SweetSue's Cannabis Oil Study Hall

[SweetSue]

I think I have everything I need to make the bio bombs. My sister is presently taking orally a dose equal to two grains of rice every four hours. I was wandering what ratio you think I should make for her. I'm hoping suppositories will help her be able to function a little better. I also read the mention about orange essential oil. Do you think that might help her?

Good evening Duarte. Good work on gathering the components. I'd say she's past the 20:1 level and my gut says start with the 10:1. Is she under the care of an oncologist? If so, when are her next labs scheduled? At 10:1 that will give her approximately 100 mg per dose, including the small tack or sublingual that precedes the suppository. Three to four doses a day feels like the most rational schedule, and I'd probably hang there until I have some lab feedback.

I'm thinking that a good way to start might be to substitute one oral dose with a suppository and see how she tolerates it, then systematically replace the others until she's just doing suppositories and small tacks. The rule is start low and go slow. Wise words with any medication, but with cannabis it's easy to go overboard, and the clinicians are beginning to learn that lower doses can often be very effective.

I had a thought about her the other day. I use capsules as suppositories, to get extra cannabinoids into my own system, with and without euphoria. I've been experimenting with insertion depths to get a better feel for what a patient might be up against. If she finds the capsules too difficult to deal with, or too uncomfortable, it's possible to use 1ml oral syringes, filled with the appropiate dose. Insert the tip and push the plunger. This is a method used successfully by other members.

 

[Duarte]

Just to make sure I have it right. Combine 1cc CCO, 8cc carrier oil (I bought olive oil), 2cc lecithin. Refrigerate 24 hours and fill capsules.Thanks for all your help.

 

[KingstonRabbi]

Just to make sure I have it right. Combine 1cc CCO, 8cc carrier oil (I bought olive oil), 2cc lecithin. Refrigerate 24 hours and fill capsules.Thanks for all your help.

And mix really, really well. I often have some separation after 1st night in refrigerator. I let it warm to room temp so it blends better, mix it back together and refrigerate again. Did I mention mixing? Hard to do too much.

Yes, you have the recipe right. And be prepared to stare in wonder and amazement at having made some of the most powerful medicine with your own hands.

 

[Duarte]

Approximately how many capsules should I expect that to fill?

 

[Danolo]

Approximately how many capsules should I expect that to fill?

You've got 11 cc's of mixture to start with and if you are using 1 cc caps, you'll get 11 caps. My experience is that I typically don't fill the caps brimming full, because of the risk of spill, so from that batch I might get 12 or 13.

Let us know.

 

[Danolo]

Well, we have a small problem...

This morning my wife's arthritis pain was fairly high. I gave her a bowl of a fave strain (Lemon Sour Diesel) in the vaporiser, and it made her cough a lot. So much so, she refused to vape any more.

So, I was casting around for an alternative and remembered I had some THC capsules I bought at a fave dispensary, here in Toronto. They are labelled "50 MG THC Canna Caps".

She got a buzz from the cap shortly after that , but it was not long lasting.. Then she took (shoved) one of her Bio Bombs.

Then the pain got worse... she said it was at a level of 10. She was just about to take a Pharma, but first she immersed her hands and wrists in the kitchen sink full of hot warm : instant relief, but temporary, Then she decided to do another bowl of herb (Pineapple express) and that is now helping her pain, with no cough!???

So, I have a couple of questions:
Did the double dose of THC in the THC cap and the Bio Bomb somehow trigger a pain episode?

What is it that makes her cough so much?

I haven't been able to isolate when a cough happens... I did re-humidify my storage container of herb with a dime sized slice of carrot, and that was the only change I made to the herb... could that have caused the cough?

Ahhh, like she says, we're guinea pigs...

I'd be glad to hear any input on this...

 

[Danolo]

...

20 minutes later...

In review, we are pretty certain that the THC cap did not cause the spike in pain. Its more likely just one of those episodes that happen from time to time. She's got the pain down to 3-4 now and is fine..planning her day...

I am disappointed that the THC canna cap did not last longer.. I bought 5 of them $5 each,and I'm gonna try one tomorrow morning for my W&B and see what happens.

 

[Duarte]

Thank you. That helps. I plan to fill them tonight. Hoping these work better for her. Should she take the supplements along with the suppositories, or just with the oral doses?

 

[KingstonRabbi]

Thank you. That helps. I plan to fill them tonight. Hoping these work better for her. Should she take the supplements along with the suppositories, or just with the oral doses?

Take the supplements 30 min before suppositories, same as for oral doses.

 

[SweetSue]

...

20 minutes later...

In review, we are pretty certain that the THC cap did not cause the spike in pain. Its more likely just one of those episodes that happen from time to time. She's got the pain down to 3-4 now and is fine..planning her day...

I am disappointed that the THC canna cap did not last longer.. I bought 5 of them $5 each,and I'm gonna try one tomorrow morning for my W&B and see what happens.

First off, it's distressing that her system would do a pain scream like that. There's a bottling up going on somewhere, and it'd be nice to have one of us be inspired somewhere along the line to figure it out so it could be headed off. My daughter's system used to do this with anxiety. For the most part she has it controlled with her regimine, but before we found cannabis every once in a while it was like a logjam would begin to build somewhere and suddenly a wave of panic would hit out of the blue.

In my inexpert opinion I'd say the big difference between those THC caps and BioBombs could be your choice of a carrier oil and your inclusion of lecithin. It's hard to imagine doing it any other way though, isn't it? I have no idea how they make capsules for distribution.

Thoughts on the vaping: What temperature are you starting at, and are you keying the temps up to get everything? To begin, it may help to start at a lower temp and get the terpenes out first, then toggle up to vaporize the cannabinoids. If you're starting at the max temp for your comfort zone it may be too much too fast for her system to take.

Also, smaller inhallations with at least a minute in between are worth exploring.

To be honest, I don't vape that much, but the best experiences I've had were with the Kind pen, which has three temps. When I use that one I tend to start with a couple hits at low and then move up the temp scale to finish with the major cannabinoids. There's a whole science around vaping that I know very little about.

 

[SweetSue]

Fresh Harvest Oil

This is documentation of my recent run of fresh-harvest infused olive oil, so carefully developed by PsyCro and written up in his thread Olive oil extract update. I've adapted it a bit for my own purposes, but I recommend you read through his instructions. I've cleaned them up a bit in a blog PsyCro's Olive Oil Extraction Method. On to the fun.

The plant was cut, washed, and hung to drip dry for about four hours.

Buds were all clipped into the stock pot. This is a 3-quart stainless and I used 350 grams of buds and 437 ml of olive oil. PsyCro's recipe is for 400 grams of bud for every 500 ml of olive oil.

What was left was placed into small jars with open tops and dropped into the refrigerator for a two-week dry under low temp and humidity. Another experiment I'm playing with. It's a technique I learned from Dr Ziggy. It may be a way to retain more of the terpene profile during the drying stage.

Add the olive oil.

Get out the immersion blender and blend away. This take a good while so be kind to the blender. I found short bursts of power a better fit. That's a lot of plant material you're breaking down. Take your time and turn it to mush.

I keep going until I can't identify any piece of what I'm looking at, other than "green" and "plant material."

The stainless pot sits in a Dutch oven that gets filled with oil to create a double boiler. A water bath won't get temperatures in the pot high enough to decarb. I use Canola oil. Avoid cheap vegetable oils.

The rings in the bottom keep the stainless pot away from direct heat. Four of them lend stability to the arrangement. We're playing with hot oil here, it pays to be extra cautious.

Turn the fire on low and let the oil get up to temperature. This isn't a process you're going to rush. Block out the next three hours.

You'll be stirring every five minutes or so for the next three hours. After about 10-20 minutes you'll begin to see movement.

When you hit a consistent temperature of 212 degrees F (100 degrees C) set the timer for two hours. According to PsyCro's directions you're looking for a baseline of 221 degrees F (105 degrees C) for two hours. I personally try to keep mine at between 220 -230 degrees for at least 45 minutes of that two hours.

Initially what you're doing is boiling off the water. Keeping the temps in this range protects the cannabinoids. When the water boils off it can get dramatic. The depth of this pot was by design. You don't want hot oil and this watery mix to meet. Trust me, I speak from experience.

When it got to this stage I added a tablespoon of liquid sunflower lecithin.

Then, suddenly the activity diminishes and you begin to settle into serious oil production. Watch the flame to control the heat. It can spike quickly, but with a little experience you'll get the hang of it.

Decarb bubbles begin to surface. From now on I'm even more aggressive about mixing and mashing.

After I fished the thermometer out of the hot oily mash a couple times I hooked it to the pot. Life got much easier from then on.

You can see the noticable difference in the bubbles. This is the look of decarb.

At the two hour point, on the nose, this was all the bubbles I could generate. I could have let it go all the way until I got no bubbles at all, but I don't mind the mix of some acid cannabinoids. At this point, quite frankly, I was beginning to tire, and I had all of this to strain yet. I called it quits here and strained.

PsyCro has a more intensive finish to his production and he reclaims almost all of the oil he started with. I wasn't as aggressive, deciding that the almost constant agitation I gave my plant material as it cooked had knocked all of the trichomes open, spilling their precious stores into my olive oil. I assure you, if I didn't have more plants coming behind this one I'd have been more aggressive about getting every drop. Next run I'll work on that aspect. PsyCro has it all laid out in his thread.

Once it was strained I stirred in another tablespoon of lecithin and refrigerated overnight. This morning I brought it back to room temp, stirred well and filled capsules. KR's right, you really can't stir enough. Like the biobombs, the lecithin can separate overnight the first time. Next time I make oil I'll keep that second refrigeration in mind. I can see how that would be greatly beneficial.

Back on track. I took my first dose when I finished the first group of capsules. Running out should be a a non-issue from here on out.

So why do this labor-intensive method? Well, if you have mites like I did it allows you to save the harvest from the compost pile. Beyond that motivation, there's a strong argument to be made that more of the terpenes and flavonoids are locked into the olive oil, thus potentiating the cannabinoids with a stronger entourage effect.

Don't discount the value of processing on the day you harvest. There's nothing left except the roots, the stalk, the branches and the cooked down plant material. No plant hangs in my small apartment today, as is the norm when I dry before making oil. That was more of a relief than I anticipated.

Another tool in the oil-maker's belt. This is potent oil, loaded with medicinal value from the cannabis, the olive oil and the lecithin emulsifying it all together. You control the decarb, opening interesting possibilities.

I hope this helps someone gain the confidence to try this method. PsyCro is working out using a pressure cooker, and he's wonderfully pleased with how it's turning out. It's covered in his thread. Have fun with it.

 

[SweetSue]

Oil-making particulars

Some time ago DrZiggy introduced us to his Low and Slow method of drying cannabis. Loosely fill your jar with buds, put a screen on instead of a solid lid, and put it out of the way in your refrigerator for at least two weeks. You want temperatures around 35 degrees F and humidity around 40%. This is pretty close to where mine hovers, so I didn't bother to check. I simply placed them in the drawer and forgot about them. When I came upon them I'd give them a gentle tumble, but mostly I ignored them.

This morning I'm testing it out, and OMG! This is a strain I grow continuiously. I'm over ten individual specimens by now, I'm sure. This is a completely different euphoric effect than I've gotten from any of the others, including this same plant that was processed into fresh-harvest oil the day what I'm smoking went into the fridge.

Ziggy uses half-gallon jars. I only had popcorn buds, and very few at that.

I harvested about three weeks ago, I believe, so no cure at all yet. The very first thing I noticed when I removed them from the fridge was the bright greens in the sugar leaves. It was startling. Since coming to room temperature the smell has become consistent with what I expect from Carnival, excepting this one smells more like lemon flavoring, it's that intense. Had me thinking of lemon drop candies yesterday, where my buds dried the conventional way smell more like lemon-scented Lysol. Hmmm..... Interesting. I'll have to give that closer consideration.

My theory is that the temps suspend the evaporation of the terpenes and the flavonoids. This is causing a more profound entourage effect. I wish I'd done more of the plant like this. The cold would have killed any mite eggs, making this another option to save an infested harvest.

I'm considering the potential of buds dried in the refrigerator and processed into GrowGoddess's ND SAP oil. If what I'm experiencing is any indication of what can be expected, we're on to something here. I'll be drying my next harvest in this manner, and likely every harvest from here on out. I keep very little food in my refrigerator as it is. Leaves lots of room for drying.

They're not pretty buds at all, but potent as hell. I almost forgot this technique and these were the popcorn buds, all that was left. All the best buds had already been cut up and were in the pot to be cooked down into oil.

I highly recommend you experiment with this method. When your cannabis smacks you go and thank Ziggy.

Edit: DrZiggy tells me it must be a frost-free refrigerator.

 

[illizm775]

Sweetsue, ive stumbled on your page a few times and have utilized some of your decarbbing techniques. I would just like to thank you for gathering and contributing all this knowladge in one place to study because i find myself coming back for reference time and again. :muchlove420Mag:

 

[SweetSue]

Sweetsue, ive stumbled on your page a few times and have utilized some of your decarbbing techniques. I would just like to thank you for gathering and contributing all this knowladge in one place to study because i find myself coming back for reference time and again. :muchlove420Mag:

Why thank you illizm775. The gathering and sharing brings me tremendous joy, and I'm learning so much myself it's almost overwhelming. I'm so pleased you're finding use for it. That was our hope when we started this adventure. I'm working on cataloging the pages, but it's a slow-going process so far. If there's ever anything you can't find please feel free to stop and ask.

 

[Danolo]

First off, it's distressing that her system would do a pain scream like that. There's a bottling up going on somewhere, and it'd be nice to have one of us be inspired somewhere along the line to figure it out so it could be headed off. My daughter's system used to do this with anxiety. For the most part she has it controlled with her regimine, but before we found cannabis every once in a while it was like a logjam would begin to build somewhere and suddenly a wave of panic would hit out of the blue.

In my inexpert opinion I'd say the big difference between those THC caps and BioBombs could be your choice of a carrier oil and your inclusion of lecithin. It's hard to imagine doing it any other way though, isn't it? I have no idea how they make capsules for distribution.

Thoughts on the vaping: What temperature are you starting at, and are you keying the temps up to get everything? To begin, it may help to start at a lower temp and get the terpenes out first, then toggle up to vaporize the cannabinoids. If you're starting at the max temp for your comfort zone it may be too much too fast for her system to take.

Also, smaller inhallations with at least a minute in between are worth exploring.

To be honest, I don't vape that much, but the best experiences I've had were with the Kind pen, which has three temps. When I use that one I tend to start with a couple hits at low and then move up the temp scale to finish with the major cannabinoids. There's a whole science around vaping that I know very little about.

Yeah, we want to find out what "triggers" the pain scream. <<<accurate name for it!

We have a Vaporiser that has 5 different temps and we use them all.

Thanks Sue

 

[AKgramma]

I have been curing my buds in the bottom of my fridge for a couple years now. I can control the moisture level better, and it slows down the maturation process. So, in spite of my buds looking like poop, they pack a whallop!

Instead of a screen or muslin (good idea, tho) I dry them traditionally til they are almost dry, then drop them in the jars with a Boveda pack and cap tightly. I tumble them a bit when I remember to loosen them up, but I haven't had to burp them.

My small, airy buds, I finger press into nugs while still fairly fresh and sticky, then dry as usual.

 

[SweetSue]

I have been curing my buds in the bottom of my fridge for a couple years now. I can control the moisture level better, and it slows down the maturation process. So, in spite of my buds looking like poop, they pack a whallop!

Instead of a screen or muslin (good idea, tho) I dry them traditionally til they are almost dry, then drop them in the jars with a Boveda pack and cap tightly. I tumble them a bit when I remember to loosen them up, but I haven't had to burp them.

My small, airy buds, I finger press into nugs while still fairly fresh and sticky, then dry as usual.

I'm developing a partiality to the small, airy buds myself. For one thing, I'm suspecting the oil components might be slightly different lower in the plant where most of these buds come from. They dry faster, and although they require more jar space to store, I find small buds, airy or not, easier to use in oil-making. Just a personal preference.

I'll have to consider curing them in there too, although I'm thinking I'd rather dry them in the fridge and then vacuum seal them until I have what I need for oil.

Planning a smoothie for breakfast. The CCO mix is chilling for the night.

 

[AKgramma]

I'm developing a partiality to the small, airy buds myself. For one thing, I'm suspecting the oil components might be slightly different lower in the plant where most of these buds come from. They dry faster, and although they require more jar space to store, I find small buds, airy or not, easier to use in oil-making. Just a personal preference.

I'll have to consider curing them in there too, although I'm thinking I'd rather dry them in the fridge and then vacuum seal them until I have what I need for oil.

There yah go, getting all tech on me again! LOL!

 

[SweetSue]

There yah go, getting all tech on me again! LOL!

I know, I keep trying to go low-tech, but some of the equipment feels necessary. If I'm planning to retain the components I'll have to take oxygen out of the formula as the plant material waits. I haven't even priced a vacuum sealing system yet.

 

[SweetSue]

Yummy!

Three more doses left. They're packing something in the neighborhood of 200-250 mg of cannabinoids.