Have you arrived home with your personal supply of medical marijuana but don’t know what to do with it all? Well, the obvious answer is to smoke it, but a common issue users face is how and where to store your medical marijuana when not in use. Fear not, as we give you the lowdown on how to maintain the potency of your marijuana and to ensure you still enjoy all the benefits that good quality medical marijuana offers.
Firstly, it is important to separate your daily supply (the marijuana you intend to smoke on a regular basis) from your long-term supply. Your long-term supply is likely to be significantly larger and greater lengths need to be taken to ensure your marijuana does not dry out and become less potent. Exposure to too much heat, light, air or handling will have a negative impact on the quality and potency of your cannabis. Heat and light will both dry out your supply and the aim of the game is to retain the marijuana’s moisture levels. Too much handling and moving your supply from place to place will damage the trichomes (the sticky resin glands attached that give you that ‘hit’). Dried-out cannabis is also a lot harsher to smoke, less enjoyable and all in all makes for a less blissful experience.
Mason jars serve as an excellent container for medical marijuana.
Long-term supply
Storing your medical marijuana in mason jars, tupperware or in ziplock bags is ideal. Mason jars or similar airtight glass containers are good because it keeps air out and they are impermeable and inert. What goes in stays in, maintaining its freshness until it is taken out. No wonder they have been used for over a hundred years. If you are using airtight or ziplock bags, be careful to squeeze out an any static air within the bag before it is sealed. This will guarantee the long-term viability of your stash, ensure no marijuana is damaged by bacteria and will save you money whether you are a novice or an experienced user. Glass, tupperware or bags will not completely protect your cannabis against light damage. Light will evaporate the water from your marijuana so keeping your container is a dark cupboard or room is ideal.
You will want to avoid placing your long-term supply anywhere with a lot of humidity or moisture. A cool, dry place will be perfect. A basement is a good option if it not potentially damp. Some places will recommend that you store your cannabis in the fridge; whilst this is a good option to maintain the freshness of new buds, it also leads to issues of mold and exposing the smell of your marijuana to friends or relatives.
Daily supply
For your daily supply you can afford to relax a little in how you store your marijuana. The same methods apply but obviously you may be using smaller mason jars or bags. Small amounts will dry out quicker but will also be consumed quicker, so keeping your personal stash in an airtight container or bag in a cool dry place is still ideal. Airtight containers will also make sure wandering noses do not discover your personal supply against your wishes. The inert nature of ziplock bags or mason jars means they do not emit flavor-changing compounds as temperatures change. This makes them both the best storage solution when you want to savor the true flavor of your marijuana and keep things fresh.
Adding orange peel to your container will keep your medical marijuana from drying out.
Re-adding moisture to dried-out weed
If you do find out that your personal supply is drying out and losing its potency, fret not! All’s not lost. Moisture can be restored by using a very simple technique of adding a piece of orange peel to your marijuana overnight. The moisture from the orange peel will revitalize and re-moisturize your marijuana. It’s almost like magic! For larger amounts just adjust the size of the orange peel you add to your airtight container. Not only does this method offer a solution to drying-out, it also added a lovely citrus aroma and taste to your medical cannabis. Go on, give it a try!
Choosing the right container
It is important that your pick the correctly-sized container for your needs. An oversized tupperware, jar or bag will leave you with the problem of excess air trapped inside. So choose a container that just about fits your cannabis stash.
Cannabis humidors
These are for those with cash to splash. If you really want to keep a scientific check on your marijuana or want to vary the amount of humidity in accordance to your needs, you can plump for a humidor. Humidity levels can be set between 50-60% and this will guarantee that your bud will last forever! Humidors are also airtight and opaque so you need not worry about issues of light or air also.
So there you have it; this brief guide should be more than enough to give you an outline on how to make the most of your medical marijuana. No need to scour online or to check out every California-based medical marijuana seller to gain the knowledge you need to sustain a healthy bud!