As medicinal marijuana becomes more mainstream, hospitals, acute care and long-term care facilities must carefully…
Marijuana tinctures are one of the most convenient and enjoyable ways of intaking cannabis. Their preparation can produce both euphoric and medicinal effects.
Tinctures work differently from edibles because they’re directly absorbed into the bloodstream via osmosis, providing much faster onset time and stronger effects than an edible can provide.
How to Make a Tincture
Tinctures, typically comprised of high-proof alcohol, are easy to transport and take in small doses for fast relief from anxiety, stress, insomnia, migraine headaches, chronic pain and nausea.
Sharp knife: chop any large leaves, flowers or roots into smaller pieces to facilitate faster extraction. Place this chopped plant material in a glass jar and cover it with your chosen base; the ratio can vary; for a mellow and buildable experience consider an eighth of cannabis to 3 fl oz of alcohol as your ratio.
Most herbalists prefer vodka due to its clear color and flavor; however, other oils such as glycerine work equally as well. When making your tincture be sure to choose a dark glass jar that keeps sunlight at bay; clearly label the bottle with date of creation and parts used; store in cool, dry environment with weekly shakings if possible.
Ingredients
Tinctures are an effective way of taking advantage of the endocannabinoid system, yet require patience as infusion may take up to two weeks. But there’s an easier way: freezing cannabis prior to infusing speeds up this process by rendering its trichomes more fragile and dislodging from plant material faster – helping speed up extraction while making final product taste less like plant matter.
This recipe is intended for making marijuana-based tincture, which contains THC. You could also adapt this method using hemp products containing low levels of THC (0.3% or below), making the end result federally legal and not getting you high! Hemp-based products typically contain more CBD than THC; thus ensuring no high from using them!
Calculating the potency of your tincture is straightforward: just multiply its weight by its THC content and divide that figure by the alcohol content in its composition. This formula gives a general indication of its potency without needing lab testing services.
Storage
Tinctures are discreet, portable and easy to take. Their packaging resembles that of oil or liquid vitamins, making them easy to stash away in purses, luggage or medicine cabinets. Furthermore, tinctures quickly absorb into the body for therapeutic effect within 20-30 minutes after sublingual administration.
Decarboxylated cannabis is often the preferred ingredient when creating cannabis tinctures, as heating the flower releases its active compounds and activates them more quickly. Although decarboxylated marijuana may still work to produce results, its efficacy will likely be less impressive and take more time to start working for you.
To successfully make cannabis tincture, you will require the following components.
Dosage
Tinctures offer an easy, discreet way to consume cannabis. Tinctures may be taken sublingually (under the tongue) or mixed into food and beverages such as tea for consumption. Cannabis tinctures tend to provide stronger and longer-acting effects than edibles; it’s important that dosage is determined beforehand as reactions vary among users, and overconsuming could result in undesirable side effects.
Tinctures offer discreet consumption without social stigma. Tinctures allow for precise dosage control via dropper, eliminating trial-and-error with edibles. Furthermore, making your own tinctures gives more control over the extraction process and allows you to use cannabis from your own garden; higher proof alcohol infusing produces stronger products than lower proof solvents like glycerin; however this process could take up to several weeks but shaking it daily should facilitate extraction of cannabinoids and terpenes from cannabis plant material.