Alcohol Tincture

[Ckbrew]

"What are the conditions to best absorb and how can I prepare?"

I don't know what concentration was in your Everclear mixture, but besides burning the hell out of your mouth, how did you like your response to the dose? Everclear is a great carrier, but the side effects as you know are unpleasant. If your concentration was correct, then the effect you experienced will be similar to what you can expect from the glycerine tincture. The goal here is to use a more tolerable carrier. As for making the tincture, the goal is to infuse the glycerine with the extracted oils. They don't like to mix, so starting with some ethanol in the mix, heat, and stirring help to force them together, the ethanol gets driven off with the heat. Don't get hung up on the emulsion. Once the glycerine is saturated, any remaining oil will still eventually separate. It will show up on the sides or your container as a golden oil like film. Don't waste it. redissolve in ethanol and either reprocess, or use for a diluted down cocktail. As far as your equipment goes, it would be prudent to invest in some basic lab items- thermometer, beakers for mixing, heat plate with magnetic stir bar, filtering. WOW, I am really heading down the rabbit hole here. It could go forever. I will pause. Did this help or confuse? : /

BTW- I just reread your op. What do you mean "oil doesn't work for me", how are you using it?

 

[Gracey]

I've worked with both fat and alcohol infusions for years and find alcohol gives a better high even just consuming decard plant is better. But until recently my decarb was iffy in the oven so there's been no consistancy. My latest fat infusion that I was referring to, I infused the decarbed bud with coconut mct oil and dosed with a dropper bottle. under the tongue for 90 seconds with nothing else in mouth before and after to help focus absorption. 1 oz oil and 1 gram bud. Decarb then infusion, both done in the ardent nova. I wonder if the nova wasn't in full working condition it's first time out. It's worked like a dream otherwise. The more I write about it the more I think that batch could be a dud. However, I haven't found much in the way of real data on how best cannabinoids are absorbed by mucous membranes under the tongue. I'm skeptical that research I've found is legit. I'm familiar with following clinical research for cancer treatments and know what journals and associations to trust. I don't know about drug development and lab research that goes into finding sublingual treatments or who to trust.

What gets through the mucous membranes and blood vessels under the tongue? Seems that if I can create that environment for my canna I can make it happen. That's probably pretty nieve.

I'd like to address the equipment and the rabbit holes that ensue later. For now I can't spend any money on such extravagance.

I've been most successful with alcohol infusion and its range of uses/manipulation. Just from scattered experiences it seems that my alcohol infusion is stronger than fat infusions. For example, I mixed evaporated alcohol infusion with butter, made strong fudge, just a thin mint sized piece melted in the mouth gave a quick-er onset. If I'd made cannabutter it would have been much more chlorophyll-y. I've learned how to keep out chlorophyll and its taste with infusing in freezer. I'm trying to use as little heat as possible to preserve terpenes and cannabinoids which the freezer also does. I can do anything with it because I can use it as is or evaporate the alcohol which leaves me with the oil ready to do anything. And I have everything I need. That's my reasoning for a preference for an alcohol infusion.

I'm pushing to find the best absorption capacity now because I just harvested a few ounces and have enough weed to start really finding consistency in dosing and methods. BTW, eating decarbed plant has excellent effects, maybe I should try using it like chewing tobacco, you know, just a pinch between the cheek and gum

 

[Gracey]

Hey Twiser thanks, those are good. I use wake and bake's calculator. https://wakeandbake.co/thc-dosage-calculator/
Basically the percentage of THC is 10 times the gram weight. So 1 gram of 20% THC weed has 200 mg of THC in one gram. Then Ardent decarb site has lab tests results on cannabinoid percentage before and after using their nova decarber.
I love the idea of using ground decarb in a capsule. I will try it!

It's a new frigging world to be able to consistently calculate dosing like this.

 

[Ckbrew]

"I'm pushing to find the best absorption capacity now because..."

You stated that you can no longer smoke or vape. From your questions I infer that you are trying to reproduce the type of high that you get from smoking or vaping with some other method like sublingual. Is this correct? If I am correct in my interpretation of your situation we need to discuss pharmakokenetics. That is the study of absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination, of drugs in the body, and the rate at which these events occur. Don't let the big name scare you, just trying to get a better handle on what your goal is for the best advice without looking for rabbits. As far as what gets through the mucus membrane under the tongue, just about anything. Please clarify, what are you trying to "make happen"?

 

[Gracey]

Hi Ckbrew, Sorry for the delay. I'm not ignoring just been busy. Yes, you're right, I'd like the effects to be like the quick onset like smoking or vaping without using a needle. I've looked at research in pharmacokinetics. Like I said I don't know how to vet what I'm reading much less know what to do with the info.
So I infuse with everclear. I ran into a problem I've not had before. I added some good infusion to a hard candy mixture but got no effects. I'm wondering if the THC clumped into pockets when the alcohol evaporated on contact. If so there's way too much of it...somewhere. Here's what I did, I melted a bunch of ricola cough drops they didn't liquify but got soft enough to pull several times to get it mixed in.
Thoughts?

 

[Ckbrew]

Ok, down and dirty explanation of Pharmakokenetics. The study of how drugs enter, are distributed, metabolized, and eliminated from the body and the rate at which these processes occur. A full discussion of this is beyond the scope of this forum. Mind exercise- Given an identical dose, call it 20mg of THC to keep it easy. First fixed parameter, you and your body. Second fixed is the total dose of THC. Now the two variables and how your body reacts. First, vape the dose, take a while to smile a little before you let it go. Second Make butter and bake it in a brownie, take a while to smile a little before you swallow it down. Now ask yourself and answer the questions comparing the two methods. How did it make you feel? How fast was the onset, what was the intensity, what was the duration, when did it subside. You have already done this experiment! Now for the why. Vaping or smoking, the THC is turned into a gas, you inhale into lungs. Lungs are specialized to exchange gases between the atmosphere and the blood. Result is a very fast spike in blood level traveling via blood right to the brain. The brain is mostly lipids, that is why THC enters so fast. But then that blood with the high level is quickly circulated into the rest of the body, so the blood that the brain experiences is suddenly absent of THC, so it starts to filter out of the brain. Swallowing, the THC is adsorbed by the gut, and slowly builds up in the blood, and eventually gets to the brain. But now it is a slow gradual build up, entering the brain until peak level is reached. Then the blood levels slowly decrease due to metabolism. The vape dose is also metabolized, but that dose was quickly diluted by all the blood, causing the blood levels to rapidly decrease. So in conclusion, it is not so much the dose you are getting, but the rate at which the dose gets to your brain. The objective is then to try and replicate the spike in blood level of the dose. Truth bomb my friend, other than injection which I would never condone or attempt because it could be fatal, it is very hard to replicate this spike by other methods of dosing. Your GI tract is your main other option, so try and increase the onset. You will have to do some experimenting to see what works best for you. The glycerin tincture is one option and in theory maybe the closest to inhaling. The problem is solubility and keeping it tolerable. Between the cheek and gum is similar to under the tongue. You can try butter, coconut oil, MCT oil under the tongue as tolerated, Increasing the concentration is easier here due to the lipid (fat) content. These oils can be swallowed also. As far as swallowing goes, I have found that mixing with a meat based fat increases absorption rate. Think bacon or hamburger grease, you can leave the meat in, who doesn’t like bacon? Another method that I have discussed with a patient, but not yet tried, is a rectal suppository. This would be made with infused coco butter (not coconut oil), formed in a mold, then inserted in the rectum. The body should adsorb this dose rapidly. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but it may be worth a try. Ever hear of someone doing an alcohol (wine, beer, cocktail) enema and getting really shitfaced drunk from it? Not making up (google it), this is a valid and rapid way of administering drugs. It can be used to administer drugs to someone who is having a seizure when they cannot swallow. Also, you can make a topical formula using coconut oil and apply it to the skin. Hope this helps.

As far as your cough drops go, I imagine they were very hot to get soft. When you evaporate all the ethanol, you are left with the almost pure THC oil. This is very thick, sticky and gooey. Think dabs. If the ethanol evaporated off, the oil was deposited somewhere so yes, probably in small clumps of sticky oil somewhere, stuck to the side of the container or the stir tool Haven’t made gummies, but I believe they use less heat to make. You want to mix the THC extract in before it gets very hot. Think mixing the extract with sugar and water then heating. Hope this helps you out an is not overwhelming. Let me know if I lost you somewhere.