Increasing potency of pills?

[WashougalWonder]

I followed the above recipie, and used the coconut oil. That was not strong enough, so I did the following, and it still isn't what I want. I would like to only consume one 00 every 6-12 hours. I am using awesome cannabis, one hit stuff.

Ok, let me run down my process and maybe I am doing something wrong. Or, if you know how to concentrate more, please advise.

1/4 oz top buds, heat for 5 min at 350. Grind to powder. 2 tablespoons of the oil, and heat in a double broiler (covered) for about 4-5 hours. Take the whole concoction and squeeze thru a filter and the use an eyedropper to to fill the caps. I take 2 capsules every 6-12 hours. Would like that to be one.

I have been having to supplement with smoking. I just had a stent placed in my heart and I really should not smoke at all. I will miss the sudden surges, but it was godawful bad having heart pain.

I have to take a plane trip soon, and feel uncomfortable taking smokeable stuff with me, whereas I can pretty well cover up the pills.

WashougalWonder Reviewed by WashougalWonder on 02-25-2010. Increasing potency of pills? I followed the above recipie, and used the coconut oil. That was not strong enough, so I did the following, and it still isn't what I want. I would like to only consume one 00 every 6-12 hours. I am using awesome cannabis, one hit stuff. Ok, let me run down my process and maybe I am doing something wrong. Or, if you know how to concentrate more, please advise. 1/4 oz top buds, heat for 5 min at 350. Grind to powder. 2 tablespoons of the oil, and heat in a double broiler (covered) Rating: 5

[killerweed420]

I think your problem is the heat. Its burning off the thc before it gets to the capsules. When I dry weed for edibles and grind to powder I use less than 200 degrees and give it about a half hour to dry out slowly. Any heat above about 280 degrees and your going to start losing potency.

[personified]

Pills or raw form it does not matter. I am sure you are wawre that taking it through an airport is a strict Federal Violation.

Just something to be think about as it could lose you your card and that would SUCK.

[WashougalWonder]

Yep I understand that I take huge risk. I have so many pills I take I doubt it would be noticed.

KW420:
Well I tried without the initial heat too. Just the double broiler, which max temp would be 212 F. Did not notice a difference.

I guess I could make several runs concentrating the oil each time by adding more cannabis, just hate to use so much cannabis for so little return, I am limited in how many plants I can have.

[killerweed420]

I wonder if you're losing to much thc by filtering. You might try not filtering and see if there's a difference.

[lampost]

I think your problem is the heat. Its burning off the thc before it gets to the capsules. When I dry weed for edibles and grind to powder I use less than 200 degrees and give it about a half hour to dry out slowly. Any heat above about 280 degrees and your going to start losing potency.

Too bad the underwear bomber had to ruin things... that use to be a safe place to stash a 1/4 or so...

[Graywolf]

I followed the above recipie, and used the coconut oil. That was not strong enough, so I did the following, and it still isn't what I want. I would like to only consume one 00 every 6-12 hours. I am using awesome cannabis, one hit stuff.

Ok, let me run down my process and maybe I am doing something wrong. Or, if you know how to concentrate more, please advise.

1/4 oz top buds, heat for 5 min at 350. Grind to powder. 2 tablespoons of the oil, and heat in a double broiler (covered) for about 4-5 hours. Take the whole concoction and squeeze thru a filter and the use an eyedropper to to fill the caps. I take 2 capsules every 6-12 hours. Would like that to be one.

I have been having to supplement with smoking. I just had a stent placed in my heart and I really should not smoke at all. I will miss the sudden surges, but it was godawful bad having heart pain.

I have to take a plane trip soon, and feel uncomfortable taking smokeable stuff with me, whereas I can pretty well cover up the pills.

My cannacaps mixture is less than a 20% fill on an 0 cap, even for an average 3X high tolerance dose.

I mix 10 grams of honey oil with three grams of virgin unrefined coconut or MCT oil, and fill to silly putty consistency with corn starch, about 22 grams.

Using our current strains, a 3X high tolerance dose is aproximately 200 miligrams. A gram scale weighing to .1 grams is not accurate enough. If you don't have a milligram scale, you can use a ammunition grain scale at 7000 grains to the pound vis a vis 452.8 grams to the pound.

You can replace the corn starch with other dry ingredients to further enchance the medicinal effect.

For this discussion, when I refer to a dose, I refer to the average amount that it took to achieve symptom relief for an averate low tolerance person.

Our local testing suggests that the average high tolerance person requires about 3X that amount to achieve the same effect.

GW

PS, I decarboxylate the BHO at 240F in a hot oil bath.

[WashougalWonder]

Graywolf:
I have to go find and read your thread/recipie.

I tried a new batch yesterday. Used 3 tablespoons, packed and level virgin coconut oil, a 1/4, and ran that thru a cycle of bring water to boil, simmer for 2 hours below boil, covered.

Used a coffee filter and a garlic press to separate the solid matter. The color at that point was what I usually see. Did a second round with this oil and another 1/4. Same process. That was also filtered the same way, and it was black dark now. That made 45 #00 capsules, which I think proportionately is a greater return on the original oil than I had without the press, I was getting 8 caps for 2 teaspoons.

(I want to use a press and get rid of the solid matter as it does cause me gastritis. Only want the clear oil.)

Took just one this morning, has effect of taking 2 as before.

My impression is just so much cannabinoids are available for uptake by the oil per batch of cannabis?

Trip might be off anyway, but cannot smoke anymore, nor use in butter.


Leads to new question:
Are some species better for making oral derivatives?
Thanks.

[Graywolf]

Graywolf:
I have to go find and read your thread/recipie.

I tried a new batch yesterday. Used 3 tablespoons, packed and level virgin coconut oil, a 1/4, and ran that thru a cycle of bring water to boil, simmer for 2 hours below boil, covered.

Used a coffee filter and a garlic press to separate the solid matter. The color at that point was what I usually see. Did a second round with this oil and another 1/4. Same process. That was also filtered the same way, and it was black dark now. That made 45 #00 capsules, which I think proportionately is a greater return on the original oil than I had without the press, I was getting 8 caps for 2 teaspoons.

(I want to use a press and get rid of the solid matter as it does cause me gastritis. Only want the clear oil.)

Took just one this morning, has effect of taking 2 as before.

My impression is just so much cannabinoids are available for uptake by the oil per batch of cannabis?

Trip might be off anyway, but cannot smoke anymore, nor use in butter.


Leads to new question:
Are some species better for making oral derivatives?
Thanks.

While it works well, there are practical limits to how concentrated you can make direct oil infusions from plant matter, because as the coconut oil becomes more saturated, it is less of a solvent to the remaining oil and you end up wasting material to infuse the last bit.

Using a concentrate allows me to directly super saturate whatever oil I use and eliminates some of the undesirable greeeeeeeeen plant flavors, some of which are upsetting to my stomach.

I have however also directly infused oil using bubble hash or kief to good effect and sidestepped undesirable favors and stomach upset.

Iâ??ve had good success pressing my direct oil extractions using a glycerin press and bags made from high count bed sheets. That gets rid of most of the debris, which makes subsequent filtering easier.

With alcohol suspensions, weâ??ve had good luck filtering down to .45 microns using syringe filters, but my best personal luck with heavy viscosity mediums has been to use vacuum filtration in small batches to keep the temperature and viscosity up.

500ml or 1 liter vacuum flasks are inexpensive, and it is also easy to mock something up from things on hand, including using a vacuum cleaner for the vacuum source. You can get your choice of filter papers from your local scientific supply store. You can also just use coffee filters and the vaccum will speed up the process.

Don't know the answer to your last question about strains, but I have yet to find a strain that didn't work.

As you know, some are higher in one constituent or another, but my testing shows individual patient reaction to be highly variable.


GW

[WashougalWonder]

Seems I need to take a vacation and get my level lower. Ugh. Percocet and constipation, here I come.