When you think of medical cannabis, you might naturally envision vaped or smoked marijuana products. However, the wide world of cannabis includes both marijuana and other valuable options such as CBD, as well as delivery methods that don’t involve the lungs. Liquid preparations called tinctures may serve your purposes and preferences better than smoking, so let’s examine some key points about them.
Cannabis Tincture Bases: Alcohol Versus Oils
A tincture is a medicinal liquid that you place under your tongue, where it gets absorbed quickly by the body without having to be digested first. In a typical cannabis tincture, the cannabis is dissolved in a base or either ethyl alcohol or oil.
These types of bases have their respective pros and cons. A strong concentration of ethyl alcohol (such as Everclear) works quickly and keeps well, but you may not like the taste or want to ingest alcohol. Oil options include glycerine, olive oil, and MCT (medium chain triglycerides). As a compromise, you can burn the alcohol off your preparation and then combine what remains with glycerine. If you’d rather just buy a ready-made tincture, both alcohol and MCT oil feature in many manufactured products.
Tincture Dosage Tips
Cannabis tinctures can work as an ingestible substance just like other edible cannabis products; you can simply swallow them and wait for them to take effect. However, they work much more quickly than edibles if you take them as intended, by placing a few drops under your tongue and holding them there for a moment. This allows the cannabis to enter your bloodstream directly through the small, plentiful blood vessels in your mouth. you can then swallow and digest the dosage to enjoy the full long-term effects of the preparation.
The size of the dose you should place under your tongue can depend on a variety of factors, from your body weight and size to any previous tolerance you may have developed. If you make your own tincture, you can depend on a ratio of 3 fluid ounces of tincture per 8 ounces of flower or weed to provide a mild result suitable for many beginners. If you buy a manufactured tincture, follow the dosage advice on the label and then adjust that dosage to suit your needs.
All Greens Dispensary can take a lot of the mystery out of your cannabis tincture journey. Browse our online catalog of Sativa, Indica, and CBD tincture products — and feel free to contact us with any questions or feedback you may have.
