Cannabis edibles

"Space cakes" redirects here. For the Alanis Morissette EP, see Space Cakes.

"Hash brownies" redirects here. It is not to be confused with hash browns.

Process of making bhang into a drink

A variety of space cakes from Amsterdam

Cannabis edibles are cooked foods and drinks such as hash brownies, pot brownies, cannabutter, and bhang, a yogurt-based drink traditionally popular in India which are made with the drug cannabis, either using its herbal form or hashish. The psychoactive effects of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a hydrophobic oil, soluble in lipids (oil/fat) and alcohol must initially be cooked in one of these before being mixed into edibles such as cake, cookie, brownie, drinks etc in order to experience the psychoactive, whether for recreational or medicinal purposes.

During preparation the cannabis or its extract must be heated sufficiently to cause decarboxylation of its most abundant cannabinoid, tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA), converting it into psychoactive THC.

The oil-solubility of cannabis extracts has been known since ancient times, when Sanskrit recipes from India required that the cannabis be sautéed in ghee before mixing it with other ingredients. Making a tea by boiling cannabis in water is a highly inefficient way to extract psychoactive cannabinoids. Adding milk (which contains fat, water, proteins and electrolytes as well as certain sugars) when steeping, however, makes it much more efficient than using plain water.

Ingredients and effects

A cookie containing medical cannabis

Some authors claim that oral consumption of cannabis, when properly cooked, is a more efficient way to absorb cannabinoids than smoking it, and can result in a similar psychoactive effect or "high" as smoking cannabis, although it may be delayed or mitigated due to slower absorption of the THC from the digestive tract. Whereas the effects from smoking cannabis are usually felt within a few minutes, it can take up to two hours to reach full effects after ingesting it. Cannabis produces THCA, an acid with the carboxylic group (COOH) attached. THCA is not very psychoactive. It is only when the carboxyl group is removed that the THCA becomes THC, which is psychoactive. Liquid THC and other cannabinoids have a boiling point of between 180-200 °C (355-392 °F). Before it turns gaseous, the carboxyl group is released from the molecule as carbon dioxide and water vapor at around 106 °C (220 °F). In the cooking of edible psychoactive products, some research indicates heating cannabis to a temperature of 122 °C (251 °F) for 27 minutes to be the optimum method to optimize THC:THCA ratios.

Because oral doses are processed by the liver before entering the bloodstream, oral THC produces high levels of active metabolite 11-Hydroxy-THC, while smoked cannabis does not. 11-OH-THC is more potent than THC and crosses the blood–brain barrier more easily.

Oil

"Cannaoils" or "marijuana oils" are cooking oil based products that have been infused with cannabinoids by mixing cannabis with the heated oil.. Ground cannabis plant material must be "activated" by the decarboxylation of (−)-trans-Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol acid to (−)-trans-Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in order to become a psychoactive compound. This activation process can be done before or during the extraction into oil. A recent research study on the decarboxylation of THC performed by heating ground plant material found the highest yield of psychoactive THC to be achieved at 110 C after 110 minutes. Once this chemical conversion has been accomplished, the ground plant material must be solvated in a lipid solvent. Any cooking oil can be used for this. The activated plant material should be mixed with the oil vigorously for 5–10 minutes, and then the oil can be strained depending on preference. Activation and solvation can be accomplished simultaneously by mixing the plant material into pre-heated oil. Using a double boiler is a common method for this extraction technique as it keeps the temperature at a near-constant 100 C. As a general rule, a higher temperature leads to a faster reaction rate and therefore requires less cooking time to be activated; it should be noted however that temperatures above 140 C run the risk of beginning to vaporize compounds out of the mixture and temperatures below 90 C may not lead to significant chemical conversion on a time scale of less than 24 hours. Cannabis cooking oils are available to medical cannabis patients in a variety of organic blends for various cooking applications.

Butter

Making cannabutter

Infusing raw cannabis into melted butter creates an infusion known as cannabutter. Heating the raw cannabis in melted butter allows the cannabinoids to be extracted by the fat. A more complicated process is using a double-boiler, or slow cooker, cheesecloth or tea strainer and funnel. Cooking time varies from 10–15 minutes to 24 hours at 93 °C (199 °F), and partly depends on the amount of cannabis used - .8 grams takes from 15–25 minutes, even though it is better to extend that time a bit more by not exceeding the 100 °C (212 °F) border, or even lowering to 90 °C (194 °F), to 24 hours for 30 grams.

Liqueurs

Because cannabis resins are soluble in alcohol, an effective way of adding them into dishes is through cooking brandy or rum infused with cannabinoids. Generally, stems and leaves of the marijuana plant are used due to their lower THC content when smoked. When infused in high-proof grain-based alcohol (such as Everclear) it becomes what is commonly known as Green Dragon. Creme de Gras (a play on the English "grass", as creme de gras translates literally as "cream of fat") is a flavored liqueur made from cannabis. It can be added to coffee and other beverages.

Hash cookie

American medical hashish

Hash cookies are bakery products made using hashish. One is not usually able to tell the difference between regular baked goods and those containing drugs before consumption, but they tend to have a slight greenish tinge with marijuana, and they often emit a faint odor. A mild flavor can be detectable if sufficient quantities are used. Many resources for recipes, preparation, and dosage are available online, though they vary greatly in effectiveness and quality.

The writer Alice B. Toklas's inclusion of her friend Brion Gysin's recipe for "Haschich Fudge" in her 1954 literary memoir The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook caused a sensation at the time, and led to her name becoming associated with cannabis food with the use of the phrase "Alice B. Toklas brownies" for many years afterwards.

"Space cakes" is a common name for muffins, brownies, and cookies baked with marijuana, which are very popular in the Netherlands. It used to sometimes be popular to frost these with psilocybin mushroom frosting, but this practice has since been discontinued when psilocybin mushrooms were banned in 2008.

Cultural influence

Various cannabis foods on display in Amsterdam

The brownie was used in the 1968 film, I Love You, Alice B. Toklas, in which a character portrayed by Peter Sellers becomes disillusioned with his mainstream life after falling in love with a free spirit, only to become just as disillusioned with the hippie subculture. Marijuana-spiked brownies are a key plot element.

The brownie also plays a major role on That '70s Show, where the gang of kids enjoyed them as snacks and as a source of getting high. Especially in the episode "Garage Sale", where Red (Kurtwood Smith) eats all of Hyde's (Danny Masterson) "special brownies" and sells his son Eric's (Topher Grace) car while under the influence.

It has been featured as a plot device in numerous TV shows, including The Secret Life of the American Teenager, Skins, Hall Pass, Grounded for Life, ("Henry's Working for the Drug Squad"), Arrested Development ("Afternoon Delight"), Taxi, Laverne & Shirley, Barney Miller, Chips, Family Guy, American Dad!, How I Met Your Mother, Desperate Housewives, One Tree Hill, Glee, That 70's Show, Gilmore Girls, The Young and the Restless, Weeds, The L Word, Degrassi: The Next Generation, My Name is Earl, I Love Keith Allen, 90210, Swingtown, The Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men, Bates Motel and Frasier ("High Holidays"), as well as in movies such as Love and Other Disasters, EuroTrip, Next Friday, Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, Never Been Kissed, Adventureland, Grandma's Boy, Can't Hardly Wait, Life as We Know It, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and Empire Records. The film Smiley Face is based entirely on a woman who consumes a large amount of cannabis cupcakes. In popular music, the most memorable lyric from the song The Mambo Craze by downtempo jazz group De-Phazz mentions "Space Cake Break at the Titicaca Lake."

Stand-up comedian Bill Bailey performs a riff in his Part Troll live show in which he asks members of the audience for suggestions for foods to place cannabis in. They include shepherd's pie, beef stroganoff and "just toast".

The segue "Die Eier von Satan" (which literally translates to the "eggs of Satan", but "eggs" bear the connotation of testicles in German, like "balls" in English) from the 1996 Tool album Ænima has as its lyrical component a recipe in German that includes the ingredient "a knife-tip of Turkish hashish".

See also

• Brownie Mary
• Chef Ra

External links

• The Straight Dope column on Alice B. Toklas brownies (includes original text of recipe)