Navel administration

Yes, navel. Which is a bit novel. In the medical marijuana world, where people are taking oil for treatments of various kinds, the ‘belly button’ method of administering doses comes up fairly regularly. This involves putting a dose worth of FECO (full extract cannabis oil), neat or diluted with a carrier oil, into the navel…

Oil extraction: Green Oil Machine

The Green Oil Machine, known by its users as the GOM, is more efficient and handles larger quantities than the Cannolator. It is basically a water distiller with a built-in thermostat, but it works impressively well for this task. The GOM (or any equivalent water distiller) is really effective and it’s easy. You can get…

Making your own medicine

Turning cannabis from plant into medicine is actually not that hard, although you’ll need rather more weed than you get in an old-school dime bag. You will need to buy an ounce or so from a dispensary (if you’re somewhere that this is legal, and if the prices aren’t stupidly high) or grow your own….

Oil extraction: ‘Mike’s Milk’

This is the easiest process I’ve tried. This is something described by a guy called Mike (hence the name) in his Virtual Visiting Hours blog which documents his progress fighting cancer. I used this process for the first few months of my chemotherapy treatment, to truly great effect. You’ll need the following things in addition…

Oil extraction: Cannolator

The Cannolator Extractor is a slightly ‘weird science’ looking thing, but it’s a relatively quick and effective way to make smaller amounts of cannabis oil. The Cannolator kit costs roughly $100/€100/£90. You will almost certainly have to order it from Holland, I haven’t seen it elsewhere. Try Dutch Head Shop or Health Treatments or search…

Dosing

When you have your medicine ready – whether you’ve made ‘Mike’s Milk,’ your own blended oil, or bought ready-to-go cannabis oil, the obvious question needs to be answered: how much do I take? In general, the answer is ‘as much as you can comfortably tolerate.’ This will be relatively low to begin with but will…

Drying and curing

Once you’ve harvested your plants the maturing stops. Don’t get taken in by the myths about hanging it upside down to control movement of liquid or anything along those lines, that’s simply incorrect. All life, activity and cell development stops once it’s cut down. It IS true that curing properly can improve the aroma and…

Harvest time – early or late?

We’re growing for medicine rather than making dime bags for weekend parties, but the THC cannabinoid that produces the so-called ‘psychoative’ effects is an important part of the medical effects – both symptomatic relief and the actual treatment. Because of this it’s a good idea to understand how this medicine is likely to affect you…

Planning ahead

So you’ve read Growing Your Own Medicine and you’re keen to get started? Great – but don’t hang about! Cannabis is very fast growing, but even the quickest strains (you can search for quick growing types in any good online seed shop) will take over two months to go from seed to harvest-ready plant. Tip:…

Growing your own medicine

Growing your own cannabis may sound a bit on the extreme side. If you live somewhere where it’s legal to buy marijuana for medical or recreational use, why bother growing it? And if you live somewhere that criminalizes weed, growing it may seem a bit foolhardy. But look at this from another angle: growing it…