Edibles and infusion

Raw cannabis contains cannabinoid acids, not the neutral cannabinoids. Eating undecarboxylated material produces very little of the expected effect, because the conversion that heat performs has not happened.

Do it as a dedicated step before infusing, with the material spread thin and covered, in the region of 110 to 120 degrees Celsius for 30 to 45 minutes. Infusion at temperature performs some conversion on its own, but relying on that makes an already imprecise process worse by combining two unknowns.

Guide: decarboxylation in detail

Cannabinoids are lipophilic, so they move readily into fats and poorly into water. That is the entire basis of the method: hold decarboxylated material in a fat at moderate temperature long enough for the cannabinoids to partition into it, then strain the solids out.

Butter and coconut oil are the usual carriers because their fat content is high; higher fat content means more capacity to hold cannabinoids. Common practice is a few hours at low heat, in a double boiler, slow cooker or sous vide bath, kept well below frying temperatures. Sous vide has the practical advantage of holding an actual temperature rather than a dial setting.

Straining through a fine mesh or cheesecloth removes plant material. Squeezing the solids hard recovers a little more oil and a lot more chlorophyll, which is a flavour decision.

Lecithin is added by many recipes on the claim that it increases absorption. It is an emulsifier and it genuinely helps oil and water mix, which matters for texture in some preparations. The claim that it meaningfully increases how much cannabinoid reaches your bloodstream is not supported by good evidence in this context. Use it for emulsification if the recipe needs it; do not count on it doing anything else.

You can estimate, and you should understand what the estimate is worth.

Start from the input. One gram of flower is 1000 milligrams. If it tests at 20 percent THCA, that is 200 milligrams of THCA, which after the 0.877 conversion factor is a theoretical maximum of about 175 milligrams of THC. That number is a ceiling, not a yield.

Two unknowns then eat into it. Decarboxylation at home converts an unmeasured fraction of the acid. Infusion transfers an unmeasured fraction of what was converted into the fat. Neither can be determined in a kitchen, and published figures for infusion efficiency vary widely depending on method, fat, time and temperature.

So divide the resulting oil by the number of portions and treat the per-portion figure as an upper bound with a wide margin below it. The correct use of this arithmetic is to know roughly what order of magnitude you are dealing with, and to know that you cannot be more precise than that without a laboratory test of the finished product.

NoteEvery dose figure calculated at home is an estimate with a wide and unknowable error. Treat it as such, start with a small portion, and do not adjust upward on the same day.

When THC is swallowed it is absorbed through the gut and passes through the liver before reaching general circulation. There it is substantially converted to 11-hydroxy-THC, a metabolite that is itself active and crosses into the brain readily. Inhaled THC largely bypasses that first pass, which is why the two routes are not interchangeable at the same milligram figure.

The timing differs as well. Onset after eating is typically delayed, commonly in the range of thirty minutes to two hours depending on the preparation and what else is in the stomach, and the effects last considerably longer than inhaled cannabis. That delay is the single most common cause of people taking far more than they intended, because nothing appears to be happening at the point where the second portion feels reasonable.

Individual variation in all of this is large and is not predictable from body weight or from experience with inhaled cannabis.

Guide: THC and the cannabinoid family

Most bad edible experiences are not caused by a miscalculated batch average. They are caused by uneven distribution within a batch that averaged out fine.

Infused oil separates and does not distribute itself. A tray of brownies made from poorly mixed batter can have portions differing by a large multiple, and the person who gets the strong corner has no way of knowing. Anything where the infused fat is poured in late, or where the mixture is thick, is vulnerable.

• —Mix thoroughly and for longer than feels necessary, and keep the infused fat warm and liquid while mixing so it disperses.
• —Prefer preparations where the fat is integrated throughout rather than layered, drizzled or filled.
• —Portion by weight rather than by eye. A cut tray of unequal squares is unequal doses.
• —Moulded portions from a well-stirred liquid are more consistent than anything cut from a baked slab.

Infused fats keep as the fat keeps: refrigerated and airtight for short periods, frozen for longer. Cannabinoids degrade with heat, air and light like anything else, so a jar on a warm shelf loses potency over months.

Label everything, clearly, including the date and the estimated strength per portion. Infused food looks exactly like food, and the consequences of that fall on whoever opens the fridge. Keep it separated from ordinary food and out of reach of children and pets, and store it in a container that is not attractive or accessible to them. This is the one part of home edible production where a mistake affects someone who did not consent to it.