How can I prepare a cannabis tincture or cannabis oil?
Answers:
(Manfred Fankhauser):
Old formulas on medicines of cannabis suggest the following procedure (if you have no special pharmaceutical equipment):
Cannabis tincture: Take about 3-5 parts of alcohol (e.g. brandy or ethyl alcohol from the pharmacy, 40-70%) and 1 part cannabis leaves/flowers (e.g. 25 g marijuana and 100 ml alcohol). Keep it in a dark and cool place for about 10 days. Shake it from time to time. Filter it using a sieve. Store the finished tincture dark and cold (e.g. in your refrigerator), so that efficacy will remain for several weeks and months.
Cannabis oil: Take some dried cannabis, reduce it to very small pieces, and add edible oil (e.g. olive oil) so that the plant material is completely covered with the oil. Keep it in a dark and cool place for about 3 weeks. Shake it a little every day. Filter it using a sieve. You may use this oil for internal and external application.
Dr. Fankhauser is a Swiss pharmacist.
(José T. Gállego):
It is easy to prepare a tincture or an oil from cannabis, that concentrates the active compounds of the plant. You need marijuana (any quality, good or bad, leaves or flowers), ethyl alcohol of 96-99% (e.g. from the pharmacy), a glass that can be closed (e.g. used for marmalade), a coffee filter or a piece of fabric (e.g. a part of a t-shirt), a deep plate or a frying pan, a bottle with a dropper.
Reduce the cannabis to small pieces and put it into the glass. Cover it with enough alcohol. Keep it in a dark and cool place for about a week. Shake it every day. Filter it using a coffee filter or the fabric. Press the last drops of alcohol out of the plant material. You may repeat this process several times, at least once, better two times: you may again put the cannabis into the glass and cover it with alcohol…. Finally, put all the alcohol (it will have a green colour) into to a deep plate. Keep it in a tempered and ventilated place so that some of the alcohol will be evaporated increasing the cannabinoids concentration of the tincture. This may take ten days. When enough alcohol is evaporated fill the extract into the bottle with the dropper.
The cannabis tincture can be used directly, or dissolved in a drink or food, or vaporized. To vaporize the tincture a commercial vaporizer or the old silver paper system can be used. Form a teaspoon out of silver paper, put some drops of the tincture on it, carefully heat it with a candle until the alcohol evaporates. Than inhale it using a small tube (e.g. the body of a ball point pen).
To produce hashish oil you have to evaporate all the alcohol from the tincture until the extract becomes a dark paste (similar to tar). It is possible to place the glass at a warm place to accelerate the process of evaporation. It should not be placed into the sun because the THC will be destroyed faster than. It should not be heated to avoid an explosion of the alcohol.
According to: Gállego JT: Tintura de cannabis. Canamo, No 46, July 2001:76-77.
