Marijuana
THC Extraction
Marijuana Butter
To utilize leftover marijuana components - sticks, water leaves and the like - simply put it in a double boiler with some butter, and let it simmer on low heat for 24 hours, then strain out the butter and put it into a plastic container in the fridge.
It's easy to make several cubes (equal to a stick or 4 ounces) worth of pot butter in this fashion ... and half a cube is about the amount of margarine or butter one uses when one is making brownies.
No vegetable material actually enters the mix, such that the resulting brownies are substantially safer to carry.
I've spent maybe ten years playing with petroleum ether and sundry other solvents, and for me it's really a waste of time trying to make hash with small amounts of marijuana.
The cost/effect ratio just isn't justifiable. Whereas the same materials, when invested in pot butter, not only utilize every component, but can get a whole room full of people high ... or keep you sane for a few weeks.
A double boiler is simply a large pot with water in it, which contains a smaller pot with the marijuana and butter in it. The water in the large pot boils, heating the smaller pot but never exceeding the temperature of the boiling point of water.
Always use a double boiler when working with any kind of material that may combust if it comes into contact with a flame or other ignition source.
Basic THC Extraction I
--- 1. Run all leaf through a wire mesh sifter (such as a kitchen flour sifter).
--- 2. Completely soak the leaf with ethyl or isopropyl alcohol for about 4 or 5 days. Or use acetone, instead of isopropyl alcohol. THC is super soluble in acetone, soak the ground-up leaves in acetone, then distill it off. Best purity from any solvent I've ever tried.
Next best choice is petroleum ether. Seriously, alcohol's are too water soluble for really good purity. Lots of other non-psychoactive stuff gets in the oil.
Isopropyl alcohol is generally sold denatured, so that its vile to drink. The chemicals which denature it, however, *should* get evaporated by step 4, and further combusted when you smoke it.
Therefore the effect of these chemicals *should* be minimal, but since I don't have the foggiest idea of what the chemicals actually are, use at your own risk.
--- 3. Strain resultant product through silk (used for silk-screening).
--- 4. Evaporate remainder by applying very low heat from kitchen stove Caution: use a double boiler and be very careful. The product is very flammable.
--- 5. After evaporating, there will be a remaining "goo". This is the oil.
Once you've got the oil, it's really sticky and hard to handle. It can be put in vials or mixed with 1 part powdered marijuana for storage purposes.
Basic THC Extraction II
In the past, I have had (through an act of god) the great fortune of having multiple ounces of green leafy material in my possession.
As this material was not quite suitable for smoking (taste reasons...), I sought out to find a way to make use of it.
The best method I ever used was really quite simple. First, I used a blender to turn the material into a fine powder. Then, combine the material with enough acetone to completely cover it.
Let the mix soak for at least one or two days, covered and not near any flame source. Then, strain the acetone into a double boiler.
It's perfectly fine to have some of the finest ground material in the strained acetone when done, as this helps the pseudo-hash burn nicely.
Now, cook the mixture on low heat until all the acetone has evaporated. Voila! You now have the closest thing to the real McCoy, and it came from leaf.
Intermediate THC Extraction I
Some samples of grass have a considerable amount of THC acid. In order to extract this it is first necessary to decarboxylate (to remove carboxyl from) it by heating it to 100 degrees (F) for fifteen minutes.
Grass grown commercially for its fiber content, as well as that grown in northern Europe or much of the USA, contains mostly the inactive cannabidiol and cannabidiolic acid.
These compounds can be extracted and used to synthesize the active THC and THC acid (by smoking, not active orally) in one step. See Tetrahedron 21, 1228 (1965) or the following.
To extract, add 50g grass/liter petroleum ether or benzene; soak twelve hours with occasional shaking; filter and extract petroleum ether three times with a solution containing 5% NaOH and 5% Na2SO3.
Acidify the aqueous extracts with cold dilute sulfuric acid and extract with ether or chloroform which is dried, evaporated in a vacuum to yield the cannabidiolic acid.
THC and cannabidiol remain in the petroleum ether which can be dried and evaporated in a vacuum and the residue added to the grass. THC acid is converted to THC by boiling in benzene for seven hours.
THC Extraction for smuggling or Converting Poor Grass to Good This is recommended to anyone who wants to smuggle or otherwise conceal grass or hash.
One hundred kilos of grass will convert to about two or three kilos of resin, which can later be re-dissolved and absorbed on alfalfa, etc.
See Lloydia 33, 453 (1970) for a method of large scale extraction. Cover grass or hash with methanol, benzene, petroleum ether, or isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol.
Allow to soak for about twelve hours, filter and repeat soaking with fresh solvent. This process can be speeded up by gently heating the solvent plus grass (no flames) for about three hours, adding more solvent if necessary.
Evaporate the combined solvent extracts until a resin is obtained or until syrupy and absorb the syrup on grass, etc.
Repeat the process until no more resin is obtained, or until smoking some of the residual grass indicates that all the THC has been extracted.
Methylene chloride works very well. Unleaded gas, preferably without additives (white gas), paint thinner or remover, or turpentine should be satisfactory.
Intermediate THC Extraction II
X did some kitchen chemistry exploring the potential for making and using an ethanol marijuana extract.
In brief, his experience was that it's easy to do if you are careful. It produces a novel if otherwise unremarkable beverage and it shows great promise for converting a large batch of weak weed into a small batch of pretty decent stuff.
A TYPICAL DISCLAIMER: Be careful whenever you are dealing with an extraction process - remember that you can concentrate the bad as well as the good. He is not a chemist, nor does he play one on TV or movies, so please...
Also, obvious precautions apply whenever you're heating potentially explosive liquids in your kitchen (yes, alcohol can let go with quite a kick).
The following text details a fairly careful, kitchen-table exploration of the preparation and use of an ethanol-based marijuana extract.
The resulting tincture has been consumed and produced a mild and pleasant effect that can last, as well as such things last, for several hours.
An unexpected success in using this extract to concentrate cheap, nasty weed into something useful was a nice bonus.
The first, careless attempt was done using poor-quality weed and the best vodka at hand, Devil's Springs, weighing in at 150 proof. The results were unimpressive. Short cooking times (5-10 minutes) were probably a factor.
A quick trip to a liquor store produced a liter of 190 proof grain alcohol (it actually says "Ethanol USP" on the label) and several careful attempts were made, as follows.
A quantity of pretty good weed (about twice what one person might smoke, maybe 1/2 or 2/3 a cc of the stuff) is broken up into tiny pieces and placed in a handy 500 ml empty glass liquor bottle with a plastic screw-on cap. 15cc of 190 proof ethanol (about a shot) is added.
On the kitchen stove a saucepan half-full of simmering (not boiling) water is prepared, and with the stove set on low the bottle is lowered into the uncovered pot.
It is important to note that the plastic cap is screwed quite loosely on to the bottle.
NOTE: We used an electric stove - I WOULD NOT try this over a gas burner. Ethanol can actually explode with enough force to break glass, so wear something over your eyes and be careful...
After a moment, the alcohol begins a gentle boil. With a minimum of screwing around, they were able to carefully regulate the boiling as follows:
--- 1) When you hear a hissing sound, the stuff is too hot, vapor is blowing out the top and might ignite if you ignore it.
--- 2) If the alcohol stops simmering it's too cold.
--- 3) If the alcohol is simmering in the center where the bits of weed are, but is not boiling around the edges, it's just right.
No pressure will build up in the bottle and you are applying the maximum amount of heat possible with this apparatus.
Cool the bottle by sliding the pan off the burner a bit or changing the position of the bottle in the simmering water.
Only tiny changes are necessary and it's pretty easy to get it just right. Needless to say you will blow up like Richard Pryor if you screw the cap on too tight or leave it unattended. Remember that ethanol boils at about 180f and water at 212f.
After about 5 minutes of boiling, the alcohol began to take on a pleasant jade-green color, but several attempts have shown that 30 minutes of boiling seems to be optimal. (It is sort of interesting to note that the weed used in all cases was brown, without a hint of green, yet this lovely color occurred every time).
You may notice a dark green ring forming around the edges of the liquid - swirl the bottle every now and again to return it to solution. After 30 minutes, filter out as much of the liquid as you can.
You'll be looking at about a shot of emerald vodka, slightly cloudy and with a strong smell of fresh grass, not at all unpleasant if you like that sort of thing.
Remember that it is still 190 proof and do not drink it straight. Those who sampled it did so mixed with very scientific plain water.
About a half hour later, maybe a bit sooner, a nice buzz kicked in, leaving them fully functional, happy, talkative, horny, and fun to be around.
Driving would not be a good idea at this point but they felt like they could. I mention this not as a hint but as a means of expressing the depth of the effect.
Frankly, we had hoped for more. Drinking more of the stuff made them no higher but prolonged the effects, including the sort of a next-day hangover normally associated with a serious amount of smoke.
The issue of if, and how, this stuff will keep was not explored. Traditionally, herbal tinctures are stored at room temperature in small, full, dark bottles to protect the solution from air and light. I suspect it probably will not keep very long.
A further experiment to explore a the concentration process was performed as follows: A palmful of very weak weed was extracted into about 30cc (2 shots) of grain alcohol as above.
Two joints were rolled from the same stuff and a drying rack, consisting of a wire oven rack held 3 inches over an electric stove set on low, was constructed.
Each joint was dipped for a count of five into the very dark, almost black liquid that resulted, then placed on the rack to dry.
Drying took an unexpectedly long time (several minutes) and the thinner of the two joints proved to be the most satisfactory.
After several dips, about half the liquid was absorbed into the now green, sticky joints and the remaining liquid was set aside.
Several hours later the smaller joint dried to a weird dark olive-drab color that looked suspiciously military.
It's taste was distinctive and not unpleasant, it might not have been fully dry and it worked out just fine. A gain on the subjective scale from Barely Smokeable to Pretty Good.
As there are only two higher levels (Damn Good and Fucking Outrageous) which cover the understandably large top end of the ratings, I found this to be terrifically successful.
Possibly all that we have done here is to reinvent 'hash oil' a pleasant enough substance that was notorious for rapidly degrading over time.
Indeed, we found that after a week these things became worthless. "Venture not to the utmost bounds of even lawful pleasure; the limits of good and evil join."
CBD Converted To THC By The Heating Process
Although this is not confirmed scientifically, I have read that it is believed that, when marijuana is burned, some of the CBN or CBD is converted to THC by the heating process.
I have applied this to my own life by taking a handful of water leaves from said plant and microwaving them for about three minutes on defrost (40% duty cycle, which may not correspond to any other microwave oven manufacturer's energy usage profile), blowing on them and stirring them around to evaporate the moisture this elicits, then nuking 'em for another similar period of time.
This seems to make the resulting smoke just a bit stronger. It's really a shame that the Establishment doesn't apply itself to teaching people how to use drugs intelligently and creatively, since, clearly, such paths to competence and maturity exist.
If I had known ten years ago what I have learned through much reading and thinking, I would have saved myself a lot of money, and, more importantly, a lot of grief and self-destructive behavior which I have, fortunately, survived.
Please perpetuate this information as widely as possible, the better to teach people how to avoid addictive behavioral sequences while continuing to explore the realms of awareness in a mature and thoughtful manner.
Books Ask Ed:
Marijuana Gold: Trash to Stash
A very informative little book that covers a wealth of facts related to consuming marijuana that any user will appreciate. Highly recommended.
Includes using a vaporizer, producing kief, various methods of making hashish, producing marijuana drinks, making marijuana pills, cooking with weed and more. Lots of black and white illustrations with several pages of full color photos.
Ask Ed The Art and Science of Cooking With Cannabis
Unlike marijuana cook books, this is not just a book of recipes. It contains information about how the human body absorbs cannabis cooking (marijuana, hashish, and hash oil are all included) and how to extract the active ingredients into a medium you can work with. Besides that, preparation and recipes for food and drinks made with cannabis are covered.
Less than 100 pages, it is not overly technical and anyone should be able to follow it and have things turn out properly. If you are interested in making your own food and drinks this is the only book you need for a good understanding of the nature of cannabis and how to get the most out of it. Contains several recipes. If you want recipes only, this is not the book to get.
The Art and Science of Cooking With Cannabis The Marijuana Food Handbook:
A Guide for the Sensuous Connoisseur
About 150 pages, besides dozens of recipes, the book looks at various aspects of the uses of marijuana as food for healing various illnesses and for recreational purposes. If you are using marijuana for medical purposes, eating or drinking might be the healthiest way to consume the herb.
Calculating the dosage, flavoring extracts, storing extracts, overdoses, and other aspects of use are included. A few liqueurs are here for those that would to prefer drinking but most of the recipes are for food.
The Marijuana Food Handbook
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