- Local
- Community
- Journalism
Support the independent voice of Denver and help keep the future of Westword free.
Dear Stoner: Everyone loves terpenes, and I get it: Tasting like berries is cool. But are they necessarily safe to consume at such high levels?
Tepid
Dear Tepid: We’ve been consuming terpenes at high levels since long before weed became popular — pretty much since the dawn of humankind. Terpenes are in food, beer, coffee and just about any other plant or plant-made product. When you stop and smell the roses, you’re consuming terpenes. But if cannabis has taught us anything, it’s that consumption comes in many forms, and our bodies react in different ways to each of them.
Ingesting and smelling terpenes is fine, and smoking them could be a big part of why certain strains have medical benefits and recreational effects. However, studies have found that the myrcene — pot’s most common terpene — in butane hash oil produced toxic carcinogens when dabbed at extreme heats. Still, it’s important to remember that this was a solvent-based extract dabbed at heats that made the nail red — neither of which were considered very safe to begin with. Take those dabs low, my friend, and the carcinogen conversion is much less likely.
Send questions to marijuana@westword.com.
Keep Westword Free... Since we started Westword, it has been defined as the free, independent voice of Denver, and we would like to keep it that way. Offering our readers free access to incisive coverage of local news, food and culture. Producing stories on everything from political scandals to the hottest new bands, with gutsy reporting, stylish writing, and staffers who've won everything from the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi feature-writing award to the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism. But with local journalism's existence under siege and advertising revenue setbacks having a larger impact, it is important now more than ever for us to rally support behind funding our local journalism. You can help by participating in our "I Support" membership program, allowing us to keep covering Denver with no paywalls.
