New Experiment: Isopropyl Alcohol Cannabis Leaf topical
So a while back I was talking to my dad about cannabis and all the benefits and he had told me about a mexican man he worked with who uses cannabis leaves and isopropyl alcohol for a topical pain relief. He said that the man's whole family in mexico uses this topical rub to treat pain and said it worked better than anything you could commercially buy. From what he said they just pull the leaves off the cannabis plant, put them in a bottle/jar of isopropyl alcohol and let it sit for a while, and then when they have pain it is rubbed on the skin in the area of the pain and it takes it away.... (not to be used orally!!!!!)
About 2 months later after this discussion I was browsing the news and spotted an article that also was saying the same thing that the cannabis/iso mix is a mexican remedy and has been used for generations for pain.
So that brings me tonight.... A buddy called me who is same age as me, mid 30's with severe back pain and wanted to know my thoughts on using cannabis products for his pain. He doesn't like taking "pills" or pharma solutions so he wanted to know if CBD would work and what kinds of products are available on the market. After seeing that the average small container of CBD rub is upwards of $80, I remembered the conversation with my dad about the old mexican topical rub with cannabis leaves.
Well I decided to give it a try. I sourced a few different articles and some said that you should use dry cannabis buds, some said dry leaves, some say fresh leaves.... and from what I remember my dad telling me about his mexican buddy, he also uses fresh leaves. Each source said that you should use at least 70% or higher isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol, so I found some 91% on sale (buy 1 get 1 free, Score!!!) and picked up a few bottles.
Well I didn't want to spend time jamming leaves into the little neck of the iso bottle, so I had a mason jar that was clean and decided that it would work, so I started pulling leaves off my plants that are about ready to flower. ( I needed to defoliate anyways) haha
I tried mainly to take leaves off the harlequin plant being that it is high CBD, but then I remember reading somewhere that a lot of CBD is present in cannabis leaves, and typically indica's are higher in CBD so I pulled some leaves off a few of my more indica dominant plants. I filled the mason jar up with leaves, ran some water into it, shook it good to clean the leaves and then let the water run into the sink.
I then grabbed my scissors and started hacking at the leaves to chop them into tiny pieces, which then reduced the jar to about 1/2 full so I went back to my tent for another handful of leaves. Rinse, shake dry, chopped and into the jar they went. At this point the jar was about 3/4 full of chopped fresh cannabis leaves.
Then I grabbed one of the bottles of Isopropyl alcohol and filled up the mason jar to the top, leaving about 1/2 space for air, closed the lid on tight and shook it really hard for about 2 minutes.
According to most of the articles I read about using Iso to extract the cannabinoids, most suggested to shake the jar about every 2-3 days, and you want to leave it sit in a cool, dark place for at least 15-30 days.
Well in this case it probably won't help my buddies back pain out, but if this works, I will always have pain relief on hand, compliments of my premixed iso extract.
I decided to try using fresh leaves first and see how well they work, and if its not strong enough I can always add some dried buds to the jars, but I think for this batch I will just use leaves to see if they have any effect, and how well it works
I'm excited to try it, but I will not wish for pain
lol, I will just take it as it comes time to time from my bad back (broke it when I was young) and from my beat up ex-athlete body.
Well I will let everyone know how it works in about a month, but I wanted to share the idea here for anyone who wants to try making a nice topical cannabis extract for pain, for literally a few bucks
Now lets see if it works
