Bhang is a traditional Indian cannabis drink using “weed milk“, almonds, and spices. According to many it easily has the potential to be the most potent cannabis drink. Extremely popular in India during the “Holi Festival” (also called “Spring Festival”) in March where the triumph of “good” over “evil” is celebrated, bhang is the official drink of the festival that unites all of India. Somewhat difficult to make, bhang is meant to be a Hindu offering to Shiva, who is also known in India as “Lord of Bhang“. For this reason, Hindus believe cannabis is holy.

Bhang is said to relieve anxiety, boost meditation, and cause transcendental states of mind and spiritual ecstasy. If taken in “proper” quantities, Bhang has many medicinal values, including improving digestion and appetite, decreasing pain, clearing the mind, improving moods, and aiding with sleep.

PROTIP: This recipe calls for 1 ounce of bud to 6 cups of liquid! This is very potent! Start with about a shot glasses to a shot glass and a half’s worth and wait to see how that effects you before drinking more. You have been warned!

If you’re looking for Cannabis Milk, not Bhang, check out EdibleMJ‘s cannamilk recipe.

Directions:

1. Bring the water to a boil in a clean teapot.
2. Remove any stems or seeds from the cannabis, add to the teapot, and cover. Let simmer for approximately 7 minutes.
3. Strain the water and cannabis through cheesecloth and squeeze the wet cannabis to extract as much water as possible. Save this water.
4. Place the cannabis in a mortar and add 2 tablespoons warm milk. The milk should be really hot but NOT boiling. Slowly but firmly grind the milk and cannabis together.
5. When the milk has cooled, put the cannabis through cheesecloth and squeeze out as much weed milk as you can. Save this milk.
6. Repeat this process until you have gathered 1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) of marijuana milk. The cannabis should look pulpy at this point. Put the cannabis back into the mortar.
7. Add the chopped almonds and enough warm milk to completely cover the chopped almonds and cannabis.
8. Grind the mixture in a mortar until a fine paste is formed.
9. Put this through cheesecloth and squeeze out as much milk as you can. Save this milk also.
10. Repeat until dry.
11. Throw out the dry mass. Combine all the liquids that have been saved (water and milk).
12. Add garam masala, ginger powder, sugar, rosewater, and remaining milk. Stir.
13. Chill, serve, enjoy.

Remember: BE CAREFUL. This drink is potent — know your limits!

1. Add sugar, syrup, and water to a pot on the stove over medium-heat. Stir until all ingredients have dissolved. Bring to a boil. KEEP STIRRING.
2. Bring to 300 degrees (F) and slowly stir in color and flavorings. KEEP STIRRING.
3. Turn off heat and, as quickly and as SAFELY as possible, stir in your marijuana tincture (Stoner Jerry works great!) and pour into candy or lollipop molds.

That’s it! Really! Making candy is EASY, you just have to make sure you pay attention to your temperatures. Sugar liquefies into a brown goo (caramel!), so if you are seeing this you are doing it right. Make sure you don’t over heat it, though: burned sugar is a mess and smells like ass! It really helps to have a candy thermometer. To help you out, we have a few nice ones in the EdibleMJ Shop if you don’t already have one. We’ve also added some cool candy molds for you to pour into! There are TONS of molds available online, especially on Amazon, so feel free to browse. Picking your candy mold is half the fun!

WARNING: Melted sugar will solidify very quickly so you must move very fast when pouring. If you have never made candy before, please heed this warning and BE CAREFUL. Sugar, when melted, is EXTREMELY FREAKING HOT and WILL burn the crap out of you! Trust us, don’t get high before hand if you are new at this!

1. First, warm your hashish! Use a large metal spoon over a gentle low heat and it will soon begin to crumble to a fine powder. Set aside.
2. Break the chocolate up into pieces. Using a small pan, heat the cream to just boiling and then remove from the heat.
3. Immediately add the chocolate, butter (or cannabutter), booze and hashish.
4. Mix well until the chocolate has melted and is smooth.
5. Pour into two small bowls (or cups) and set in the fridge.
6. Now for the hardest part, waiting! At this point you can wash up the ONE dish you’ve used… and take a couple of tokes from the vaporizer!

That’s it! As soon as your mixture cools and solidifies a bit, eat it and enjoy your day! Eat it sooner if you’d like it to have more of a pudding consistency, and leave it in longer if you’d like it thicker (almost like fudge). Medibles couldn’t be easier!

Well, in one case it was pot brownies. Last weekend in Huntington Beach, California, three elderly people were sickened after unknowingly eating marijuana-laced brownies at a funeral. The pot came from the deceased’s leftover medicinal marijuana, which the man’s daughter announced, but apparently two 71-year-old women and an 82-year-old man missed the message. They went to the hospital with nausea, dizziness and difficulty standing. (For the record, the venue that hosted the memorial claims the incident didn’t happen there.)

Pot food’s not just for old people, though. The kiddies love it, too! Just in time for Halloween, parents are not pleased about the appearance of candies shaped like pot leaves, even though the candies do not contain marijuana.

The candy, which includes pot leaf-shaped lollipops, ring pops and gummies, is being sold to promote the legalization of marijuana. It’s produced by Kalan LP of Philadelphia, and it’s been on the market since last spring.

While some parents are appalled at the idea of their kids being offered marijuana candies, a few are taking it as an opportunity to discuss marijuana use with their children.

For more sophisticated tastes, marijuana-infused wine is making headlines. It only makes sense, considering California’s wine country is near pot country. Gourmet exposed the marriage of the two inebriating industries last week, while noting that eating marijuana is “a bit of psychoactive Russian roulette with a strange aftertaste.”

Nevertheless, the story focuses on “medibles” — marijuana-laced foods sold at medicinal marijuana dispensaries — and “green wine” or “tree wine.” That’s pot-infused wine, and apparently California’s rife with it. But only if you know the right people.

During the last legislative session, state representative Cindy Acree sponsored a bill that would have eliminated edibles altogether. When the medical marijuana community rallied against the measure, Acree changed her stance, as well as the language of HB 1250, saying that her intent all along was simply to keep THC-infused candies and treats out of the hands of children.

Under the new wording, edibles themselves are safe, but packaging is required to be “designed or constructed to be significantly difficult for children… to open.” If not, the packaging must be labeled “MEDICINAL PRODUCT — Keep out of Reach of Children.” Most edible manufacturers were already doing both of those things in order to comply with requirements in HB 1284, the medical marijuana code that had already passed the legislature.

But according to LeRoux, at least one MMED inspector has been telling her clients that Twirling Hippy packaging doesn’t meet the requirements of the law because the packaging was not opaque. The shop wasn’t fined, nor were the edibles taken, but the owners were written up for what the inspector saw as a violation.

The move baffles LeRoux, who notes that nothing in either HB 1284 or 1250 has required such packaging, nor have the rules been promulgated yet. She also points out that her packaging is not only tamper-proof, but includes easy-to-read warning labels.

“My concern was that this stance by enforcement agents frightened my client off of ordering more product until they could be certain that my tamper-proof and compostable package was compliant,” she says. “While I told them what HB1250 says, they were worried until I sent them a forwarded email from [MMED spokeswoman] Julie Postlethwait saying so. Postlethwait says the division has not yet tracked down the inspector; she says they will continue to look into the matter.

Read more: http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2011/10/medical_marijuana_edibles_packaging.php

Here’s an excerpt from the article, with video following (be sure to click the “Read more” link to check out the Butterleaf Flour recipe!):

Whipping up some cannabis flour of your own is as easy as the Humpty Dance. But to do it right I recommend using the dry leaves you get from a growhouse after the trim session. Ask around: Chances are you’re just six degrees of separation from a quiet garage that’s just dying to get the excess leaves and shake out as soon as that last nugget is clipped.

You want leaves that are dry, and unblemished by chemical spray, redneck bacteria, etc. If you just use straight up kief and residue from the sticky buds in your flour, instead of ground marijuana leaf, the high may be too intense, because you’ll have all the circus magic of the THC crystals but fewer of the wholesome Indica and Sativa vitamins you need to remain chill. For those who don’t know, you’ve now been warned – kief flour will have you all types of jacked up!

As always, remove all the stems, seeds, and hippie hair. I go for the same unconventional portion I use for a batch of butter (the ubiquitous plastic convenience store bag full of leaves). First, chop the leaves super-fine in a blender. Then use a coffee grinder or food processor to get it as close to powder as possible. (Keep in mind that it won’t be as soft as flour because it isn’t grain.) Sift the powder for any remaining debris, and then, bodda-boom bodda bing – you’ve got yourself some cannabis flour. I asked, “That’s it?” the first time too. Really, that’s it.

Once you’ve mastered the art of blending and grinding, why not elevate your game by trying to hook up some butterleaf flour?

Aurora Livione, better known as You Tube octogenarian sensation Marijuana Nonna, might have been the lady who plopped slime onto your cafeteria tray by day, but by night she’s Wu-Tang serious about her ganja baking. On her buttlerleaf flour video, specifically for cookies and brownies, she gets serious with you punks: “I say it’s for medical marijuana use only, and not for fun. If you want to have fun, grab a streetcar and go down to the beach and romp into the water.”

Read more: http://blogs.sfweekly.com/foodie/2011/10/how_to_make_your_own_cannabis.php

The content of his article is as follows:

I love cannabis farmer’s markets. Every time I attend one — and there are at least three now active in the Puget Sound area — I find something worthwhile. The Puffless Productions table was one of the best discoveries at the recent inaugural Northwest Cannabis Market in White Center.

Puffless Productions has a lot going for it. There’s the name, of course — and it’s perfect for a place that prepares cannabis edibles.

Then there’s the cool green dragon with the red bloodshot eyes on the label. There’s the fact that Puffless puts the exact amount of cannabis in each item, right on the label, so it’s easier to control dosage. Add the “Born On” dates they put on all their stuff, and they’ve got freshness covered, as well — no longer do you have to wonder how long a food item has been sitting there on the shelf.

Puffless had a table full of tempting treats, everything from Caramel Walnut Brownies (0.3 grams of cannabis, absolutely not to be missed) to THC Tabs (a total of 0.7 grams cannabis in six tabs, and three will do the trick). Along with all the edibles were some drinkables — cannabis sodas in various flavors for $7 each.

Cola was one of the flavors available, and as a Coca-Cola fan my eyes were drawn to it. Last time I tried a cannabis cola, the results were less than satisfactory; the flavor definitely needed more work. But this time, once I got back home with my Puffless Cola and had it well-chilled, I was pleasantly surprised by the flavor. At worst, it was comparable to one of the discount store-brand colas, with one important and positive difference — I could taste weed in it (let me reiterate that, for me at least, the taste of marijuana is a good thing).

One thing Puffless has definitely done right in making this cola is using 100 percent natural sugar, rather than any of that high-fructose corn syrup nonsense. This pays off with superior flavor than would otherwise have been the case, much as it does with those real-sugar Mexican Cokes you can buy at Walgreen’s.

I guzzled my Puffless Cola, on an empty stomach, over a period of about 15 minutes, to maximize the effects. As expected, a noticeable head buzz started about 45 minutes after finishing the drink, with the initial onset feeling like an energetic sativa, gradually transmuting into a more zombified, sleepy second half that was conducive to rest.

Puffless products are available each weekend at the Northwest Cannabis Market, 9640 16th Avenue SW, Seattle (White Center). You’ll need a Washington ID and medical marijuana authorization to come inside.

If you’d like to know more about Puffless Productions’ impressive line of medibles, visit their website at www.pufflessproductions.com, call 360-543-5675, or email pufflessproductions@gmail.com.

Read more: http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/voracious/2011/09/puffless_soda_cannabis_cola_do.php

This Is Your Brain

Everyone knows the symptoms associated with migraines: severe pain, nausea and vomiting, hypersensitivity to light/sound/smell, immobility and wanting nothing more than to rest in a dark and quiet room. The symptoms and stages can be different for different people and are sometimes different even from migraine to migraine, but the following 5 phases have been identified and largely agreed upon by the scientific community:

• Prodrome (a period of warning symptoms): Many symptoms can foretell an oncoming migraine. These include changes in mood (happiness, irritability, sadness) or sensation (funny tastes or smells). Many people experience fatigue and muscle tension before a migraine headache.
• Visual or auditory disturbances (auras): Some people develop scotomas (blind spots), see geometric patterns, experience hemianopsia (vision on only one side), or — less commonly — can even have auditory hallucinations.
• Headache: The fun part. Although migraine pain usually appears on one side of the head, 30-40% of migraineurs (as they are called) have them on both sides. Throbbing pain may occur. Over 80% of migraineurs feel nauseated, and many vomit. About 70% of people become photophobic (supersensitive to light) and phonophobic (supersensitive to sound). This phase may last 4-72 hours.
• Headache termination: Even if untreated, the pain will usually go away with sleep.
• Postdrome: Migraineurs may not feel like themselves for a period of time after the migraine stops. They might not be able to eat right away and problems with thinking and tiredness are common.

A type of primary headache, migraines are thought to be typically caused by abnormal brainstem activity that leads to arterial spasm (rapid contraction) in the cerebrum (main part of the brain) and dura (the covering of the brain). The vascular narrowing from the first wave of spasm decreases blood supply, which causes the aura that some people experience. After the first spasm, the same arteries become tired which causes them to become abnormally relaxed, increasing blood flow and giving rise to the actual migraine headache pain. Since migraines are localized by nature, the epicenter of the migraine is usually focused on one particular area of the brain. Some types of migraines can be more generalized in scope, affecting entire regions of the head.

Certain chemicals found in the brain (e.g. dopamine and serotonin) may be involved in causing migraines. These chemicals are called neurotransmitters (because they transmit signals within the brain. Neurotransmitters can cause blood vessels to act in unusual ways if they are present in abnormal amounts or if the blood vessels are particularly sensitive to them. Various triggers are thought to bring about migraine in people who have a natural tendency for having migraine headaches. Different people typically have different triggers:

• Certain foods: Especially chocolate, cheese, nuts, alcohol, and monosodium glutamate (MSG) can trigger migraines. (MSG is a food enhancer used in many foods, including Chinese food.) Missing a meal may also bring on a headache. More on these later.
• Stress and tension are also risk factors: People often have migraines during times of heightened emotional, mental, or physical stress.
• Birth control pills are a common trigger: Women may have migraines at the end of the pill cycle as the estrogen component of the pill is stopped. This is called an estrogen-withdrawal headache.

This Is Your Brain On Drugs

Drugs can be used either to cut migraine attacks short or to prevent long-term occurrence. Chemicals derived from ergot (e.g. Cafergot and Ergomar) work to dilate affected blood vessels that can reach deep into the brain where migraines are thought to originate and are effective in stopping an attack at the early stages. Once a headache is fully established, opioids (such as Tylox) can be used to relieve the pain. A relatively new migraine drug is sumatriptan (Imitrex). In general it has fewer side effects than ergotamines but it causes frightening chest pain in many patients. Furthermore patients must learn to give themselves subcutaneous injections because sumatriptan is not very effective when taken orally (not to mention the difficulty that arises in eating or drinking when your migraine is in full-swing). Other drugs prescribed for prevention of chronic migraine are methysergide (which is related to ergot derivatives), beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers, chlorpromazine (Thorazine), the steroid prednisone, Inderal, Elavil, Toradol… the list goes on.

Now before you jump to the conclusion that Big Pharma has solved the migraine problem (SPOILER: it hasn’t), it’s important to note several things. First of all, ten to twenty percent of sufferers get no relief from these drugs — and many more get incomplete relief or suffer serious side effects. On top that that, many migraine medications are addicting and can kill you — not a good combination. Do we even need to point out that marijuana does neither?

In fact, not only are there thousands of migraine patients who benefit from cannabis but cannabis has been cited by such historical medical luminaries as Sir William Osler, MD (considered to be pretty much the “father of modern medicine”) and Dr. Morris Fishbein (long-time editor of JAMA) as the best treatment for migraines (back in the days before Congress ignored the AMA and over the AMA’s objection, passed the Marijuana Tax Act).

Cannabis was a standard treatment for migraines from the mid-19th century until it was outlawed in the early 20th century in the USA. It has been reported to help people through an attack by relieving the nausea and dulling the head pain, as well as possibly preventing the headache completely when used as soon as possible after the onset of pre-migraine symptoms, such as aura. There is some indication that semi-regular use may reduce the frequency of attacks.
- Wikipedia (Prevention of Migraines)

To be fair, there are very few formal studies that have been done on medical marijuana for migraines. In fact, to date there have only been a handful of peer-reviewed marijuana studies done, 12 of which were double-blind. While a lack of double blind studies does not negate literally thousands of years of anecdotal evidence telling us that marijuana helps with migraines and over one hundred years of support by prominent figures in medicine, scientific studies are certainly important in some places like the United States where such studies have not been allowed for largely political reasons. For example, Dr. Russo (a well respected neurologist, author, researcher and North American Consultant to GW Pharmaceuticals) tried for four years to get the federal government to approve just such a double blind research project. They refused. These are the same people who say that marijuana should not be legalized because there’s no data that says it has medicinal properties. The complain about there being no data, yet won’t allow said data to be obtained. Imagine that.

(Note: When aspirin was first used for treating headaches no double blind studies were done — yet we still believe that aspirin treats headaches, don’t we? Aspirin was based on centuries of use of willow bark by Native Americans and was grand-mothered in by the 1938 Food, Cosmetics and Drug Act and to the best of our knowledge has never received modern FDA approval because it never had to. Many experts say that if aspirin had to undergo the contemporary FDA approval process it would be far from a shoe in to receive that approval. Go figure.)

Migraines: Cannacooking vs Vaporizing

We want to make a special note and be the first to admit: the quickest method of migraine treatment is inhaling cannabis vapors from a vaporizer. Vaporizers provide almost immediate relief of symptoms and have saved the sanity of many. This is all well and good if you are at home where your vaporizer is… but how many of us are at home all day, every day? Migraines can happen anywhere, anytime. While there certainly are some high quality portable vaporizers on the market (we are big fans of both the Vapir NO2 and the Extreme Q), depending on where you are and what you are doing you can still find it difficult (or illegal) to medicate. Besides, isn’t an ounce of prevention worth a pound of cure, anyways? We advocate a two-pronged approach:

1. A good diet of healthy edibles for a daily preventative regimen and
2. Keeping a vaporizer handy for an emergency situation when something triggers a migraine that is beyond the scope of the edibles to control.

Dosing Your Marijuana Edibles

If you are wondering how much you’ll need to medicate with before you can break the migraine cycle, we regret to tell you there is no easy answer. Not only do migraines affect different people in different ways, but as we’re sure you know marijuana itself can affect people differently. Because of this, we advocate that you keep a headache log that includes information like when you have headaches, the symptoms and part of head affected, the severity, your diet that day, if you vaporized or ate edibles (and most importantly, if they helped), and things of that nature. It’s important to note that most people seem to find relief from an Indica rather than a Sativa, so if you like to switch up your strains be sure to note the strain names and types in your log.

Here’s a useful migraine tracking card from MyOptumHealth that you can make life easier, another from OurFamilyDoctors.net, and yet another from vertex42′s blog along with some more information about migraine triggers. Google will give you tons more.

(Note: These logs require a PDF viewer like Adobe Acrobat.)

If you use an Android phone, we suggest My Migraine Log Pro or a similar app. Here’s a handy QR code:

(iPhone users: We think you are pretty much stuck with iHeadache, though if anyone has a suggestion for a better iPhone headache tracker, please let us know.)

By keeping track of your headache history you can develop an overall picture of what seems to help and hurt your headaches and, over time, you will begin to get a better feel for exactly how much medical marijuana you need and how to better tweak your diet to maximize your migraine reduction.

Healthy Food, Healthy Brain

Speaking of tweaking your diet, let’s start with the diet basics. There are two types of food when it comes to migraines and headaches: trigger foods and helper foods. The goal here is to avoid the trigger foods, and eat a lot (and as many different kinds) of the helper foods as possible.

Headache Trigger Foods

These are the foods that can start the migraine reaction. Though not technically an allergy, these foods can cause something like an allergic reaction when it comes to migraines by influencing the release of serotonin — causing constriction and dilation of blood vessels — or by directly stimulating areas of the brain such as the trigeminal ganglia, brainstem, and neuronal pathways. Diet requirements are different in everyone, but there are some common foods to avoid.

According to a report by J Gordon Millichap, MD, published in the journal Pediatric Neurology, the list of foods, beverages, and additives thought to trigger migraines include:

• Cheese
• Chocolate
• Citrus fruits
• Hot dogs
• Monosodium glutamate
• Aspartame
• Fatty foods (i.e. use more cannaoil and less cannabutter)
• Ice cream
• Caffeine (withdrawal)
• Alcoholic drinks (especially red wine and beer — sorry for you Stoner Jerry fans!)

Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is sometimes added as a flavor enhancer in Chinese restaurants. It is also found in commercial soups, soy sauce, salad dressings, frozen dinners, soup mix, croutons, stuffing, some chips, and many other places. It can be disguised on food labels as sodium caseinate, hydrolyzed proteins, or autolyzed yeast.

Published surveys have found that the most commonly reported food triggers are cheese, chocolate, alcohol, bananas, and citrus fruit. In a survey of 429 people with migraine, 16.5% reported migraines triggered by cheese or chocolate, 28.4% reported sensitivity to all alcoholic drinks, 11.8% were sensitive to red but not white wine, and 28% were sensitive to beer. Another survey of 490 people with migraine published in the journal Cephalalgia found that the most common food triggers were chocolate, cheese (18%), citrus (11%) and alcohol (29%).

According to Millichap, certain chemicals in foods called amines (such as tyramine, phenylethylamine, and histamine) are thought to often be the culprits. Tyramine is found in higher concentrations in foods that have been fermented, such as:

• Aged or blue cheese
• Yogurt
• Smoked, cured or pickled meat or fish
• Red wine or beer
• Soy sauce, miso, tempeh
• Foods containing phenylethylamine include:
• Cheesecake
• Yellow cheeses
• Chocolate
• Citrus fruit
• Chocolate
• Cocoa
• Berry pie filling or canned berries
• Red wine
• Foods containing histamine include:
• Banana
• Beef, pork
• Beer
• Cheese, especially yellow ripened
• Chicken liver
• Egg Plant
• Fish, shellfish
• Processed meat, such as salami
• Sauerkraut
• Tempeh, tofu, miso, tamari
• Spinach
• Strawberry
• Tomato, tomato sauce, tomato paste
• Wine
• Yeast and foods containing yeast
• Pineapple
• Citrus fruit
• Chocolate

(Note: Two well-designed studies found no effect of tyramine on migraines. Another study of 39 children found that reducing dietary amines had no effect. Both children on a low-amine diet, high fiber diet and children on a high fiber diet had a significant decrease in the number of migraines and there was no significant difference between the groups. We suggest doing as much research as you can about anything food-science related. Who is right is up in the air right now — which is why you should be keeping a headache log and doing the science yourself.)

In addition to food, other dietary habits (like skipping meals and not drinking enough fluids) may also play a role in migraine development. In fact, the more you learn about migraines and diet the more you will comes to realize how complicated it all really is. For all we know, “a suspected food may not be a trigger 100% of the time,” explains Frederick Freitag, MD, of the Diamond Headache Clinic in Chicago — there are simply too many variables and everyone’s body and diet is different. Here are some complicating factors when it comes to doing dietary detective work:

• Often, foods are triggers only when they are combined with other triggers. This is largely a game of cause and effect. For example, they may act as triggers only when stress or hormonal changes are also at work and make the body susceptible.
• Whether you get a migraine from a food or beverage may depend on how much you consume. You might not have a problem with a small amount of cheese or wine, for example, but it might be a different story when you enjoy a larger portion. For this reason alone we suggest keeping a headache log that tracks what you eat and what activities you do along with any headaches you have.
• You may not get a headache for several hours to several days after eating a trigger food. Keep this in mind while keeping your log as it can be hard to find the connection between migraines and certain foods or beverages.

Headache Helper Foods

These are the foods that help your body relieve migraine pain directly (or at least help you cope). You will want to make special note of these foods and incorporate them into your cannarecipes as much as possible. Keep in mind that a good nutritious diet in general will always help fight migraines. Trust us, eating fast food all the time is the last thing you want to do if you suffer from migraines — the salt and fat content alone is probably enough to push your blood pressure into the migraine danger zone, not to mention all the additives.  The best advice is simply to eat a well balanced diet with plenty of fresh foods like grains, fruits and vegetables. But here are a few specific foods that you may want to introduce into your diet. These are believed by many to have the diet headache migraine connection, and may cut down on your pain:

• Peppermint
• Cayenne pepper
• Ginger (ginger is especially helpful!)
• Fish and fish oil (for the Omega-3 fatty acids)
• Foods rich in calcium (such as spinach, broccoli and kale)
• Foods rich in magnesium (again, such as spinach)
• Oatmeal
• Wheat
• Garlic

Before you get overwhelmed, here’s a great tip from Agnes Peg Hartnell, EdD RD and G Scott Tyler, MD: They suggest you start out by avoiding any food triggers for the length of time that you would normally get 3 headaches, then re-introduce foods one or two at a time a few days apart:

In general, allow three days between headaches before introducing a new ingredient (agent) for testing. And read labels no matter how many times you buy a food product. Manufacturers sometimes change ingredients without warning.
- Migraine Headaches and the Foods You Eat: 200 Recipes For Relief

To clarify by example, let’s say you normally get a headache once every week and decide it might be due to the huge amounts of cheese you’ve been eating (we can only assume you’ve also noticed a change in your digestive process as well). Cut cheese out of your diet for 3 weeks to ensure that you are “cleaned out” and track your headaches in a headache log. Then, after 3 weeks, continue to track them as you slowly reintroduce the trigger food into your diet one every 3 or so days. Again, remember that if you are testing multiple trigger foods to reintroduce them one at a time.

When In Doubt, Ask The Pros (Please)

Remember: We aren’t doctors and this site does not offer medical advice. While we might be outspoken against “Big Pharma”, we do advocate that a person seek knowledgeable medical advice from a health professional who is qualified to give it. Here are some of the best in the business if you can’t find the help you need locally:

American Academy of Neurology
1080 Montreal Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55116
(651) 695-1940

American Headache Society
19 Mantua Road
Mt. Royal, NJ 08061
(609) 423-0258

National Headache Foundation
428 West St. James Place, 2nd Floor
Chicago, IL 60614-2750
(888) NHF-5552 or (312) 388-6399

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
PO Box 5801
Bethesda, MD 20824
(301) 496-5751

Have a question or comment or feel that we left something out? Have some advice you’d like to give to fellow migraine sufferers? Leave a comment below!

(Note: Of special interest is Ettalew’s: we’ve been hearing so many good things about them lately that we highly recommend you grab them if you see them!)

Read full article: http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/voracious/2011/09/cannabis_culinary_creativity_t.php

This recipe is pretty self explanatory — basically you are just making cookies, but instead of normal butter you will be using cannabutter.

1. Preheat oven to 365 degrees.
2. Mix cannabutter, sugars, and egg into a large bowl.
3. Combine the baking soda, salt, and flour.
4. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir by hand.
5. Shape the dough into 1-inch balls and place them two inches apart on a greased cookie sheet. Parchment paper helps, too.
6. Stir in the chocolate morsels. Mmmm.
7. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until light brown.
8. Let cool for 3 or 4 minutes.
9. Om nom nom.

(Note: If you’re in a hurry, you can always skip the science and go directly to the results. That won’t make you a very good cannachef though, will it?)

An Example: Cannabutter

To illustrate just how varied the dosing of medical marijuana edibles can be, we collected data from various books (not many) and Internet sources (tons) regarding making cannabutter. Here’s the data we found, converted into ounces across the board, and then plotted in a pretty graph for your viewing enjoyment:

Please note that this graph only shows which ratios have been used — it says nothing about how often each ratio is used (its frequency). By far the most reported weed-to-butter ratio was a little over half a pound (2.5 sticks) of butter to a half ounce (14 grams) of cannabis — we aren’t sure why so many people chose to throw that extra half a stick of butter in! If you’re interested, here’s a breakdown of how many recipes in the data set used similar amounts:

(We specifically selected recipes and anecdotes that mentioned buds for a little more uniformity in our data, so keep in mind that these are recipes where people used buds. If they were using leaves or stems they would have to compensate for the lower amounts of THC contained in those parts of the plants.)

The Chemistry of THC

So we have a general idea as to how much weed most people use in their cannabutter recipes, but what does science tell us about how much plant matter to use? To answer the question properly, we must first examine the chemical properties of cannabis.

For starters, we know that the “main” active ingredient in cannabis, THC, is lipophilic. This means it prefers to dissolve in “oily” or “fatty” solvents rather than water. There are a number of oily solvents that THC will bind to, and for cannacooking purposes can be divided mostly into two groups:

1. Alcohols – Ethanol/isopropanol alcohols are used in making hashes and tinctures
2. Fats – Fatty ingredients are used to make things like cannabutter, cannacream, cannaoil, etc.

To understand why THC will dissolve in fats so well you must understand the concept of “polarity”: A molecule is “polar” when there is uneven electrical charge across it. “Non-polar” implies that the charge is basically equal across the molecule. The charge is caused by the electronegativity of the atoms in the molecule: depending on the atomic number of the constituent atoms and their electron shielding, some atoms exert a greater “pull” on the electrons of neighboring atoms. This means that the electrons spend more “time” near the more electronegative atom — creating, in essence, additional postive charge on the atom from whom the electrons were pulled (“time” here is used very loosely and is not the best descriptor but works well enough for our purposes). It is this unevenness of charge that causes a molecule to be considered “polar”, in so much that it has at least two “poles” — a side with positive charge and a side with an opposite negative charge (and if you sum the total charges of the molecule, it is zero).

The prime example of a polar molecule is H20 — water. The oxygen has high electronegativity compared to the hydrogens, so it “borrows” the electrons the majority of the “time”. This leaves a partial positive charge on the hydrogens, and a higher negative charge on the oxygen. Hence the molecule is polar! The electronegativity of oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen are 3.44, 2.55, and 2.2 respectively on the Pauling scale.

Now let us compare THC to water. THC is comprised primarily of carbon and hydrogen, which are of similar electronegativity (2.55 vs 2.2). It has a long carbon chain attached to a benzene ring, and this part of the molecule is almost entirey nonpolar. The charges are equalized. THC also has another couple of carbon rings with a few methyl groups, and these are essentially nonpolar as well. The only possible polarity arises from the charge imbalance caused by the electronegativity of the two oxygen atoms, and these are of very little significance compared to the size of the molecule. These two oxygen atoms, however, are what give THC its very limited water solubility.

Polar substances are miscible with water because they can form hydrogen bonds with the water molecules. The positive dipole of the polar molecule attracts a lone pair of electrons on water’s oxygen atom, and a hydrogen bond is formed. Nonpolar substances have (pretty much) equal charge across their surface, so they cannot dissolve in water.

THC dissolves in oil because of the van der Waals forces that exist between molecules. Basically, although the charge is “balanced” across a nonpolar molecule, electrons are delocalized and “random” and at some point uneven charge does occur on the atom, no matter how slight. This unevenness among like molecules affords a slight attraction between them, and causes oil to stick to oil. This force is much, much weaker than a hydrogen bond, to the point that oil and water just don’t mix.

So how do you get the most THC out of the plant matter?

There are two things to keep in mind. The first is that since THC is so lipophilic, simply by touching an appropriate solvent the transfer will occur naturally (albeit slowly). This is how tinctures are made (the plant matter is left in alcohol for long periods of time so that the THC is “absorbed” as the van der Waals forces do their thing). Since this process requires molecules to touch each other, it only makes sense that the more molecules in contact the faster this process will occur. The best way to accomplish this is by grinding your plant matter into as fine a powder as possible. Using a hand grinder works but picking up a coffee grinder is best. We like Krups, though any coffee grinder will work fine.

The second thing to consider is that THC has a boiling point of 392°F (200°C), so by heating up the plant matter you are forcing the THC out and into the surrounding material (e.g. butter). Other parts of the oil evaporate and boil as well, so here are some useful temperatures:

1. At 70°F (21°C) the most volatile terpenoids start to evaporate, lending a pungent odor to the air. Mmmm.
2. At 87°F (31°C) the less volatile terpenoids start to evaporate, lending the air even more pungent odors. Mmmmmmm.
3. At 102°F (39°C ) virtually all of the terpenoids undergo evaporation fairly rapidly.
4. At 122°F (50°C) Δ9-Tetrahydrocannabinolic acid decarboxylates (the water molecule held in the carbonate form evaporates) to make the psychoactive compound Δ9-Tetrahydrocannabinol. This step ensures you receive the maximum amount of THC is essential to almost all cooking recipes. At the very least, heat the marijuana to at least 122°F in the oven prior to use for maximum potency no matter what you plan on doing with it.
5. At 150°F (66°C) Cannabidiol (CBD) melts and starts to evaporate.
6. At 365°F (185°C) Cannibinol (CBN) boils.
7. At 392°F (200°C) THC boils. This is usually your last chance to get clear vapor from a vaporizer. It’s also the hottest you need to get the plant matter to ensure quick release of the THC.

(Note: If you would like more specific information — including a precise break down of “active ingredients” — please see our guide to Cooking With Vaporized Marijuana. It has a handy break down of chemicals and their vaporization points.)

So we know that ~400°F is when we have most of the good stuff leaving the plant in the form of vapor (and hopefully attaching itself to something nice and fatty). This means that if you are cooking with a strain of cannabis like White Widow that has ~22% THC content, 28 grams of plant matter is releasing 6.6 grams of THC. Great, but what’s the most that can “get in” the butter once it’s released?

Solution, Solvents, and You

A solution is a homogeneous mixture. This means that the composition of the mixture is uniform throughout a sample of any size (in other words, it’s mixed up perfectly and hasn’t settled). The major component of the mixture is called the solvent, while the dissolved stuff is called the solute. Typically we are interested in the proportion, or concentration, of solute in the mixture. Since we know that 28 grams of cannabis containing ~22% THC leaves a maximum of about 6.6 grams of THC (the solute) behind after being cooked in butter (the solvent) and we know that one THC molecule binds to one fat molecule, we can use simple math to figure out how much material we would have to use to make a pound of butter with the maximum amount of THC in it. Simply divide the amount of THC (6.6 grams) into half the amount of butter (you are basically replacing half the butter with THC, so the 454 grams in 1 pound becomes 227 grams) to see how many “washes” it would take (35, in this case). Basically you would cook out the first 6.6 grams, strain out the used material, place fresh material in the butter and cook out that 6.6 grams, and repeat. By reusing the same butter with fresh marijuana you are raising the concentration of THC in the butter.

Now, keep in mind that you really won’t ever be able to get a completely even mix of THC and butter — that is just an ideal hypothetical. While cannabutter is the most common form of marijuana edible (mostly because it can be easily made and used in thousands of recipes), it isn’t quite as efficient as other extraction methods like tinctures and oils (and as a complex organic compound has nowhere near the same affinity for THC that some chemicals like hexane have).

The Results

1. Most people use about a half ounce of cannabis for every half pound of butter. Yes, this is the same as saying “an ounce of cannabis for every pound of butter” or “a quarter ounce of weed for every quarter pound of butter” — but it seems like most people make their cannabutter in half pound batches.
2. THC molecules bind on a 1:1 basis. This means that by using multiple washes, you could hypothetically wind up with a 50/50 mix of solute and solvent, though this is largely unrealistic due to impurities in most food-based solvents.
3. Pre-baking your cannabis at 122°F (50°C) decarboxylates it. This ensures you are getting the most “usable” THC possible by converting THCa into THC.
4. It’s important to grind your marijuana before you do anything with it. Increasing the surface area helps get the chemical reactions over with faster, which means less time stirring your butter and more time medicating.

So now you know how much you cannabis can use when making edibles, but how much should you use? The Norther American Industrial Hemp Council hosts an interesting set of medical marijuana edible dosing guidelines developed by the Nova Institute. It is a long, somewhat technical read but well worth it as it contains tons of information regarding the physiological and mental effects of cannabis ingestion.

In the Future

This article is simply that: an article. The data was gathered loosely over a few hours worth of reading books and browsing the Internet and is by no means the result of a scientific survey — nor are we organic chemists by any means. We’d like to improve the science of this article, so if you have any suggestions or corrections, we’d love to hear them!

“The side effects from a lot of the meds were horrible, but I tried anyway since the migraines were debilitating. Nothing has worked. I have one of the top neurologists in the country who specializes in migraines, and even this doctor cannot figure out why I have them or how to stop them.

After almost giving up, I was offered an edible containing cannabis. It’s a miracle. For the first time in 40 years I feel alive and headache free. I do not feel high, just good. I have to back Robert Galia and Citizens for Compassionate Use 100 percent. There are people who abuse medical marijuana, but don’t blame the dispensaries or growers. Blame the doctors that write the scripts for illegitimate illnesses.”

Read more: http://www.orovillemr.com/opinion/ci_18762212

You will need:

• 4 cups hard apple cider
• 4 tablespoon honey
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 4 grams kief/hash (to taste)
• Cannabis oil (to taste)
• 1 teaspoons nutmeg
• 4 cinnamon sticks for garnish (optional)

These directions for apple cider are really easy:  heat the cider and mix it all up! Make sure you are getting it to at least 245 deg if you can (you can use a candy thermometer for this). Drink it hot or let it cool down and add ice later!

The House Judiciary approved the bill 7-3 after it was changed to allow, but not require, state regulators to call for tamper-proof packaging. No edible products were banned.

Earlier this month, dozens of marijuana activists testified against the proposed ban. The sponsor said she intended it to prevent candies and other sweets from improperly being eaten by children. But many patients and even some doctors pointed out that marijuana is safer to eat than to smoke.

After the vote, sponsoring Rep. Cindy Acree said she didn’t intend to limit patient access to edible marijuana. The new version, which faces another committee before heading to the full House, simply allows tamper-proof packages.

“My biggest concern in all this is the safety of children,” said Acree, R-Aurora.

Colorado’s Department of Revenue has already proposed sweeping regulations on the safe production of marijuana edibles, including labeling requirements. Even though Acree’s bill was dramatically watered down, some in the Judiciary Committee wondered whether edible marijuana packaging should be put in law at all.

“We’re getting so far down in the weeds in the specifics that I could see use coming back next year and the next year and the next,” said Democratic Rep. Sue Ryden of Aurora, who voted against the watered-down version.

A few marijuana activists attended the vote and said that even the watered-down bill should have been rejected.

Laura Kriho, outreach coordinator for the Cannabis Therapy Institute, pointed out that state regulators are already moving toward safety and labeling requirement for pot brownies and other edibles.

Read More: http://www.420magazine.com/forums/medical-marijuana-news/138629-edible-marijuana-survives-colorado-challenge-child-proof-packages-could-required.html

For those who missed the memo last week, July 29 was apparently Eat Marijuana While Getting Arrested Day.

Two men - one in North Carolina and one in Arizona - were arrested on Thursday for pot possession and both tried to eat the evidence.

The only difference? The guy in Arizona happened to be former NBA player Samaki Walker, who was selected by the Dallas Mavericks with the No. 9 pick in the 1996 NBA Draft (before Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash).

According to WTOV9.com: “After being pulled over in his 2002 Mercedes-Benz during a routine traffic stop in Kingman (Ariz.), Walker attempted to eat eight grams of marijuana before he was arrested. Officials seized a total of approximately 10 grams of marijuana, in addition to some prescription drugs and eight bottles of liquid steroids. “

Apparently, the 35-year-old Walker still plays in Syria where liquid steroids are legal. Alas, they are illegal in Arizona – and so is marijuana.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31751_162-20086281-10391697.html

Take Stock Of Your Skills

The first thing that you will need to do on journey to culinary greatness is to really take a good, long look at yourself and take stock of your current cooking capabilities. Before you know what you need to improve on, you’ll need to know where your current skill level lies. Are you a master of French cuisine, perhaps some kind of pastry savant? Or is your idea of cooking more along the lines of taking something out of the freezer and putting it in the microwave? This is an honest question that you’ll need to ask  yourself, and for a very practical reason: weed can be very costly.

If you burn things more than you don’t, your best bet is to really focus on your basic cooking skills before attempting a fancy weed recipe — if for no other reason that not wanting to waste your weed. That is not to say there aren’t marijuana recipes out there that can be made by a bad cook (in fact our site is full of super easy to make marijuana edibles), but before you go using up 4 ounces of delicious Northern Lights on a giant batch of brownies that you’ve never made before, you might want to make sure you get some practice in first. Just sayin’.

Once you feel comfortable with your cooking abilities you should read up on the science of cannabis. While cannabis is easy to smoke — pack bowl, apply flame, inhale — to be an effective cook it is best to understand at least a little about cannabis chemistry. Understanding the chemical make-up of cannabinoids and how they react to things like heat and acids is essential to making powerful edibles and getting the “biggest bang for your buck.”

Decide What You Want To Eat

The world of cannafood is no different than regular food — there are a million options and a million way to make each option. While some kinds of medical marijuana edibles can be very similar (hard candies and chocolates share a lot in common for example), others can be quite different from each other (a marijuana milkshake and a lobster canna-bisque are quite different altogether). We recommend that you pick a dish that is easy and cheap enough to make a lot of, but something that you won’t get sick of: brownies. Of course, you aren’t limited to brownies — literally any food can be turned into a cannafood after all! — but they are a great starter food.

Figure Out Your Chemistry

First, read as much as you can about cannabis chemistry. Google is great for this, as is this site. Then take a look at a recipe you’d like to make. What do you notice about it? Does it call for the marijuana to be pre-heated? Are there any special instructions? How does it compare to a “normal” recipe for the same dish? “Backwards engineering” existing recipes is a great first step towards learning the rules of cannacooking and when to apply them.

Here are some things you’ll probably notice when you do get around to trying it:

1. It takes longer for the high to kick in.
2. It takes longer for the high to wear off.
3. You might get couchlocked due to your massive body high.
4. Your physical pain will be greatly (if not completely) reduced.
5. While you might be too stoned to carry on an in-depth conversation, you’ll probably be great at focusing on tasks like drawing and playing video games.
6. “NEED. MOAR.”

And don’t over indulge! Be careful of getting stuck in the “Fat Loop” aka getting “Stoner Syndrome” — you’re so stoned that you keep eating edibles, and eating edibles just makes you more stoned. While we certainly don’t know of anyone that has ever overdosed on THC (medically impossible)… getting stuck in the eating-makes-you-high and being-high-makes-you-eat loop has definitely sent more than one stoner we know to bed (or the bathroom) with a stomach ache.

Although recent studies have indicated what we’ve all been noticing for quite some time now — that stoners really are thinner than non-stoners — obesity is still no joke. Whether you are making edibles to medicate or for recreational use, we definitely support the “Make ‘Em Stronger” mindset versus the “Eat More Of ‘Em” method. As most of these recipes rely on THC binding to fats and oils, you have to keep in mind that a lot of these recipes are very rich. As such, use common sense when dosing your edibles. If you find yourself wanting to eat way more that the recommended serving to achieve the desired results, make the recipe stronger next time.

Cannabis circa China, 4500 BCE

Most historians will agree that the first evidence of wide-spread use of cannabis comes from China — about 6,500 years ago in fact. The Yang-Shao (the oldest known Neolithic culture in China) harvested cannabis seeds to be used as grains. The seeds were ground into meal, roasted whole, or cooked into porridge. The ancient tombs of China contained vessels filled with sacrificial hemp seeds to be used in the afterlife. While the Chinese did not incorporate cannabis directly in ancient spiritual rituals, the effects of the plants resinous leaves and flowers definitely did not go unnoticed. The world’s oldest known pharmacopoeia, the “Pên-ts’ao Ching”, states that the flowering tops of hemp plants, if taken “in excess” or over a long term, will make one “communicate with spirits and lightens one’s body.” Sounds fun!

The document then goes on to describe marijuana preparations for ailments such as malaria, constipation, rheumatic pains, absent-mindedness and “female-disorders”. As new agricultural technologies developed, the ancient Chinese learned to mill, heat, and wedge press cannabis seeds, effectively extracting the valuable hemp-seed oil — a technique still used in the western world in the twenty-first century. These pressed cannabis seeds yielded an astounding ~20% oil by weight! Talk about a blast from the past!

Cannabis oil was found to have a number of uses (though this site is most concerned with its use in cooking). After oil extraction, the residue (“hemp cake”) still contained nutritious oils and proteins, which became a healthy feed for domesticated animals… and more than the occasional poor person. Thus, the ancient Chinese likely became the first to discover, harvest, and cook with cannabis.

The Cannabis Culture of Ancient India

About 2,500 years later, the wandering Aryans (a nomadic Indo-Persian tribe) brought cannabis to India where it was quickly embraced for both its practical applications (e.g. hemp-fiber and nutrition) and its assistance in religious rituals (i.e. its psychoactive effect). Indians worshiped the spirits of plants and animals and marijuana immediately began to play a very active role in their rituals — and as a plant it eventually became an object of worship itself!

Marijuana became sacred and its spirit (the “bhangas spirit”) was worshiped “for freedom of distress and as a reliever of anxiety”. The ancient Indians saw this miraculous plant as a gift from the gods, wisely identifying it as a herb that lowered fevers, fostered sleep, relieved dysentery, stimulated appetite, prolonged life, quickened the mind, and improved judgment. We’re sure “be happier” was probably in that list, too.

Ghee Butter and Bhang

Like the Chinese, the ancient Indians used the seeds as grain for cooking. Unlike the the Chinese, however, the Indians also thought to harness the unique pharmacological effects of marijuana by cooking the flowers, leaves, and stems — instead of the just seeds — into ghee butter to be used in a myriad of recipes.

Ghee, a common ingredient in modern Indian food, is a delicious clarified butter that can be stored for super long periods of time without refrigeration (provided that it is stored in an airtight container). Cannabis-infused ghee can be substituted whenever regular ghee is called for provided the recipe ensures it will not be cooked at temperatures over 401 degrees Fahrenheit (at which point THC begins to break down and lose its potency).

In addition to cannabis ghee, ancient Indians also blended marijuana with other spices (e.g. poppy seed, pepper, ginger, caraway seeds, cloves, cardamon, cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar and milk) in a drink called “Bhang.” To this day, Bhang is commonly enjoyed in India in a similar way that alcohol is consumed in the west.

Cannabis Moves Across Ye Olde Europe

Eventually marijuana moved through the Middle East to countries like Babylonia, Palestine, and Egypt, where hemp was used in fabrics and as grains. It moved to Greece and may have been referenced in Homer’s great epic, The Odyssey. The Greeks and Romans made no notice of the plant’s intoxicant properties, but used cannabis hemp in fibers to make clothing and rugs.

Cooking With Cannabis in the United States

With increased trade and travel, cannabis seed was finally brought into all parts of the known world. When the first settlers came to the Americas, they brought cannabis with them. As far as the history of cooking with cannabis in the United States goes, the record is rocky, but certainly had its renaissance in the 60′s and 70′s with the strong Indian influence on the “hippie” generation.

Today, cooking with cannabis has come back into vogue; especially with the decriminalization of marijuana in 15+ states and the ever-present medicinal marijuana prescriptions permeating suburbia. Cooking with cannabis is a great way to experience both the nutritional and physiological effects of the plant. Cooking is a great hobby and a great relaxer, there’s a reason people have been cooking with cannabis for thousands and thousands of years.

• Rule #1: Always, always, ALWAYS grind your bud. This is true whether you are smoking, vaporizing, or eating — the more surface area the plant matter has the more efficient the chemistry is going to be. For example, when you are making cannabutter, the THC is activated/released from the plant material to be absorbed by the fat in the butter. By grinding your weed as finely as possible you are increasing the amount of surface area where the two components (marijuana and butter) are touching, and this facilitates a faster chemical exchange. Likewise for vaporizing: more surface area means more places where the THC vapor can escape the plant matter and being their airborne journey into your lungs. We highly, highly recommend Kannastor grinders, though there are a number of places where you can buy quality hand grinders for cheap. You can also find electric grinders in the EdibleMJ Shop if you like to bake in bulk (like a sensible person).
• Rule #2: Take your time to separate all the different parts of the plant. Some recipes call for cannabutter, some recipes call for hemp seeds, some recipes call for leaf trim… you get the idea. No one wants to bite into a soft brownie and get poked with a stem. Also, different parts of the plant lose moisture at different rates. This means that two different things (say, a delicious cake and a seed that made its way into the batter) baked at a medium temperature over a period of time could result in one item cooking before the other (i.e. the errant seed might eventually get hot enough to burn and turn bitter, potentially ruining the sweet cake recipe it snuck its way into). We’ve found that proper separation helps alleviate problems like this; in fact, you should invest in containers to split up all your bits and pieces. Many cannachefs keep a bud jar, a stem jar, a seed jar, a keif jar, etc. Investing in a good pair of scissors or shears can really save you time and sore hands as well if you are preparing a large amount of marijuana. Gerber makes a great pair of game shears that are great for cutting plant material as well. Pro tip: Make sure that you clean your scissors and other tools with rubbing alcohol after every use to keep them working like new and free of sticky resin.
• Rule #3: Don’t bother with male plants. We keep reading “testimonials” from people swearing that they got super high while smoking male leaves. Yes, male plants do have THC in them and yes, you can extract what littler might be there when making cannabutter or marijuana tinctures. The only problem is that you’ll also be getting way more plant material (like chlorophyll) than “active ingredients”. If you really don’t care about having a weaker, less tasty, or otherwise inferior final product… by all means go ahead and use the male plants! It’s of our opinion, however, that male plants should be killed as soon as they become suspect (unless you are trying to make seeds on purpose, of course) and the nutes and light be better spent on the ladies. If you really hate to see things go to waste, make cannabutter with the male plant matter. As long as you keep the butter above its melting point and don’t let it solidify, you can keep cooking fresh marijuana into the same butter over and over until the butter has reached its saturation limit. This allows lower-quality cannabis like mids or schwag (or male marijuana plants) to be used most effectively.