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Why Microwaving Your Medical Cannabis Isn’t Smart

Medical Cannabis users are as susceptible to trends as anyone else. One of the hottest trends right now is that of microwaving your cannabis. It is a big enough trend that even celebrities are endorsing it. Doing so isn’t going to harm you, but we want you to know that microwaving Medical Cannabis isn’t a smart idea.

How Microwaves Work

To understand why we recommend against microwaving Medical Cannabis, we should probably explain how microwaves work. A microwave oven doesn’t actually cook food. It heats food by exciting water molecules. Those molecules vibrate when exposed to microwaves, and the vibrations produce heat.

Every piece of food you place in your microwave has at least some water content. As soon as you hit the ‘start’ button, microwaves begin hitting the surface of the food. Water molecules start vibrating, generating heat, and passing that heat through the food. In less than two minutes, your leftovers are hot and ready to eat.

Using the Mic to Decarboxylate

There appears to be a misunderstanding among people who think they can decarboxylate their cannabis by putting it in the microwave. Technically, that may be true when you are dealing with straight plant material. But practically speaking, it doesn’t really work.

When you burn cannabis, the heat produced by combustion decarboxylates the material. But combustion is a more tightly controlled process compared to microwaving.

Microwaving is inconsistent. It is also difficult to control the temperature of the plant material while it’s in the oven. As a result, certain portions of the plant material getting too hot would mean lowering the potency due to heating up cannabinoids past their evaporation point.

Stick to the Old Ways

If you consume medical cannabis by purchasing raw flower and using it to make edibles at home, stick to the old ways of doing things. Cooking your cannabis over the stove or utilizing a commercial infuser are your best bets. Both processes can be tightly controlled so that the plant material doesn’t get too hot.

Going with a microwave could ultimately reduce the potency of your medicine by either under-heating or over-heating it. It would probably take a lot of trial and error to figure out how to best microwave plant material without harming potency, but why waste valuable medicine on trial and error?

Microwaving Anything Else

It goes without saying that there isn’t any point in microwaving anything other than plant material. So even if you do decide to throw raw flower in the microwave, don’t bother trying to microwave Medical Cannabis products like gummies and tinctures.

Medical Cannabis products derived from plant material already contain decarboxylated cannabinoid acids. You cannot decarboxylate a second time. So heating such products not only does not increase their potency, but it could also actually decrease the potency by causing cannabinoids to evaporate.

As a Medical Cannabis user, you want your medications to be as potent as they can be. You are better off using them as-is rather than trying to improve them by way of a fad that has no scientific evidence behind it.

Please Educate Yourself

In closing, we want to encourage you to educate yourself about Medical Cannabis as much as possible. There is a ton to learn. We get it. But knowledge is the key to getting the most out of your medications.

A little research reveals why putting Medical Cannabis in a microwave is not a smart idea. Again, doing so will not harm you. But it could reduce the effectiveness of your medication. As expensive as Medical Cannabis is, reducing its effectiveness doesn’t make a lot of sense.

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By UtahMarijuana.org
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Published September 13, 2022

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