No, really, my friend made this thc oil.
January 30, 2019 8:56 PM Subscribe
I have trouble with smoke, so my friend made me a batch of thc oil. We tried some after he'd extracted with isopropyl and it was great. Then he added glycerin to make it easier to handle and it's not pleasant at all now. What could have gone wrong? How can I use the rest of the oil?
I don't know most of the specifics of his process, but I do know that the extract was relaxing and delicious and now, post-glycerin, it's not good.
Mostly it hasn't been making me feel much and then suddenly makes me agitated and shaky, and with a headache.
I've vaped it from an oil pen a few times and swallowed some once, but I haven't had good results. It's possible I have a weird reaction to glycerin.
If I'm not enjoying it in those forms, is there reason to think I could enjoy it in other forms? I don't want to waste it, but I don't know what to do with it.
I don't know most of the specifics of his process, but I do know that the extract was relaxing and delicious and now, post-glycerin, it's not good.
Mostly it hasn't been making me feel much and then suddenly makes me agitated and shaky, and with a headache.
I've vaped it from an oil pen a few times and swallowed some once, but I haven't had good results. It's possible I have a weird reaction to glycerin.
If I'm not enjoying it in those forms, is there reason to think I could enjoy it in other forms? I don't want to waste it, but I don't know what to do with it.
THC has much poorer solubility in water and better solubility in oil than any of glycerol, propylene glycol, isopropyl alcohol or nicotine. So if your troubles are indeed being caused by some combination of those contaminants, you ought to be able to separate them from the THC you want by combining what you have with a salad-dressing-style mixture of a bland vegetable oil like canola or sunflower oil and water, then setting that aside to separate out into layers. If you have access to a lab-style separation funnel so much the better, but I'm sure you can improvise glassware that does the same job.
posted by flabdablet at 4:35 AM on January 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by flabdablet at 4:35 AM on January 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
Or if you use melted butter instead of oil and keep it just warm enough to stay melted as it settles out, then refrigerate but not freeze the whole lot, you will end up with solid THC-enriched butter that you can use to make cookies, floating on top of contaminated water that you can easily rinse away; no separation funnel required.
posted by flabdablet at 4:55 AM on January 31, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by flabdablet at 4:55 AM on January 31, 2019 [2 favorites]
Might be worth it to post to /r/oilpen.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 5:57 AM on January 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 5:57 AM on January 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
Propylene glycol - PG
Glycerol - VG
PG is known to cause some people problems allergy/sensitivity wise. I don't think VG has it that bad.
Worst case is they could have used PG/VG that has Nicotine as PG/VG are also used in e-cigs for the same "dilute and make easier to manage a concentrated extract" purpose.
How did you vape it before it was diluted? When I made THC extract it was consumed in a glass pipe in rather small tokes. The cartridges I use now are just 3-5s tokes for a couple of hits, then WAIT. Vaping in that way comes on slower than doing the undiluted form like smoking opium. YMMV.
It's sorta the shaky and headache that make me lean to the PG/VG sensitivity or there's also maybe Nicotine in there. Hope not.
The process in general sounds like what I would try now. Seems cromulent. Back in the day I used ether instead of Isopropyl and the PG/VG/vape-pen type thing wasn't around yet. Another YMMV.
Good luck!
posted by zengargoyle at 2:05 AM on January 31, 2019 [3 favorites]