Cannabis Powder: What It Means For The Future Of Edibles

Ever since humans discovered cannabis, infused drinks and eats have been abundant. In a 2014 sample from Los Angeles dispensaries, up to 26% of medical cannabis consumers resorted to edible products instead of smokables. This is a method that is gaining traction, especially among medicinal consumers. As such, edibles have become a major part of the legal cannabis industry. But there are still problems that need to be addressed for this consumption method to be the best (and most ethical) it can be.

CURRENT EDIBLES

Up until recently, edibles have been made using oil-based tinctures, extracts, or classic cannabutter. Oil is not soluble in water and therefore is very hard to mix. The process is very time consuming and quite unreliable. Oil-based tinctures are often quite inconsistent, both in physical consistency and cannabinoid concentration.

When companies manufacture edibles, they do so in huge batches. What this means is that an infused chocolate bar is not made individually. Companies infuse litres of liquid chocolate with cannabis, and then cool this mixture down into hundreds, if not thousands, of different chocolate bars. Using current methods, these edibles will sustain a huge margin of error when it comes to cannabinoid dosage.

There is no way of knowing if you’re really taking in the milligrams you think you are. And more importantly, not even one chocolate bar will be dosed evenly. If you eat one chocolate square, it does not mean you’ll be consuming the same fraction of the desired cannabinoid.

Recent research tested over 70 products from almost 50 different brands and the results are worrying. The researchers found that only 17% of products were accurately labelled. This is extremely low for something that’s used as a medicine by a lot of people. Out of the inaccurate 83%, 60% of products were reported as having lower cannabinoid percentages than the packaging claimed. This is extremely unethical and very worrying for the credibility of the industry. Hopefully, recent developments have come to change that.

HOW CANNABIS POWDER CAME TO CHANGE THINGS

We’ve started to see powdered cannabis cropping up in dispensaries along America’s West Coast. Companies like Oleo, Made By Science, and THC Design have released products that may just revolutionise the way we consume cannabis.

Although cannabis powder is nothing new, this form certainly is. This isn’t simply cannabis flower ground up to an extremely fine texture; this is cannabinoid oil that is encapsulated in starch or another carbohydrate. This makes it so that cannabinoid droplets behave like sugar and not oil. Sugar is very easily dissolvable in water. The resulting mixture will then have a homogeneous cannabinoid distribution.

Part of what makes conventional edibles a bit of an overdosing trap is the fact that it takes up to two hours to hit. Because of this, a lot of consumers lose hope that they’ve taken enough and end up ingesting more than they should. Too much cannabis catalyses uncomfortable experiences that, although not deadly, can be very scary for the inexperienced consumer. With this powdered solution, it will only take between 15-20 minutes for the effects to be noticeable. This gives the consumer a rapid solution to a problem. Being a medical patient and having to wait two hours for your medicine to have an effect can be very irritating. That’s why a lot of medical users still resort to joints and bowls.

WHAT THE FUTURE HAS TO BRING

Powdered cannabis is still in its infancy. A lot of research and innovation is needed to ensure the even cannabinoid distribution and purity of edibles. However, this form of cannabis makes it much easier to make edibles industrially and at home. This is the type of product that will most likely be sold on a large scale to edible manufacturers. But individuals are sure to take advantage of this as well.

If you’re a person who loves weed, but hates smoking it, your world is about to change. All you need to do is help share the news and make powdered cannabis as widely understood as possible. The world is changing for the better, and stoners are partly responsible for that!