How to Store Your Marijuana
If your medical marijuana is currently sitting inside of a plastic ziplock bag, this blog post is for you.
We’re going to assume that when you go to the dispensary, you don’t walk up to the budtender and say, “Bring me the most dried-out, flavorless, weakest strain of cannabis that you have. I want the kind of stuff that’s going to make me cough my lungs out once I inhale it.”
No, you would never order something like that. You probably want the best quality of medical marijuana that you can afford.
So here’s the question: if you don’t want the worst quality of medical marijuana, why would you store it in such way that you get the worst quality?
Because when you store high-quality marijuana improperly, you might as just buy the low-grade stuff. That way, you’ll at least save money.
But if you want to preserve your cannabis the right way and keep it fresh for months (or some cases, even years), then it’s time to learn how to store your marijuana properly.
The 3 Enemies Of Fresh Marijuana
Light
The reason: UV light will break down your marijuana’s cannabinoids and terpenes, severely impacting its potency.
Air
The reason: Too much exposure to air will dry your marijuana out. It’ll lose its flavor and burn harshly when you light it. If you normally have trouble holding marijuana smoke in your lungs, dried-out marijuana is even worse.
Moisture
The reason: Mold spores love environments with high humidity. If your marijuana is kept in a dank, humid environment, don’t be surprised if mold finishes off the rest of your cannabis before you do.
How To Store Your Marijuana The Wrong Way
1. Put it in a plastic bag
Marijuana is medicine; it’s not a sandwich.
Plastic bags are useful when you want to store food temporarily and eat it later in the day.
But they’re a bad choice for marijuana storage because air can move in and out of the bag far too easily.
In fact, if you fill a plastic bag with marijuana and zip it up, you’ll probably still smell the marijuana through the bag.
That means your marijuana’s flavor is literally leaving the bag. You don’t want the flavor to leave; you want it to stay in there so that you can enjoy it yourself.
And if the air inside the bag is getting out, it also means that the air outside the bag is getting in. That’s a recipe for dried-out, nasty-tasting marijuana.
Here’s another issue: household plastic bags can carry a static charge. This charge will pull the trichomes off your bud. Trichomes are responsible for creating marijuana’s cannabinoids and terpenes, so when you remove your cannabis from the bag and lose those trichomes in the process, you’re losing the most potent part of the plant.
2. Store It In a Refrigerator Or Freezer
Putting marijuana in the refrigerator is an all-too-common tactic. Unfortunately, it’s a bad one.
The key to preserving your marijuana is keeping it at a temperature that you can control. The temperature and moisture inside of a fridge are difficult to control, and that means mold might an opportunity to grown on your medicine.
Freezers aren’t much better. When marijuana freezes, its trichomes (those cannabinoid/terpene factories we were talking about earlier) become brittle and can easily break off and be lost.
3. Keep It Near Electronic Devices
Electronics are constantly emitting heat. If your marijuana is resting on top of your refrigerator, television or computer, it’ll absorb that heat and dry out more quickly as a result.
How To Store Your Marijuana The Right Way
1. Use a Sealable Glass Container
You really can’t go wrong with glass. Why? Because glass containers are impermeable, which means it’s extremely difficult for air to get in or out.
Of course, you’ll need a glass jar with an airtight lid. Mason jars are a great option, and you can easily get one from your local home supply store. Just be sure to get a jar that’s appropriate for the amount of marijuana you’ll be storing. You don’t want to store 1/8 of an ounce in a huge jar. That will leave more air inside the jar, and your marijuana will dry out more quickly.
2. Keep It Out Of Sunlight
Keep your medicine in a drawer, closet, cupboard, time capsule – whatever. Just as long as it’s something that will shield your medicine from those cannabinoid-destroying UV rays. For an added layer of protection, keep your medicine inside of an opaque or dark-colored glass jar.
And be sure to put your weed away after you’re done using it. It can be tempting to leave out your bud after you’ve smoked a bit. After all, you probably want to relax and enjoy some pain relief, not worry about keeping the place tidy. But it only takes a few seconds to put your cannabis away where it belongs; that’s a small price to pay for fresh marijuana.
3. Keep It In A Cool Dry Place
We said earlier that too much heat can dry your marijuana out. Once you add moisture to the mix, now you’re dealing with an even bigger problem: mold.
But you also don’t want the environment to be too dry; otherwise, you run the risk of your marijuana drying out.
You want the relative humidity level of your storage environment to be somewhere between 55 and 62 percent. It may be difficult for you to maintain that percentage range, especially if you live in a humid city or town. If that’s the case, consider investing in a cannabis humidor. These devices allow you to store your marijuana in a humidity-controlled environment that’s also protected from sunlight.
How do you typically store your marijuana? Do you use a sandwich bag? Glass container? Crumpled-up aluminum foil? Or are you rocking a cannabis humidor like a true cannasseur? Share your thoughts about how to store your marijuana on our Facebook and Instagram page.
And if you don’t have any medical marijuana to store because you don’t have your medical card yet, don’t waste any more time! Schedule an appointment with us today so we can help you get on the path to natural pain relief.
