Hi guys this will be my third tincture related post. You folks seem to really dig the tincture stuff so we are going to show you how to make a really solid medicine, simply. This medicine when using the correct strain is a perfect substitute for narcotics in that it will help relieve pain, insomnia and anxiety without the negative side effects of opioids.
We will be using the metric system as opposed to American Standard system as it is more accurate and scientific (Man I wish the U.S. would switch…). In the past I recommended 1 ounce of bud to 2 cups ethanol (a cup is around 250 mL, 237 to be exact). We will keep the same ratios but it makes most sense to make a good amount of tincture when we do so, so we don’t have to waste time making multiple batches. Therefore I recommend the following:
2 ounces cannabis to 1 liter (1000 mL) of ethanol.
Supplies:
4 oz Tincture Dropper Bottles (12 Pack)
*NOTE* – For medical conditions such as pain, spasms and insomnia, I highly recommend strains with afghani lineage which tend to be higher in CBD/CBN content and more narcotic. The finest from my experience are: Herijuana, Black Domina, Afghani, Real kushes like Hindu, Blackberry, Purple, Master, Afghani etc. Also Grand Daddy Purple, Purple Urkel, Blueberry etc. are solid indica strains for medicine.
Choose Herijuana, Black Domina, or a pure Afghani for a strong, sedative medication.
*NOTE on DECARBOXYLATION* – Decarboxylation is the process of converting THCA to THC via heat. THCA has antinflammatory, neuroprotective, antiemetic and anti-prostate cancer effects but lacks psychoactive effects. So I actually don’t decarb my tincture anymore as I prefer the medicinal benefits of having the THCA in my tincture. If one is after a more psychoactive high and doesn’t care as much for the medicinal aspect, one may want to do a manual decarb prior to proceeding with making tincture. Ultimately, I have done both and prefer non manually decarboxylated tincture for my needs. Patients I have shared it with don’t seem to notice a difference. In my opinion, if most folks can’t tell the difference – we may as well keep the Cannabis as medicinal as possible and it has the advantage of tasting better while not stinking up the whole house with the decarb cycle 🙂 Win/win if you ask me.
Please keep in mind our Medicinal cannabis will absorb some of the ethanol and there will be evaporation and/or spillage to account for. Thus we will not be left with 1 liter of tincture, but rather slightly less. All we need to do to calculate potency is divide our cannabis by total tincture volume after processing. If we use 2 ounces (56 grams) of cannabis tested at 20% THC levels, we see how many mL of tincture are left after the process. So if we are left with 900 mL, the formula to calculate THC percentage is as follows:
(Cannabis in grams) / (Tincture in mL) x (THC by weight) = (THC per mL of tincture)
So to calculate the above example we would do the following:
56/900 = .062 grams of cannabis per mL. .062 * .2 = .0124
This means we get roughly 12 mg of THC per mL. Please keep in mind this is assuming 100% efficiency in extracting and measurements may not be exact, but it is a very good ballpark of how potent your tincture is. The only way to know exactly how strong it is is by having it tested at a laboratory. This is why when making batches with different variables (strength and amount of cannabis, volume and strength of ethanol, etc.) it is important to self titrate to see how it effects you.
Dosage:
If it is your first time trying tincture, try half a mL or around 5 mg of THC and go from there. Keep in mind it kicks in around an hour and peaks general in 2-3 hours with a total duration of around 5 hours for moderate doses. Marinol (Prescribed THC for cancer patients) comes in 2.5, 5 and 10 mg sizes and edibles in Colorado are limited to 10 mg max per serving size. Personally I find THC to be similar in strength per mg to how opiates such as hydrocodone or oxycodone effect me. That is 5-10 mg is recommended for a non tolerant individual. Doses above 10 mg may increase the side effects.
Start with .5-1 mL. One full squeeze of the eyedropper sucking up the liquid is around 1 mL. I’d recommend to start with slowly with .5 or 1 mL and work your way up
So start slow and take it from there depending on your medical needs. If you are in lots of pain and having trouble sleeping, higher doses may make sense. Please start low and get accustomed to the meds so you aren’t turned off by any adverse effects. The difference between opiates and cannabis is that cannabis has never killed a single person on earth. Opiates on the other hand regularly claim the lives of millions and are physically addictive. Therefore they come with problems that accompany physical addiction. Opiates cause respiratory depression, particularly in higher doses and this effect is even more pronounced when combined with alcohol, benzodiazepines, barbiturates etc. It is unfortunately how a lot of people end up dead.
Effects:
This magical tincture of “green morphine” as I like to call it:
- Relieves pain
- Helps one sleep
- Increases appetite
- Relieves anxiety
- Eases muscle soreness/spasms
- Non physically addictive unlike opioids
- Helps relieve nausea rather than make one nauseous
This medicine is a win/win. I would postulate this could replace a TON of hydrocodone/oxycodone or even morphine or hydromorphone when used correctly. All in all opioids definitely have a place in our modern pharmacopeia. However, I firmly believe that a strong afghani tincture grown with love and chock full of THC, CBD and CBN can replaced ones opiate based medications or be leveraged as a substitute to reduce narcotic dose. There is some recent scholarly articles in medical journals that discuss the topic of Cannabis being used alongside of opioid based medication to increase the efficacy of the opioids. The result is that people require much less opioids to get the same analgesic effect. This is a great thing!
Prescription painkillers in fact now claim more American lives per year than all illegal drugs combined. Cannabis has never killed a single soul. Please leverage this gift of cannabis tincture wisely and use it for your wellness. Cannabis is one of the most safest medications we can use here on God’s green earth, so stay green folks and count your blessings. God bless you in your journey to wellness. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post in the comment section below or shoot me an email. I’d love to hear from you 🙂
Stay green and stay on the herb folks.
Thank you for your helpful info. I have fibromyalgia and inflammatory arthritis. This tincture is the only thing that works. You have helped me tremendously! Thanks Patricia
You are welcome Patricia, thanks for the kind words and please tell your friends. We both have inflammatory conditions that this stuff seems to help tame. I know we are onto something here 🙂
Steve; I think this video shows that tinctures ARE effective (LOL). But I do appreciate the time and effort you put in to keeping us informed. I had a coupl’a questions: Are you saying that if you DO decarb you mostly get the medicinal benefits and less of the “high” (which you would get if you DON’T) decarb ?
Also, I’m about to harvest my 1st home grown crop (Aurora Indica). If I plan on using it for tinctures would the “curing” process/time be needed ?
Thanks….again
Ken
Hi Ken,
I’ve heard of Aurora Indica and it sounds like a great fit for this type of medicine :). From the Nirvana Seeds site:
“Nirvana Aurora Indica is an F1 hybrid of Afghan and Northern Light. Its plants stay short, producing heavy colas and dense buds. This cannabis strain produces exceptional amounts of resin, resulting in a deep, near-black hash with a tasty aroma and a heavy buzz. Aurora Indica probably is our most potent Indica.”
If you decarb the THCA gets coverted to THC – making the psychological effects more pronounced. If you don’t there tends to be higher THCA content which have their own medicinal effect as per:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrahydrocannabinolic_acid
If you are harvesting, don’t worry about curing time for this tincture. Just ensure it is bone dry and then I would recommend a decarb especially since it hasn’t had time to fully cure. You will be very impressed with the potency and I’m sure you showed your girls some love.
Best of luck Ken!
A friend tried adding tincture to cookie batter to bake it and when he opened the oven flames jumped out and singed the end of his hair. What did he do wrong?
This tincture has 95% ethanol, it is VERY flammable. If there wasn’t enough of other stuff to dilute the alcohol it could flame up. Either dilute the booze or use butter/coconut oil instead bruh 🙂 Good luck!
hi how much oil I could extract from 75g of cannabis?
Hi Mark,
An ounce is 28.35 grams or 28 for short. 75 grams is almost 3 ounces which is 84 grams. Simply use this same recipe above but add your 75 grams instead of the two ounces. As per the math formula above you would get about 17 mg THC per mL (If your product is 20% THC).
Enjoy and best of luck in your journey to wellness!
Is there always 1liter of liquid for any amount of product or there are certain doses/ measurement??
You can add as little as the Min line on the Magical Butter which is 2 1/4 cups or so OR to the Max line which is a little over a liter.
A liter is convenient because you can buy grain alcohol by the liter and so we start with 1000 mL which is a nice round number. Usually we lose 100 mL or so to evaporation, spillage, absorption etc. I originally wrote this post and made the videos with 1 oz meds to 2 cups alcohol. However, it is better to do a larger batch rather than running 2 separate, so if you have 2 ounces go ahead and do the liter – which is around 4 cups (946 mL – close enough) 🙂
Thanks Mark – I hope this clarifies. My goal is when using 20% THC Cannabis to get around 10 mg per mL. Of course you can always evaporate your tincture after the fact to make it MUCH more potent. I.E. lets say you start with 2 ounces and come out with 800mL and you used 20% THC meds. Simply reduce to 200 mL and you have 40 mg THC per mL.
Best of luck in your journey to wellness and God Bless guys.
Finally, I have found the math! Thank you Steve!
No problem Colesdad, I hope this helps you with whatever ails ya. Keep on keeping on brother!
Steve;
1) So, are you saying above that you no longer decarboxylate at all ? Just put ingredients into the MBM push the buttons and wait ?
2) I was really happy when Calif. passed prop 215 but have been REALLY disappointed at how ALL the clubs are still ripping off ALL their PATIENTS by charging “street prices”. That being said, do you have a recommended way of home-growing you could recommend ?
Thanks !!!
KinA
Hi Ken,
1. I no longer manually decarb, the MB2 has a built in decarb function (doesn’t work as well as a manual decarb) but yeah, I just put in the meds, pour up the ethanol and hit the button.
2. That is unfortunate but please know it is quite common. The shops pop up promising ‘compassionate’ pricing and yadayadayada. Some of them make good on it, some of them don’t. I live in a state where it is legal to cultivate your own medicine, which is much more affordable for us patients. If you have questions – I do consulting if you’d like to contact me via the Contact form. We can schedule a phone call at a time that is convenient to you.
In nutshell when growing your own meds you need to firstly ask what is your goal for yields and the room space you have available? That is, how much meds do you require and where can you grow?
Then you basically have three options:
1. Grow in soil (organic, semi-organic or chemical nutrients)
2. Grow in passive hydroponics (I.E Coco-fiber, perlite etc.)
3. Grow in active hydroponics (Deep water culture or Reverse DWC are wonderful)
Some folks are sticklers for soil and organic, which I can understand. When I grow my vegetable garden outdoors I am 100% organic. Amended soil and cow shit for me.
However, indoors we need to pay for artificial lighting and controlling environmental conditions. Thus, passive and active hydroponics are often good choices for superior yields and growth times. Not to mention we don’t have to deal with soil bugs or lugging around a lot of material. My personal choice is Deep water culture or Recirculating deep water culture if you are a patient and can grow multiple plants. It is simple and HIGHLY effective in terms of growth rates and yields.
I’ve been a MMP and grown hydroponically in water culture for some years now. Again, if you’d like more info – please shoot me a message on the contact form and we can get on the phone for a consultation 🙂
God bless!
WhazzzAp Steve, so glad I saw ur YouTube on the magical butter machine & tinctures!! I’ve made a few good batches using everclear so far, & I just found an organic alcohol company out of Cali founded by herbalists that I’m going to try out. They have a 190 proof corn alcohol that they refer to as grain alcohol like u refer to. They also have a 190 proof cane alcohol that I was thinking of trying, because my thoughts were that sugary drinks hit me faster, so the sugarcane would make the tincture hit me a lil faster. Do you think one or the other would hold more of the goodness from my botanicals because if u think the corn vs cane would make a difference in potency, I will go with which one is stronger regardless of how long it takes to hit me. Thanks in advance for sharing your knowledge!
Hi Es_Jay,
I’m glad you have been having good luck, sorry for not responding sooner – this comment slipped by. Corn and Cane should be the same EtOH if it is distilled at a high percentage it should be pretty pure ethanol. I would go with whatever is cheaper, it’s not like there will be any remnants of corn/sugar in the alcohol.
Best of luck Es_Jay, I’m sure you will kill it with your next tincture 🙂
Hi,this is a great recipe and video. We are starting out with trying this for my wife who suffers terribly with RA. I have a few questions
1) how long would this batch last for? Does it keep fresh in the fridge or is it to be frozen?
2) where do we buy ethanol?
1. This batch will probably last longer than you will :).
2. You can buy ethanol at your local liquor store. Look for grain alcohol brand names being Everclear or Graves Grain. If they don’t have that get Bacardi 151 – almost as good. Good luck bro, I hope it helps with your wife MMP condition. The inflammatory diseases can be a bitch, but keep your heads up. Things get better.
Hello Steve,
I want to use your recipe to make Tinctures, but I was too scared to set it to the temperature you advised since the EVERCLEAR I’m using is 95% grain alcohol/190 proof and it is extremely flammable. The bottle even has a GIANT tag that says its flammable. is it safe or not?
Don’t be scared bro. All high proof alcohol is flammable if you set flame to it. The MB machine just heats it to 160 in this recipe, no worries – do your thing. Safe. Enjoy.
For you folks that live near a Total Wine store, they sell Everclear brand grain alcohol 151 proof 750ml for $17 (US) compared to $24 for Bacardi 151….FYU
Ken
Nice find Ken. $17 is a good price. Here in RI we can get a liter for $20 even, which I find pretty fair :). They no longer tax hard alcohol here which is nice.
Would it benefit me to use the tincture in a gel capsule?
Nope, as per my response on YouTube the ethanol will eat through the gel cap. You can use coconut oil if you want to do canna caps 🙂
Steve; I’ve never used tinctures before but I have had a few “magic brownies”. Does a sub-lingual tincture dose have the same long delay before it takes effect as eating (especially on full stomach) does ?
Also, have you ever made your own glycerin tincture for use in a vape ? If so, how’d that work out ? Can you refill your “vape tubes/cylinders” yourself ? Is it a simple D-I-Y procedure ?
I’m developing a lingering cough that I’d like to develop a workaround for.
Thanks………….Ken in Anaheim
Ken – do not use this tincture for sublingual as the high ethanol content will irritate the sensitive mucuous membranes under your tongue.
That being said if you eat this on a empty stomach it should kick in quicker, like 45 minutes. A full stomach can take up to 2 hours if you just ate a big meal. However, in general tincture kicks in much faster than edibles bound to butter/oil where your body has to digest that whole thing.
I have not made glycerin tinctures for vaporizer use but have linked several times in the comments and on YouTube to procedures with the Magical Butter.
So use the tincture in a beverage like tea and vaporize your flowers with a vaporizer like a Pax 2, Volcano, or the Crafty or Plenty by Stoors and Bickel would be my advice. The oil route you can do but it is easier to just vape flowers all in all.
Hi Steve:
Have an MB2. Love your site, and get your GreenDiet emails. Thank you for all that you do! It is a great resource for those of us passionate about healthy medicine for ailing humans.
Can you elaborate on why you choose the 4 hour option vs the 8 hour option when making Cannabis tincture? The MB2 instructions say that choosing 8 hour gives you a “stronger flavor and deeper intensity”. If one’s main goal is for the strongest medicine, I’m not sure what they mean by intensity…do they mean stronger medicine? I am using home grown high-CBD bud that has been lab tested to be 19% CBD and 1.05% THC (ACDC and Harletsu). There is so much info out there for TCH medicine making, but so little related to high CBD medicine. Thanks!
Hi Autumn,
(I just sent you an email when I noticed this was a comment, whoops)
Thanks for the kind words and being an email subscriber. I try to provide value in folks lives and help out sick people to be healthy, or for the healthy to really thrive :). My eBook should be launching this month so keep an eye out. It has been a year in the making and is something I’m proud of.
I have always used the 4 hour setting as it should be quite adequate and the potency is there. If you’d like to do a A/B split test you may find some additional potency with the 8 hour setting but I doubt it. It might be a tad stronger but probably extracting more Chlorophyl and stuff that doesn’t get us high.
The other day I saw ACDC at the dispensary and the #’s were similar. I think it was like 15% CBD and 1% THC. How do you like ACDC, please tell me how it effects you, how long you’ve used it and for what condition? Thanks Autumn – I would go about making the tincture as usual, but please feel free to experiment with the same buds and the 8 hour option if you’d like.
I’ll look forward to hearing from you,
-Steve
My mom has cancer. If you would , could you send me exact details on how to make cancer killing cannabis oil/tincture so I can help my mom asap ? It would be greatly appreciated. I thank you and hope you get back to me as fast as you can. Charles H.
Hi Charles, google Rick Simpson and his oil. Essentially if you are looking to kill cancer you concentrate the tincture down to Rick Simpson Oil or RSO. Magical Butter has a video on their channel on how to do this. Then every day your mom would take a grain sized piece of this ultra potent medicine. The tinctures are great for helping folks eat, sleep and making chemo more bearable. My father is currently battling cancer as well (lung cancer). Rick Simpson oil is a VERY potent treatment geared at killing the cancer by utilizing whole plant cannabis extract in an extremely concentrated form. As you know THC has the potential to kill cancer cells. I am no expert in this field, nor am I a doctor or medical professional. However, I can give you the information you need to make RSO and tinctures as well if your mom needs that.
Please google Rick Simpson Oil and shoot me an email via the contact form. We can chat later this afternoon on the phone if you wish and we can delve into more specifics. My phone consulting rate is $100/hour and I am in EST. I will be available around 2-6pm today.
But please do your homework in the meantime by educating yourself for an hour or so ahead of time. You will find you need a good deal of cannabis for a full treatment and Rick Simpson originally recommends Naphtha but I wouldn’t recommend this solvent, it can be done with ethanol and you can use the Magical Butter Machine to facilitate the process. Shoot me an email with your availability and I will be glad to work with you later today.
Thanks Charles and I look forward to speaking with you.
I didn’t hear from you man. My email is steve@greendiet.com if you’d like to reach out. Your comment had a sense of urgency so I wanted to follow up relatively promptly with ya.
Thanks and I look forward to helping you out.
Do you know anything about Liposomal Cannabis?
No, sorry Evon.
What is the calculation on knowing the THC percentage on hard candy using tincture?
I don’t mess with hard candy but you would see how many candies you are making and adjust for dose. IE 20 candies and 20 mL would be a dose for each @1 mL.
Hi Steve just did you batch and I did it with Nirvana seeds nirvana seeds bubblelicious + some Aurora Indica from nirvana as well.
I did a 750ml bottle of everclear with 1.5 ounces ( 42.11 grams) im not sure how much thc is in my bud so im not sure how to apply your formula above or maybe I do but not 100% sure its correct.
after the mb2 I got 530ml of liquid.
42.11/530 = 0.07945283
I then multiplied 0.07945283 times .2* and got 0.015890566
* My question is do I need to multiply 0.07945283 times .2 (ounces) or times 0.07945283 (1.5 ounces) ?
Also do can you recommend an alternative to everclear. I live outside the US and it is very hard to get (legal actually) .
Thanks!
42/530= .079 grams per mL.
.079 * .2 = .015. The .2 is assuming a 20% THC level in the bud. Alternative to Everclear is usually Bacardi 151.
Good luck E
Thank you for putting such great information out for people! I just bought my MBM2 and I would like to make an e-juice for my vape pen. Will this tincture recipe work for this method? If not do you have any suggestions to making your own green vaping juice?
This stuff is for oral ingestion only. No vaping but if you google around I’ve seen that info.
Hi Steve , I’d like to get your e mails My dispensary I getting ACDC in around November and I’m looking forward to trying it for my daily chronic migraines Don’t want that high feeling and so want way more CBD ratio to THC ratio Have the MB2e Looking forward to making tinctures cuz my dispensary never has enough
Nice to hear Lisa. ACDC is an awesome one, I had that in RI. Tinctures are SO much more affordable to make at home, you will enjoy.
The MB2e booklet says in the making tincture use grain alcohol or vegetable glycerin. Have you tried making a tincture using vegetable glycerin instead of the alcohol? Because of diabetes and having oral cancer, I cannot do alcohol. Also I suppose one could then use the tincture sublingually.
Thank you
Bob, 1-3 mL of grain alcohol is nothing, similar to drinking a cough medicine. Don’t worry about it, it is a minuscule amount. Glycerin isn’t nearly as effective at extracting the goodies.
God bless Bob and fight the good fight.
If I wanted a 4oz drink to contain 800mg of THC. How much trim would I have to use with the green dragon (reduced method)??
The math is yours to do man, I included formulas in the newest tincture blog post.
Hello, Steve
Very informative info, thank you
What is your opinion on glycerin tinctures?
I have found they taste much better than the alcohol tinctures and are safer to use, especially when patients are perhaps having to use or take other types of medicines (less of a potential reaction) would you agree? Is there a big difference between the two with the outcomes me of the desired effect
Glycerin does not extract the goodies as efficiently as ethanol. So I always recommend folks go with Grain.
Have a nice day Paula.
Steve, et al t his site goes into tinctures/vaping fairly well. Including how to make your own e-cig refills;
http://beyondchronic.com/?s=tincture