What To Do With Your Cannabis Stems

What To Do With Your Cannabis Stems

Cannabis stems are ever prevalent and it would be a shame to deem them as waste and throw them away! Much of the time stems and other “unsmokable” materials are simply thrown away without a second thought. Is there a better use for this waste? Even though most will throw this stuff away, it still contains THC and a full spectrum of other cannabinoids, albeit, in much lower concentrations. However, this means there is still potential for this material to have life! Here we will cover a few of the options available.

Make Edibles

You can use stems and leaves just like you would any other cannabis product. Cannabis stems/leaves can easily be infused into a fatty substance like oil or butter. Before trying to mix your cannabis stems or leaves with anything it will require decarboxylation. This is the process of converting one cannabinoid into a cannabinoid that can absorb via eating it! The decarboxylation process will generally take around 40-90mins, depending on how thorough you want to be, and is recommended on lower heat settings of 175-220ºF.

Make Concentrates

Just like on cannabis flower, stems and leaves will also contain the crystal-like substance covering the outside of the plant called trichomes. These trichomes can be harvested and used in either this base form or post processed into hash. The easiest way to collect these crystals will be with a pollen box; this is a small, enclosed, (usually) wooden box that you will shake your material around in. This material will be sifted through a fine screen and will collect the crystals in a container below it.

Make Cannabis Tea

There are a few different ways to make cannabis tea. One of the simplest ways is to decarboxylate your cannabis material like we had spoken about in Volume #1 and mixing directly into hot water. This will be the easiest but also least effective way to make cannabis tea. Another way is to infuse your decarboxylated cannabis material with a fatty substance like butter or heavy cream and mixing that directly into your tea. This will be far more effective as cannabis binds with the fats in these products. Another less popular method is to find a cannabis tincture that uses either ethanol or an oil and mixing that directly into your tea. This can be nice as you are able to dose your tea to the levels that you enjoy.

Make RSO

Rick Simpson Oil (RSO) is an extremely crude, yet potent cannabis oil. RSO is not meant to be used like other concentrates and is highly recommended to eat and not to vaporize/dab. It is made using food grade ethanol which is able to pull the full spectrum of cannabinoids from the cannabis plant. This crude oil is generally less refined and will be far less enjoyable to smoke or vaporize.