In the following steps, it is important to follow the suggestions for temperature, time, and volumes closely. The process by which THCA and CBDA (relatively inactive in humans) are converted to THC and CBD (the good stuff) is known as decarboxylation, and takes place at a lowertemperature than THC turns into a gas and floats up and out your window. If you raise the temperature in an attempt to speed up the process, you’ll just be doing the birds a favor, not yourself! A word of warning: The early steps – heating the cannabis – will produce a very potent marijuana odor! If discretion is your goal, then consider finding a sealable, oven-safe container in which to heat the marijuana.
- Finely grind the marijuana. A standard blender works fine for this, although you can chop or crumble it as you see fit.
- Preheat your oven to 225 F (110 C). Do NOT exceed 300 F (150 C) to prevent letting your precious THC vaporize!
- Place the crumbled marijuana in the oven-safe container, and bake for 45 minutes. 30 minutes will often suffice, but if the container is rather thick-walled, it will take some time to come up to temperature.
- Remove the container from the oven and let it cool for 1/2 hour.
- Next, place the “baked” (decarboxylated) marijuana into the mason jar/glass, crumbling more if necessary. Gently pour in 1 cup of 70% grain spirits, and stir thoroughly.
- Seal the jar and shake it. You’ll notice a change in color almost immediately, and this will develop into a deep, almost black-hued green color over the next couple of days.
- Shake the jar containing the alcohol/cannabis mixture several times a day for at least two days. There’s no need to wait a week or more, THC is quite soluble in alcohol. The waiting time does allow all the bits of marijuana to become saturated and the THC to go into solution.
- Strain the alcohol/cannabis mixture through a funnel lined with cheesecloth and into a large enough receiving jar. Ball up the cheesecloth and squeeze out more of the solution – waste not!
- Transfer the tincture into brown glass dropper bottles for storage and dosing. If you can’t get dropper bottles, just brown medicine glass bottles will do – the brown glass helps prevent light from degrading the tincture.
- Store the finished tincture in a cool place away from strong light sources for maximum shelf life.
After creating and testing your alcohol-extracted cannabis tincture,you have a convenient way of measuring and consuming the right amount of this healthful medicine in liquid form. You can also easily create an even distribution of THC/CBD in your baked goods by stirring a measured amount of the tincture into the liquid ingredients, just as you would use vanilla or rum extract/flavor in traditional baking; same methods, same recipes, new effect!
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