Everybody loves an edible: you get all the good parts of smoking weed without destroying your lungs. Unfortunately, since New York state does not seem on track to legalize the ‘devil’s herb’ any time soon, if you want to enjoy an edible yourself, you are going to need to employ surreptitious means to get your hands on one.
When most people think of marijuana edibles, they picture a brownie. But weed can be an addition to almost any food.
Before you go out there into the world and throw your bud into brownie mix, read up on the best methods to get yourself stoned.
In order to get the most out of edibles, most people first make ‘cannabutter.’ THC, the active ingredient in marijuana that gets you stoned, is fat-soluble, meaning that it can dissolve into butter or oil. Once the cannabutter is ready, it can be baked into anything as though it is regular old butter.
According to High Times, the pre-eminent marijuana magazine, there are four main methods for making marijuana margarine.
The first method involves spraying Everclear alcohol on the bud to break down the cellulose before simmering together the weed and butter, then straining the weed out with a cheesecloth. The second involves mixing an emulsifier called lecithin with the bud before cooking, which helps THC absorb into the body. The third involves a French press and an electric kettle, which suppresses the dank smell involved in cooking.
These are all complicated and less fun than old-fashioned water-simmered cannabutter.
This method only requires some ganja and clarified butter. For each 8-ounce stick of butter, between 1/4 ounce and 1/2 ounce of weed should be used, depending on the desired potency.
Start out by toasting your bud. In order to activate the THC in marijuana, heat is required. Grind up your bud even more finely than usual (some say to use a food processor) and spread it across a baking tray. Throw it in the oven at 240 degrees for about an hour, stirring occasionally.
This method is by far the most simple, but is fairly easy to mess up. Gather two pots (not a pun) that can fit inside each other. In the bottom pot, add a quart of water and in the upper pot, add your butter. Melt the butter on low heat to avoid excessive bubbling. Once the butter has completely melted, add your finely ground product.
Once the herb is in the pot, turn the heat as low as possible. This is easiest to control on electric stoves, but can also be done with gas. Simmer on low heat for three hours at a minimum. Many sources have shorter times listed, but three hours is necessary for full THC extraction.
Let the butter cool for 10 minutes and then strain the weed out using a cheesecloth or strainer. Use a regular food container and store the butter in the fridge until it solidifies.
Once the butter solidifies, it will be a solid layer on top of some buttery water. Drain out the water and you will have a solid brick of weed butter, which you can use just like regular butter in any baked goods.
High Times tested the results of the most common four methods and found that the Everclear method is most effective, but you might look a little crazy, so this is a good alternative that will still yield you dank butter.
A note that is probably obvious: don’t make these in the stove on the first floor of O’Connor Hall of Dickinson Community. Been there, bad call.