)
Boiling point: 220° / 428° Fahrenheit
Properties: Anti Inflammatory, Antibiotic, Antifungal

Δ-8-THC (Δ-8-tetrahydrocannabinol)
Boiling point: 175-178°C / 347-352.4° Fahrenheit
Properties: Resembles Δ-9-THC, Less psychoactive, More stable Antiemetic

THCV (Tetrahydrocannabivarin)
Boiling point: < 220°C / <428° Fahrenheit
Properties: Analgesic, Euphoriant

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Making Medicinal Marijuana Tinctures

To make Tincture
Cold Method (recommended)

Here is the recipe for highest quality tincture. This method does not use heat so keeps the integrity of the cannabinoids intact.  FromWAMM

▪   Fill jar ¾ full of herb

▪   Fill rest of jar with alcohol; leave some room at top, stir.

▪   Shake jar [vigorously] one or two times a day  for 2 weeks [or leave it until there is no green color left in the plant matter]

▪   Strain through metal tea strainer or silkscreen.

You can use whatever kind of clean glass, not plastic, jar you have with a tight lid. One-quart mason jars are ideal. Grind the herb thoroughly in a blender. It should be well ground but doesn’t have to be a powder. You can use leaf, bud, shake, joint leftover, or stems. Too many stems will wreck your blender and a weaker tincture. Leaf work fine but for higher potency use shake or bud. Fill the jar ¾ full of herb; it does not have to be exact. You can use anywhere from ½ to 2/3 part herb but ¾ will make a full strength tincture. Use the highest proof alcohol you can, Everclear, which is 180 proof, but hard to find. So just use the highest proof Vodka you can find. Pour alcohol over the herb, filling the rest of the jar. Leave just enough space (an inch or so) at the top so that you will be able to shake the jar. Stir the mixture; the herb will absorb some of the alcohol so you may need to add more. Put the lid on tightly; label the contents and the date you started. It takes two weeks for the alcohol to extract all the active elements from the herb. Shake the jar once or twice a day for 2 weeks. The alcohol will rise to the top and a deep green/red color will develop. After 2 weeks of aging you can strain the tincture through a metal tea strainer or a silk screen into a small tincture bottle with a dropper. You can leave the rest in the jar if you want, it will age and mellow in flavor and you can strain off as much as you want at a time. Alcohol is a strong preservative it will hold for a long time, be careful when handling the tincture, it satins and will turn everything it comes in contact with green. Use Ultra Palmolive anti-bacterial dish soap, the orange kind, to clean the glass, metal or other ceramic utensils, (do not use plastic) sinks and counter tops works best at dissolving THC residue.

Dosage varies per individual but start with half a dropper dissolved in hot tea or water. Hot tea will dissipate some of the alcohol and activate the THC a bit. It can be taken straight but may burn the tongue and has a very strong herbal taste. [If you cut it with equal parts water, you can hold the dosage under the tongue without burning. Takes effect in seconds.]