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If you happened to partake in marijuana activities in your younger years, there’s a pretty good chance you had a dedicated stash spot for your bud, whether it was buried in a shoebox in the back of your closet or in a hollowed out book you knew your parents would want to read.
If you’re like one of my friends, your go-to hiding place was above a ceiling tile in the basement, a spot his parents recently discovered when they were renovating their house last year.
As you can probably guess, his weed wasn’t exactly in the best shape when it was found after years of neglect, and while that didn’t stop him from trying to smoke it, it wasn’t exactly the most enjoyable experience.
If you toke up on a regular basis (and no longer live with your parents), you probably don’t have to worry too much about your weed going bad. However, if you’re just an occasional smoker, you might have some concerns about the best way to preserve it in the long-term.
Thankfully, it looks like we finally have an answer.
According to Marijuana Moment, a group of scientists in Italy set out on a mission to solve this eternal dilemma over the course of a four-year study that examined how marijuana degrades over time in order to figure out the best way to store it if you don’t smoke that often.
The researchers stored the weed in a variety of environments with varying temperatures and light levels and tracked how THC levels decreased over time:
In the first 100 days of data gathering, the THC in the marijuana stored in both light and dark spaces at room temperature had degraded by 13 percent and 11 percent, respectively.
Meanwhile, the refrigerated cannabis did show some decline in THC… though not nearly as pronounced as the samples kept at room temperature.
The THC content in the samples stored in below-freezing conditions, however, did not significantly change.
So, if you’re looking to chill, it looks like chilling your weed is the way to go.