The Silent Killer of Your Stash: Why THC Disappears From Your Weed While You Sleep (And what you can do about it)
If youâve ever forgotten about your weed in a corner of your home, only to find it again months later, you might have wondered if itâs still potent at all.
After all, no one wants to waste some good old weed.
Besides, weâre all guilty of this in one way or another: weâve bought more weed than usual when our favorite dispensary has a little special going on, and then we end up forgetting about it somewhere at home.
Then when we find it, we roll it up into a joint and are disappointed that the flavor has completely disappeared. We end up blaming the dispensary for selling us bad stuff, saying it was just a bad batch. Unfortunately, itâs likely our fault for storing it incorrectly.
But thereâs a reason why correct storage is critical: THC is the reason why we buy weed in the first place; itâs the fragile yet critical molecule thatâs responsible for getting us high.
Fragile, because just a little bit of oxygen, heat, and light can easily damage its integrity, and reduce its ability to get us high. Once THC breaks down, it wonât just vanish; it slowly becomes another compound known as CBN (cannabinol), which means that the potent weed you supposedly paid for dries up at home, while you sleep.
Additionally, cannabinoid levels change over time, which in turn affects the consistency of your weed. If you ever noticed that your weed felt weaker after one smoke session, or just different from your last toke despite coming from the same batch of weed, it might be how you stored your weed. This is important for both medical and recreational users, I mean truthfully, we want to get the most out of what we paid for weed.
Storing your weed properly is especially crucial for preserving THC if you live somewhere warm. Thatâs why the findings of a recent study from the University of Mississippi is so useful. Researchers took out the guesswork by putting cannabis products through rigorous testing and measuring to know exactly what happens in different conditions – so that you never have to make another storage mistake again.
The Research
Investigators at the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy analyzed various cannabis products and how they held up over time using varying factors: room temperature, refrigerator, and the freezer. They studied cannabinoid levels in regular intervals using tools such as gas chromatography to determine if cannabinoids were held intact or not.
They found that THC-rich cannabis actually broke down faster when exposed to room temperature. This is because THC converts into cannabinol (CBN), which means that itâs significantly less potent. Surprisingly, they found that freezing cannabis in temperatures of -20C was effective at keeping the cannabinoids intact.
Another interesting finding was that CBD molecules behaved differently: they found that CBD-only cannabis products revealed ârobust long-term stability even when maintained at room temperature.â
In other words, CBD users can relax about the quality and potency of their products even when theyâre stored at home for long periods of time. However, the money youâre shelling out for THC products might be going to waste, so you should be taking extra care of your pot.
âFor the majority of cannabis-derived products, exposure to room temperature accelerated the degradation of THC into cannabinol (CBN), whereas storage at -20C preserved cannabinoid integrity over the extended timeline,â they said. âNotably, a distinct divergence was observed between the compounds: CBD-only products demonstrated robust long-term stability even when maintained at room temperature,â they said.
âConversely, THC-rich matrices were highly susceptible to ambient degradation but exhibited the highest stability when formulated as ethanolic solutions and stored in the freezer (-20C).,â they said.
They concluded: âTo maximize cannabinoid shelf-life and prevent degradation, storage temperatures must match product composition. While CBD-dominant products can tolerate room-temperature storage, THC-rich products require cold chain management, ideally stored in a freezer at -20C for optimal long-term potency.â
Conclusion
So the next time you come across an almost forgotten stash in the back of a drawer, youâll know what happened to it.
Potency wonât vanish overnight; keep in mind that THC is a fragile molecule, and the longer itâs exposed to light, oxygen, and warmth, the more of it will degrade and convert into CBN, resulting in a flatter smoking experience.
The study from the University of Mississippi shares valuable evidence-based information that helps us avoid this from happening. Keeping weed in room temperature sped up the breakdown of THC, while freezing it at -20C kept cannabinoids intact over the long run – especially those that were formulated using ethanolic solutions.
Meanwhile, CBD-only products were found to be impressively stable, even when exposed to room temperature.
So if you have high-THC products, these are things that are worth protecting. Keep them in an airtight container away from light and heat, which is the gold standard for cannabis storage in the first place.
Just a few small tweaks to how you store your weed can help protect your hard-earned money, and ensure you have an enjoyable, consistent experience from the start to end of your stash. With the current economy and inflation, weed isnât cheap at all, so a little careless mistake with storing your weed can really hurt your pocket. Treat your THC with the care youâd give any other perishable products you spend your hard-earned money on, and you wonât be blaming the dispensary the next time your weed experience is subpar.
TO FREEZE OR NOT TO FREEZE, READ ON…
