How to Stretch Your Weed During a Quarantine

I woke up today to two alerts saying that the coronavirus has confirmed cases in nearby counties. Since I work from home and don’t leave the house much, being in quarantined isn’t too bad. I’m used to it.

Still, there’s a big issue that I hadn’t considered as I ground up some Hawaiian Haze to pack into my vaporizer… What if I run out of weed?

This isn’t just some kind of Dude Where’s My Car stoner dilemma. It’s not like “DUUUUUDE. We’ve got to get to the hospital and buy an ounce of weed from our pot dealer who’s got the corona without contracting the disease so we can watch our favorite movie all high!”

I – like you – use cannabis medicinally and without it, many of my symptoms and issues return. With things getting shut down all over the world and with public panic at an all time high (no pun intended), we’re all being forced to think about what we’ll need on hand if we end up stuck inside for weeks on end.

If you’ve been using cannabis to help manage health issues, it’s important to stock up and stretch what you have, especially during a quarantine.

That’s why today, I want to talk about three ways you can stretch your cannabis during this strange time.

Quit smoking and Save the Cannabinoids

Next week, we’ll share what we’re learning about cannabinoids and the immune system and in that post, we’re going to talk about reasons to put down the bong and start smoking less.

But here’s one good reason… When you’re smoking your cannabis, you’re inhaling less than 50% of the cannabinoids. The rest is either degraded during combustion or released into the air.

It’s just plain wasteful.

To get the most out of your weed, infuse it into fat (like MCT oil) or vaporize your bud.

A machine like Ardent’s Nova will retain at least 97% of your cannabinoids (your oven may burn off 40% or more) when you activate the THC/CBD/etc. (called decarboxylation). You can use the code WAKEANDBAKE for $30 off the Nova.

After your weed has been decarboxylated, you can infuse it into ghee, coconut oil, MCT oil, tinctures, topicals, edibles, etc. so you can ingest every single last bit of that cannabinoid goodness.

You can also use a dry herb vaporizer. Since the temperature is much lower than smoking, there is no combustion effect.

You’ll retain more cannabinoids.

After you’ve finished vaping your dry herb, you can collect the AVB (already vaped bud) and do several things with it:

• Create an oil (here’s a recipe)
• Eat it straight up. I sprinkle it on my popcorn or garnish anything with it.
• Cover it with some alcohol and make a tincture.
• Smoke it, if you really want to. It’ll taste nasty and I don’t find it’s nearly as strong as when I eat it, but player’s choice.

Microdose

If you’ve been smoking or ingesting cannabis for a long time, you may have built up a tolerance and may be habitually taking more than you need. This is a great time to scale back and start a microdosing routine that will save you money and may lead to better effects.

Research is showing that there’s a goldilocks zone – especially for high THC plant medicine – so scale back and start low to stretch your cannabis and get the effects that you want.

Here’s my guide to microdosing and balancing cannabinoid ratios so you can get the results you’re looking for without wasting weed.

Get your weed into mason jars

Cannabis is a plant and it will not last forever so making sure you’re storing it in optimal conditions will help you preserve your weed longer.

Plastic, humidity, and sunlight can contribute to the growth of mold.

So if it’s twisted up in a plastic bag or dumped in a Ziploc somewhere, get your cannabis into glass jars. Place it somewhere cool and dark, like the back of your cabinet.

Note: You don’t want to freeze your weed because you can damage the precious trichomes. If the trichomes fall off before you can use it, you’ll lose a lot of potency, unless you’re making Ice Dragon Tincture or making other edibles (for more recipes, check out Dazed + Infused).

And there you have it. A couple of ways to stretch your weed during a quarantine.

Do you have other suggestions? We’d love to hear it in the Facebook group or in the comments below.

With love,

Fiona

Wake + Bake Staff Writer