Dear Stoner: Which Is Better for CBD Extraction — Hemp or Flower?

Dear Stoner: I want to try my hand at making CBD-extracted products. Is it better to use hemp or real marijuana for it?
C-Mac

Dear Mac: It depends on your experience with marijuana and cannabinoid extraction. Most cannabidiol (CBD) users and product-makers use industrial hemp, because it’s easier to grow legally and naturally higher in CBD cannabinoids than most flowering marijuana plants, which generally have more THC. If you want to start creating personal CBD products in Colorado, all you have to do is make sure your hemp plants or oils have less than 0.3 percent THC, and you can make all the CBD-infused balms, lotions and foods you like — as long as your home-extraction methods don’t involve butane or any other explosive solvent.

While industrial hemp is the easier option, many CBD users and advocates believe in using CBD-heavy pot strains and oils for treatment. According to the nonprofit Project CBD, flowering strains such as Spectrum 12, Pennywise and the famous Charlotte’s Web pack more CBD than hemp does, and you’ll use a lot less plant matter when making oil with them. The group also says that hemp lacks certain terpenes and secondary cannabinoids found in CBD-heavy marijuana buds that help your body absorb it most effectively. Although high-CBD-strain seeds and clones are harder to find than traditional strains, most medical dispensaries carry at least one variety.

Dear Stoner: Is there more THC and other cannabis oils in roaches than in regular buds or an unsmoked joint?
Boris

Dear Boris: As I advised the guy who asked about hiding a bud inside a metal pipe and smoking to cover it in “smoke resin,” stay away from the black stuff! That sticky, smelly tar has THC and THC-A (which only affects you if it’s activated by heat), but not enough to make up for what it does to your lungs and tastebuds. Still, I’d be lying if I said my friends and I never rolled a generation joint of the brown, hardened pot from old roaches. Those days are long behind me, though, and I don’t wish them on anyone else.

Growing up, I had a buddy named Chris who never had weed or the inclination to buy any, but that didn’t stop him from trying to bum hits or ask for a nug every time it was sparked. We all got tired of it and started giving him roaches only, and he got so comfortable with his scrounging role that he started wearing a roach clip on his hat. He’s still known as Roach Clip Chris, and it all started with that slippery slope of cheapness. Be careful.

Send questions to [email protected] or call the potline at 303-293-2222.