Contributed by Bailey Stuart
Adjunct Professor UAA
Green Jar | Owner
Last month I talked about dosing and how to start consuming as a new consumer and what is going on internally when you consume cannabis in different manners such as smoking versus ingestible. To sum it up start low and slowly start adding milligrams of THC until you find that perfect dose. This rule applies regardless of whether you are smoking or ingesting cannabis, the rule stays the same. This month we will be talking about how to make edibles. You have so many different paths you can take from infusing a lipid or what most of us call fat or into alcohol which then allows for other avenues of infusion.
Classically we all think about butter when it comes to cannabis infusion. And it is true you can just let it sit overnight and infuse butter, but is that really the best way? When THC degrades, it degrades into a cannabinoid we call cannabinol or CBN. This cannabinoid is most associated with its sedative like effects. Have you ever found some old pot you stashed away and once you smoked it you find yourself needing to take a nap? Over time all of the delicious terpene goodness evaporates into the air and the THC you thought you were smoking degrades into CBN. This clock starts the moment you cut a plant down. That is what makes solventless concentrates made from flash frozen flower so tasty. The cold slows down the process, you skip the time-consuming practice of curing the flower and you keep the tasty terpenes and cannabinoid profiles intact leading to some of the best concentrates I have ever had the privilege of consuming, such a treat! Same thing happens in butters when you are infusing. You let it go too long, you’re going to be left with CBN and it’s going to put you asleep. Not enough time and you have a weak infusion. But if you know the science behind infusion you can create an infusion that is an enjoyable euphoria and it won’t be weak or sedating, and if you are looking for that, you know what to do!
There are many products now on the market to infuse your butter with. Flower isn’t the only choice, there are manufacturers that will make the butter for you, all you have to do is measure out what you need for your recipe! I never thought I would see this day, but here we are. Fun fact, recently the Marijuana Control Board made manufacturing butters for sale to the public permissible. Prior to that regulation change butters, coconut oils, you name it, infused with THC were not allowed to be made for the end consumer, they had to be made in your own home. However, with groups like the Alaska Marijuana Industry Associations and advocates like myself we were able to get these regulations changed through public comment and educating.
My favorite way of infusing butter is to use a fully decarboxylated full spectrum extract versus flower. It’s easier to measure and know what my dosage milligrams are in my recipe. I also feel it has a better flavor than making my own butter with flower. Not to mention it makes a minimal mess and my house does not stink like cannabis butter for days. With that said a full spectrum feels much closer to a flower induced euphoria because of the full profile of cannabinoids versus just using a distillate, a higher in THC cannabis concentrate, which is why I prefer full spectrum. How do you ask for this on your next dispensary visit? Ask your local budtender for FECO. This is the easiest term to use to find the product you are looking for. Most full spectrum extracts come in a syringe for easy use, it’s an incredibly sticky concentrate and the syringe provides demarcations so that you can accurately dose if you have the certificate of analysis aka testing results. Which any cannabis product purchased on the Alaskan cannabis market will have testing results.
When teaching my students, I educate them on how to find total milligrams in a local product. You simply multiply the percentage by 10 and you know the total milligrams per gram of product. Using multiple grams? Multiply the total milligrams per gram by the number of grams of concentrate used. Let’s say I bought a FECO stick that’s testing result indicates it is 75.50% THC. I take this number and multiply by 10 giving me 755.0 milligrams THC for every gram of product. Take that 755mg’s by the 1.5 grams of FECO you’re using to infuse your butter and you know that your 8oz of butter has a total of 1,132.5mg’s Total THC. If you use a full stick divide that number by the total number of servings and you will know approximately how many grams of THC each brownie you just made has. I wish you luck baking happiness by the gram!