Community Education topics

[Killick]

Hi all,

Some of you are aware that I'm in Canada, so kinda legal. I'm also a military vet, and the cost of cannabis as medication is covered by our Veterans Affairs department, and has been since 2008. It took me a good while to learn how to use cannabis the right way, and part of my journey involved engaging with other vets and comparing notes and methods. I've gained a rather substantial amount of education over the years, thanks to the interewebs and forums such as VA. Thanks @momofthegoons for being an invaluable resource over the years, helping me figure otu solutions to seemingly intractable challenges on more than one occasion.

I've started teaching anyone with an interest in learning more about medical cannabis, running home info parties like my auntie used to do Tupperware. It's fun watching people learn how easy this is, and it's hard to describe the feeling when you see people start to get better.

I recently ran a course that got a lot of attention - it was meant as a 2 hour overview, but took 5 hours. It started with a presentation on the Endogenous Cannabinoid System, included a hands-on decarb workshop, then oil-making, and then a general Q&A session. It was well received. And then, Friday, I was approached by a local college to run a program for them. They suggested a format similar to what is being offered at a few colleges. I looked at a few and they focus on things like rules, regulations, and investment in the industry. I've gone a different direction...

I have 6 topics to present, and am looking at anyone who might have suggestions to fire them along. How did you first learn about cannabis? What type of info would have helped shorten your learning curve? Now that you've been a medical patient what info would you suggest for a newbie? How about a senior, or someone in hospice care? Maybe you're a medical professional who has some suggestions on what you'd like to learn?

I'm open to any and all suggestions, pointers, advice, info or whatever you have to share. The goal is to help a bunch of interested folks who come from diverse backgrounds and knowledge levels learn how to get healthier, and perhaps get displace some medications at the same time.

Here are my proposed topics. For hands-on workshops we'll be using 'other' herbs (Oregano, lavender, etc). I'll be using some of @psychonaut equipment to demo in class 3 - DripTech Rulez!

There will be a disclaimer that I'm not "certified", and outside of a bunch of emergency and trauma-oriented first aid training I'm not a health care professional. The beauty of working with non-toxic medications makes me more of a coach. And working with Lavender in class means no worries about a new users trying to learn how to drive after a 400 mg dose of, say, Girl Scout Cookies.

TIA for any feedback you'd care to provide.

Here's the proposed syllabus - 90 minutes per class, one class per week, and each class includes a handout telling them what they've learned, plus recipes.


1 – Introduction to medical cannabis – how and why it works on the human body (lecture). Safety and drug interactions will be discussed.
Difference between grey market and legal market
How to obtain legal cannabis
Cytochrome P450 and drug interactions

2. Methods of intake – oils, butters, vaporizers
workshop
make own infusion

3. Extraction methods
Discussion of solvent and solvent-less extraction procedures.
Demo solvent-free methods sift, rosin, water

4. Making and baking – cooking with cannabis
workshop – cookies, gummies, infused anything

5. Advanced medication workshop
different methods for making topicals, creams and suppositories

6. Home growing workshop – how to prepare a space,
Lighting requirements
nutrients
soil
harvest

 

[Shredder]

Hi all,

Some of you are aware that I'm in Canada, so kinda legal. I'm also a military vet, and the cost of cannabis as medication is covered by our Veterans Affairs department, and has been since 2008. It took me a good while to learn how to use cannabis the right way, and part of my journey involved engaging with other vets and comparing notes and methods. I've gained a rather substantial amount of education over the years, thanks to the interewebs and forums such as VA. Thanks @momofthegoons for being an invaluable resource over the years, helping me figure otu solutions to seemingly intractable challenges on more than one occasion.

I've started teaching anyone with an interest in learning more about medical cannabis, running home info parties like my auntie used to do Tupperware. It's fun watching people learn how easy this is, and it's hard to describe the feeling when you see people start to get better.

I recently ran a course that got a lot of attention - it was meant as a 2 hour overview, but took 5 hours. It started with a presentation on the Endogenous Cannabinoid System, included a hands-on decarb workshop, then oil-making, and then a general Q&A session. It was well received. And then, Friday, I was approached by a local college to run a program for them. They suggested a format similar to what is being offered at a few colleges. I looked at a few and they focus on things like rules, regulations, and investment in the industry. I've gone a different direction...

I have 6 topics to present, and am looking at anyone who might have suggestions to fire them along. How did you first learn about cannabis? What type of info would have helped shorten your learning curve? Now that you've been a medical patient what info would you suggest for a newbie? How about a senior, or someone in hospice care? Maybe you're a medical professional who has some suggestions on what you'd like to learn?

I'm open to any and all suggestions, pointers, advice, info or whatever you have to share. The goal is to help a bunch of interested folks who come from diverse backgrounds and knowledge levels learn how to get healthier, and perhaps get displace some medications at the same time.

Here are my proposed topics. For hands-on workshops we'll be using 'other' herbs (Oregano, lavender, etc). I'll be using some of @psychonaut equipment to demo in class 3 - DripTech Rulez!

There will be a disclaimer that I'm not "certified", and outside of a bunch of emergency and trauma-oriented first aid training I'm not a health care professional. The beauty of working with non-toxic medications makes me more of a coach. And working with Lavender in class means no worries about a new users trying to learn how to drive after a 400 mg dose of, say, Girl Scout Cookies.

TIA for any feedback you'd care to provide.

Here's the proposed syllabus - 90 minutes per class, one class per week, and each class includes a handout telling them what they've learned, plus recipes.


1 – Introduction to medical cannabis – how and why it works on the human body (lecture). Safety and drug interactions will be discussed.
Difference between grey market and legal market
How to obtain legal cannabis
Cytochrome P450 and drug interactions

2. Methods of intake – oils, butters, vaporizers
workshop
make own infusion

3. Extraction methods
Discussion of solvent and solvent-less extraction procedures.
Demo solvent-free methods sift, rosin, water

4. Making and baking – cooking with cannabis
workshop – cookies, gummies, infused anything

5. Advanced medication workshop
different methods for making topicals, creams and suppositories

6. Home growing workshop – how to prepare a space,
Lighting requirements
nutrients
soil
harvest

No advice, I'd just like to say thanks for doing what your doing. I've taught local grow classes and it was rewarding to help people fend for themselves. I've also helped elderly folks facing cancer with no idea how to procede. It's humbling, and rewarding. Your efforts are appreciated.

 

[momofthegoons]

Give me a few @Killick to absorb what you need.... and then I'll respond in more detail. But it looks like you have gotten a good curriculum started.

Thanks @momofthegoons for being an invaluable resource over the years, helping me figure otu solutions to seemingly intractable challenges on more than one occasion.

Gosh... you are so welcome... but the same to you. You've been an invaluable sounding board and source of info for me as well.

 

[CarolKing]

That’s awesome. Good for you! It looks like all bases are covered. Wishing for great things to come your way. I personally spent too many years buying illegal and smoking my cannabis.

When cannabis was still illegal here in WA state I was given the courage to get a medical card from conversations online from folks that were medical patient themselves. I had the opportunity to learn because most of my friends didn’t use cannabis. I do have a few friends and my brother that use our favorite herb.

I’m so glad my eyes were opened by folks like you.

 

[Killick]

I’m so glad my eyes were opened by folks like you.

That's a funny comment, as I include you in the list of people I could thank by name. There were a core of posters on FC, and now here, who have been inspirational. You are in that group as I've always found your posts to be both thoughtful and kind. Thank you for being you :)

 

[momofthegoons]

@Killick one thing I didn't see in any of the categories was capsules... and what you could make them out of (sludge, oil, abv, etc.). Will you be including that as well?

 

[Killick]

Excellent suggestion - Forgot about them completely.

I've been wondering about caps a bit. I've been dosing oil sublingually, as well as in coffee and food. These would be kind-of like using caps, no? Interestingly enough no one really notices when someone takes a pill, but you can get funny looks from dosing with a dropper bottle...

 

[felvapes]

I use gel caps with my hash oil
Great tabs, love them

 

[Killick]

@felvapes have you ever used oil in a dropper bottle? While I've made and used caps in the past I went with droppers for simplicity, but I'm always open to alternate options.

 

[felvapes]

@felvapes have you ever used oil in a dropper bottle? While I've made and used caps in the past I went with droppers for simplicity, but I'm always open to alternate options.

Do you mean like tinctures?
I've looked at them but not made any yet
Interested, I just have not got around to it between squishing rosin, making bubble hash and then hash oil out of the remains

My hash oil I make would be too thick and sticky to use a dropper
I store in syringes until I put in caps

I have squeezed some from the syringe onto my tongue, but this can be hard to exact dose as it's so thick

How do you make your oils for a dropper?

 

[Killick]

I was making feco and fighting with the stickiness. Someone suggested adding a little bit of MCT oil to make it easier to handle. The feco isn't any less potent with added oil, so I started making it more easily handled, and packaging in dropper bottles was simpler than filling caps, so I just kept doing it.

I decarb in a mason jar, let it cool, then top the jar with oil and simmer on a pan of water for awhile. Remove, cool,strain and put into dropper bottles.

A rice sized grain of feco, in a little oil, is still a rice sized grain. A cup of feco with 1/8 cup mct added, is much easier to handle.

 

[felvapes]

I was making feco and fighting with the stickiness. Someone suggested adding a little bit of MCT oil to make it easier to handle. The feco isn't any less potent with added oil, so I started making it more easily handled, and packaging in dropper bottles was simpler than filling caps, so I just kept doing it.

I decarb in a mason jar, let it cool, then top the jar with oil and simmer on a pan of water for awhile. Remove, cool,strain and put into dropper bottles.

A rice sized grain of feco, in a little oil, is still a rice sized grain. A cup of feco with 1/8 cup mct added, is much easier to handle.

Okay so you mix it with coconut oil to make it runnier and use it similar to a tincture
I've heard of mixing them down with coconut oil to make less potent caps

But I want my caps good dose for some med patients

I'll have a think about this and may give it a go

Only thing some ppl I give it too like to dab or smoke it
I will have to tell them they can't with the dropper stuff because of the coconut

Cheers, I like learning new ways of doing things

 

[Shredder]

Okay so you mix it with coconut oil to make it runnier and use it similar to a tincture
I've heard of mixing them down with coconut oil to make less potent caps

But I want my caps good dose for some med patients

I'll have a think about this and may give it a go

Only thing some ppl I give it too like to dab or smoke it
I will have to tell them they can't with the dropper stuff because of the coconut

Cheers, I like learning new ways of doing things

Keep in mind, coconut oil coagulates at less than 75°F.

We use hemp oil as a carrier oil used in an eye dropper. And a bit of lecithin. Hemp oil stays liquid. A dose is an eye dropper full.

For rso type oil, or rosin we use 2-3 grams (or ml) concentrate to one fluid oz of hemp oil, and 1/2tsp sunflower lecithin. You can scale up or down from there. We gently heat it to mix on a coffee warmer plate.

Same recipe for caps except for caps we use coconut oil. In fact I capped 250 yesterday.

I've been using reclaim, and squeezed rosin pucks by stripping with iso and winterizing with ethanol.

I use the same iso for a while so when I render it down it's fairly rich. My last batch started as 1/2 gallon of iso, and by the time it was winterized we got back 30gr of hash oil.

 

[felvapes]

Keep in mind, coconut oil coagulates at less than 75°F.

We use hemp oil as a carrier oil used in an eye dropper. And a bit of lecithin. Hemp oil stays liquid. A dose is an eye dropper full.

For rso type oil, or rosin we use 2-3 grams (or ml) concentrate to one fluid oz of hemp oil, and 1/2tsp sunflower lecithin. You can scale up or down from there. We gently heat it to mix on a coffee warmer plate.

Same recipe for caps except for caps we use coconut oil. In fact I capped 250 yesterday.

I've been using reclaim, and squeezed rosin pucks by stripping with iso and winterizing with ethanol.

I use the same iso for a while so when I render it down it's fairly rich. My last batch started as 1/2 gallon of iso, and by the time it was winterized we got back 30gr of hash oil.

This is how I make my hash oil
I do with leaf or trim and I also do with AVB and pucks
I use a large amount of iso and I purge using a still so I can reuse the iso again

I just have not bothered to water it down with coconut oil

I use coconut oil instead of butter for making budder though and use lecithin with leaf

But once I have made.oil I usually just leave it at that

 

[Shredder]

This is how I make my hash oil
I do with leaf or trim and I also do with AVB and pucks
I use a large amount of iso and I purge using a still so I can reuse the iso again

I just have not bothered to water it down with coconut oil

I use coconut oil instead of butter for making budder though and use lecithin with leaf

But once I have made.oil I usually just leave it at that

Have you tried winterizing? Some of the oil from used pucks is about 50% plant wax. After winterizing it's a lot stronger and much cleaner.

 

[felvapes]

Have you tried winterizing? Some of the oil from used pucks is about 50% plant wax. After winterizing it's a lot stronger and much cleaner.

I noticed this the first time I used pucks
I got a much waxier product, it left a mess when dabbed

Next round I did a dodgy winterisation that helped a lot

I put through the still till reduced most of iso and then chucked that beaker in the freezer

Just didn't do long enough I don't think

I intend to do a better job next time, I've read more on the process since

I'm actually doing an AVB/puck/leftover from bubble hash making batch run soon

 

[Shredder]

I noticed this the first time I used pucks
I got a much waxier product, it left a mess when dabbed

Next round I did a dodgy winterisation that helped a lot

I put through the still till reduced most of iso and then chucked that beaker in the freezer

Just didn't do long enough I don't think

I intend to do a better job next time, I've read more on the process since

I'm actually doing an AVB/puck/leftover from bubble hash making batch run soon

When you use ethanol to dilute your rendered down iso, the different polarity really helps. After a day or three in the freezer, and filtering through coffee filters, and rendering down again it's a different product.

The plant waxes will hold a small amount of iso and water. In the freezer the waxes typically freeze to the glass container, and what's left gets caught in the coffee filters. It makes the oil much better. It's vapable, but tasteless with the terpenes gone.

I use a desk top essential oil distiller to render down, and when there is not much left I finish on a coffee warmer, so as not to scorch the oil in the distiller.

 

[felvapes]

When you use ethanol to dilute your rendered down iso, the different polarity really helps. After a day or three in the freezer, and filtering through coffee filters, and rendering down again it's a different product.

The plant waxes will hold a small amount of iso and water. In the freezer the waxes typically freeze to the glass container, and what's left gets caught in the coffee filters. It makes the oil much better. It's vapable, but tasteless with the terpenes gone.

I use a desk top essential oil distiller to render down, and when there is not much left I finish on a coffee warmer, so as not to scorch the oil in the distiller.

Yea I have done hash oil without the winterising for yrs and it's smokeable and vapeable
But as you say the first puck run I did was waxy
Second run I had read about winterisation and did the dodgy, but as I said didn't freeze long enough and rushed the 2nd filtration
It was better but not perfect
This time I will freeze for a few days and freeze the funnel etc


I use my still to purge to freezer size beaker and then I have a scientific hotplate stirer I use to do the slow final purge

Use the still to make ethanol too

I have made hash and hash oil from trim and leaf for years
I learnt about making rosin and winterisation from these forums in the last 18 months to 2 years I have been vaping and then researched them
Great to gain new knowledge and methods and share experiences

 

[Shredder]

Yea I have done hash oil without the winterising for yrs and it's smokeable and vapeable
But as you say the first puck run I did was waxy
Second run I had read about winterisation and did the dodgy, but as I said didn't freeze long enough and rushed the 2nd filtration
It was better but not perfect
This time I will freeze for a few days and freeze the funnel etc


I use my still to purge to freezer size beaker and then I have a scientific hotplate stirer I use to do the slow final purge

Use the still to make ethanol too

I have made hash and hash oil from trim and leaf for years
I learnt about making rosin and winterisation from these forums in the last 18 months to 2 years I have been vaping and then researched them
Great to gain new knowledge and methods and share experiences

You'll like winterizing with ethanol, it really upped my game so to speak. Much better than my old RSO. And I've seen some disgusting looking oil before, lol. Like half sludge, and smelling like iso.

I've winterized rosin before too. Some waxes, but about 50% less than from used pucks. I think the plant material in pucks acts as a filter of sorts holding some wax back from rosin.

I'm still learning myself, seems like new stuff is coming quick nowadays. And now with rosin, and the new tools for making and using it, it really is a new day.

 

[felvapes]

You'll like winterizing with ethanol, it really upped my game so to speak. Much better than my old RSO. And I've seen some disgusting looking oil before, lol. Like half sludge, and smelling like iso.

I've winterized rosin before too. Some waxes, but about 50% less than from used pucks. I think the plant material in pucks acts as a filter of sorts holding some wax back from rosin.

I'm still learning myself, seems like new stuff is coming quick nowadays. And now with rosin, and the new tools for making and using it, it really is a new day.

I remember way back getting that too runny and solvent smelling oil
Not purged fully
Some bad stuff back in the day
Not always but yes some shockers hahaa