Juicing Trials

[GanjaPharma]

glad to see this thread up. been juicing ganja for my dad as a part of our ongoing efforts to irrigate his cancer with as much cannabinoid as possible.

couple of things we have come across wonder what thoughts you might have.

at first we started with leaf but for the past 3 months or so, we have been using the entire cola, stripped of large fan leaves. buds, sugar, small fans, stem. we just chop it into manageable pieces and it goes into the juicer.

the other thing we became concerned with is the degradation/decarbing of thc-a after juicing. from what we have read, it seems that the ruptured trichomes begin breaking down into psychoactives very quickly, no temp change required. would love some opinion on that.
and also on whether/why you think that freezing and dehydration might stop the breakdown of thc-a in its tracks. right now, dad chops a branch off a rip plant, juices it, and drinks it, within 10 minutes. would LOVE to have freeze dried juice that would remain completely non-psychoactive.

dont get me wrong, the old man LOVES getting ripped. his nightly bho+coconutoil capsules are over 2 grams per dose now....
but compared to what he can consume in the form of fresh juice even that is a tiny amount.

last test we did, he drank the juice of 150 grams of bud. no fans just bud with its attached sugar trim. if dried 150 grams is around 30 grams or so, or the equivalent of 3-4 grams of bho.
no buzz at all. (beyond the normal buzz of his nonstop ganja blazing that is...couldnt get him to lay off for the sake of science)

anyway, if there was a way to get the juice from the feild to the patients without its degradation i would be very happy.

 

[Green Supreme]

That's a good part of why leaf from veg plants not bud. Many folks have no interest in the psycho active part. Using veg leaves means no trichomes, hence no psycho active affects.

This stuff is processed then flash frozen. Not perfect, but it does increase shelf life ,as well as the distance the juice can be distributed. Thanks for looking folks. Peace GS

 

[GanjaPharma]

GS i think you misunderstand. if you drink fresh juiced buds, no matter how ripe, there is absolutely ZERO high.
just tons and tons of thc-acid.

i thought you were freezing to protect from degrading thc-a, i didnt realize it was for shelf life
sry

 

[Green Supreme]

Ya it cannot travel far from production as unfrozen juice. I believe even refrigerated it only has a 3 day shelf life. As to the bud, I am not certain how you could juice buds and not get some trichomes in there. Peace GS

 

[GanjaPharma]

lots and LOTS of trichs GS! but still ALMOST non-psychoactive.

Dr. William Courtney spoke at an event i attended and his research was why we began using whole buds vs leaf. i dont wanna clutter up with the nitty gritty but theres a decent video on you tube, and a whole lot of interesting reading out there.
grain of salt tho...his main supporter in the video is his girlfriend or wife or something, and he has never been subjected to peer review etc... but it bears reading. he makes some very compelling arguments for using whole cannabis vs leaves . although all his writing back in 09 and 2010 was recommending just leaf material.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgEP9FdIzT8

 

[Unistasis]

Trichomes contain acid, not cannabinoids. You have to decarboxylate the acid to make it into cannabinoids.

Of course, some of the trichomes will be decarboxylated into cannabinoids due to over-ripening, the same process as curing. But if you don't smoke it, it won't get you very high.

This seems to be in tune with GanjaPharma's experience.

 

[Green Supreme]

Ya that makes sense. Peace GS

 

[Green Supreme]

Wait, so I take fresh bud and make bubble hash. Now I eat the bubble and I get no psycho active experience? Peace GS

 

[Chimera]

Resin contains acidic cannabinoids... sure they are not the neutral form, but they are certainly cannabinoids.
-Chimera

 

[Green Supreme]

Thanks. Peace GS

 

[Unistasis]

Resin contains acidic cannabinoids... sure they are not the neutral form, but they are certainly cannabinoids.
-Chimera

You will need to decarboxylate the acids into cannabinoids using heat or time.

http://countyourculture.com/2010/11/11/decarboxylation-of-cannabis/

That's why juicing of buds gives no psycho active effects, and this is also the main focus of Dr. William Courtney.

The ability to take large amounts of THC-acid as opposed to small amounts of THC cannabinoids (being decarboxylated), which people have much lower tolerance for.

 

[Chimera]

You are simply incorrect unistasis.

Yes, decarboxylation is required to transform the acidic-cannabinoids into neutral cannabinoids... but rest assured acidic cannabinoids ARE cannabinoids.

We recently ran some shatter and high purity water hash through an HPLC and there was no THC at all... only THCA. If you eat this hash, you get high...

-Chimera

 

[Unistasis]

Ok Chimera.

But how can cannabinoids be acidic at the same time?
It was my understanding, that the cannabis acids had to have it's carboxyl groop removed to act as cannabinoids on the CB-receptors.

It's seems to the opposite experience from what Dr. Courtney says, that the THCA is not psycho active, or at least have a very little affinity for the CB1 receptor.

 

[Green Supreme]

Remember, it is Dr. Courtney trying to convince you to do this. Peace GS

 

[mofeta]

We recently ran some shatter and high purity water hash through an HPLC and there was no THC at all... only THCA. If you eat this hash, you get high...

-Chimera

In the early 80s my friend and I grew lots of Mexican varieties in his yard. We had to keep them real short so they wouldn't get taller than his fence. As these were plants that would get close to 20' tall without topping, they got topped a lot.

The meristems we picked off we called "spiders", alluding to the radial arrangement of the long, thin leaves.

While we worked pinching the spiders off, we would eat some of them. We always got very high, and overdid it a couple of times and got completely wrecked, hallucinating and such.

Occasionally I will do this today, and I always get very high.

Some people get kind of nauseated eating raw weed, I don't.

 

[Builtaforest]

This is Chimera's job.

You have peerless conjecture.

 

[Unistasis]

Well, there's definitely some contradictory information out there regarding THCA getting you high or not, and this also seems to be the case, anecdotally.

I've always been told the importance of heating your cannabis, to make it active, if you're not going to smoke it.
Some studies show that THCA acts different than THC on the CB1 receptors, but this may only be because the study is done in vitro. As Professor Manuel Guzman suggests, there is an enzyme in the human body that decarboxylates THC-COOH.

It may be very individual, and some individuals may have this enzyme working better or worse.
It may also be that the enzyme converting THCA into THC, will lead to a smoother and more regulated release of cannabinoids upon the receptors, than simply just taking cannabinoids in its raw form. I don't know, and as always, I just speculate.

I recommend taking a look at this thread, because it's very relevant to what is discussed here:
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=239876