Quote Originally Posted by GreenDestiny
Ok, so when it's decarboxylated the H2O and CO2 are released..... so, if I break up the weed and seal it up inside a little pocket of foil to put into the oven... wouldn't that also trap the H2O and CO2 that needs to escape? Should I poke a couple tiny holes in it with a needle?
Well... unless you wrap the weed so tightly that it be waterproof, always there are tiny spaces by where the gases can escape.

Quote Originally Posted by GreenDestiny
Also I've been going crazy thinking about another thing....

Weed that's fresh or that has just finished drying has mostly THCA, so then heating it up to decarboxylate it into THC will work. That's cool!

BUT, if you've let the weed naturally do the process through curing then wouldn't heating up the weed degrade/destroy the THC that you've waited so long for?

Light and heat are the two major enemies of THC... Maybe that's why so many people fail to make working oils and extracts??? Using naturally decarboxylated weed to start with, and ending up with a product that has destroyed most of the THC... makes sense to me, which is why I've always been afraid to use weed that I've purchased for cooking - I don't know it's age or how it's been cured.

If that's what is really happening, then is cured bud worthless for cooking? Or could I use it for making oil by heating it up just enough for extracting THC without harming it too much?...(below the decarb. temperature). argh, I'd so greatly appreciate some answers
Well... your thinking makes sense... in fact, if you have some perfectly decarboxilated (cured) weed, which hasnt any THCA left in it anymore, then surely heating it wouldnt increase its potency.

Thats why its said that this process doesnt work so well with high-grade weed... usually high-grade weed is properly cured, so it is already as potent as it can be.

I dont know the exact numbers, but the degradation of the THC by the heat isnt very fast... like... the amount of THC destroyed by the heat during the the decarboxilaiton process (15 minutes) is almost negligible... only after hours of heating the loss of THC starts to become noticeable.

The decarboxilation temperature is 105C... i dont know how high is the temperature needed to start to destroy the THC... i only know it starts to vaporize at about 180C.

And when i cook with cannabis, i dont use the usual recipes for making cannabutter, or things like this. I extract the hash oil from the cannabis (with alcohol or acetone), then just mix the hash oil with the butter, heating only enough to melt the butter and ensure a homogeneous mixing. Doing so i avoid the trouble of heating the weed+butter for long hours, and also get a far purer butter.