Cannabis and Temperature Control: What You Need To Know

Determining The Effects of Cannabis Through Temperature Control

If you are a cannabis user, specifically a smoker, you probably have noticed the difference between different strains.

However, what most people don’t realize is that you can control the effects of your cannabis in more ways than just differentiating between strains.

In fact, temperature and heat plays a large role in the overall effects of cannabis. You can change the effect profile of your cannabis through releasing certain compounds by regulating temperature.

Here is how temperature affects your cannabis experience.

Determining The Effects of Cannabis: What Causes Cannabis To Produce Its Effects?

There are over 200 known cannabinoids found in the cannabis plant.

In fact, there may be even more if we take into consideration unknown or unidentified cannabinoids.

Each of these cannabinoids, in turn, produces a different effect.

Not all of them are psychoactive, in fact, some have no psychoactive effects, while others like THC have strong psychoactive effects.

Some of these compounds are just relaxing and analgesic or anti-inflammatory (like CBD).

Additionally, there are also flavonoids and terpenoids that are present within cannabis. Each of these compounds offer their own unique effects (again, not all of them being psychoactive). This is because some of these compounds have the ability to influence each other’s reactions.

This is what scientists call the ‘entourage effect.’

Why is all this important?

Each of these compounds have different boiling or combustion temperatures. Meaning, at different temperatures, different cannabinoids will be activated.

This means that certain compounds are only released from the herb once they reach a specific temperature.

Learning about the different temperatures that release varying cannabinoids is especially interested because it allows you to control the effects of your cannabis, to a certain degree of course.

Determining The Effects of Cannabis: Why Smoking Is Not The Best Way To Manage The Effects

When smoking cannabis, you are always heating the herb to its combustion point.

As we mentioned earlier, each of the compounds found within the cannabis have certain boiling points that are below their combustion point.

Burning cannabis instantly releases all of its compounds. There is however a small nuance to this process.

When sparking up a joint there is actually some vaporization that occurs.

Which theoretically can allow for some minor manipulation of the effects experienced.

To do so, you would need a temperature varying lighter.

How does this work exactly, you might ask?

The portions of your joint between your mouthpiece and the tip release terpenoids.

This depends on how hot that area of the joint gets. However, the tip of a joint immediately releases all the compounds so the vaporization of a joint is only an indirect side effect of smoking.

It’s nearly impossible to manipulate the effects of cannabis from smoking, aside from changing the dosage amount.

This is due to the fact that you are lighting the flower on fire, thus to its combustion point, rather than its boiling point.

Determining The Effects of Cannabis: Why Edibles Aren’t The Best Way For You To Manage The Effects of Cannabis

So theoretically, you could cook cannabis-infused edibles within a specific temperature range.

This does not work well in practice for the purpose of releasing a particular set of compounds. Unless you have more sophisticated ways of measuring cannabinoid content.

Even the most heat-resistant compounds begin to be released as time goes by. Cannabinoids also degrade over time if not kept properly, whether heat is added or not.

Heat-stress effects are not just influenced by temperature, but also by time and overall exposure.

The problem when edibles are used is that they are heated for extended periods of time, so it is hard to know which cannabinoids are still present and which have degraded to a different form.

Why Vaping Is The Best Method to Control the Effects Of Cannabis

Vaping cannabis is a new trend that has grown immensely in popularity over the past decade.

Even though vaping has been around for longer than 10 years now, there have been rapid advances in vaporizer technology.

Many vaporizers today have precise and accurate temperature controls.

This is a feature that was missing in older vaporizers from years past.

It is great news for cannabis connoisseurs because it means that we can fine-tune our cannabis and vaping experiences. And thus we are able to find ways to manipulate the compounds and cannabinoids within cannabis to obtain the desired effects.

The temperature range at which cannabis can safely be vaporized, is precisely the temperature range where almost all of the beneficial compounds in cannabis start to release in large amounts.

It’s also the temperature range where you can avoid most of the toxic by-products from combustion like carcinogens.

Plus, depending on your vape, you can adjust this temperature in 1-degree increments by simply clicking on your vaporizer.

It is easy to see why vaping can be so efficient and convenient when it comes to temperature control and the effects of cannabis.

What Temperatures Produce Which Exact Effects

Don’t worry, you don’t have to memorize all of the combustion temperatures of close to 200 cannabinoids…

Here is a temperature range guide to help you:

Low Temperatures

320 degrees F (160 degrees C) – 356 degrees F (180 degrees C):

Meant for light mental medications
Very weak physical results
Usually used for medical effects of THC

Mid Temperature Range

356 degrees F(180 degrees C) – 392 degrees F (200 degrees C):

Moderate to strong mental and physical medication dosage.
Both mental as well as physical effects are apparent.
Cannabis CBD becomes more effective for medicinal purposes (if your cannabis has sufficient amounts of CBD).

High Temperatures

392 degrees F (200 degrees C) – 446 degrees F(230 degrees C):

Intense mental and physical medication.
It will have very strong effects on the body.
The medical effects of ALL terpenoids and cannabinoids are used.

Experienced cannabis consumers may prefer to start in lower temperatures, and then gradually move up.

This allows them to use all temperature ranges in one session. In turn, you get the most out of your cannabis in this way because you get to experience each cannabinoid as they release at different temperatures.

Furthermore, it is the most efficient way to make use of your cannabis.

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