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Scientists, when they aren’t busy trying to find and figure out how to communicate with aliens, have made some amazing discoveries over the years.
Case in point: The folks at Delic Labs, a cannabis and psilocybin research facility in Vancouver, British Columbia, recently figured out how to roll the perfect joint.
Their research, presented at the Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition last month, suggests the particle size of THC- and CBD-dominant cannabis strains used in joints does matter when it comes to the intensity of the spliff.
“For both cannabis strains, the 1-mm particle size delivered the most cannabinoid per puff, while the 5-mm size was less intense but led to longer-lasting joints,” Scientific American reports. “Smaller chunks exposed a greater surface area to the flame more quickly, providing a faster and more efficient burn. And regardless of particle size, the highest concentration of cannabinoids per puff came toward the end of the joint.”
To try finding the blueprint for the perfect joint, Roggen and his team prepared samples of both THC- and CBD-dominant cannabis strains. Using a coffee grinder and a sieve, they prepared batches of one-, three-, and five-millimeter-diameter particles. Then they made joints from 0.5 gram of each sample, pouring the particles into commercially available prerolled paper cones. Next they connected these joints to a “smoke cycle simulator” machine that uniformly “inhaled” six times for three seconds each, then “exhaled.” Filters collected the aerosols at the machine’s 3-D-printed mouthpiece, and the researchers used analytical chemistry techniques to measure aerosol levels from puffs taken at the beginning, middle, and end of each joint.
The researchers also learned that THC-dominant joints delivered a total of 19 to 28 milligrams of THC per cigarette, while CBD-dominant versions each delivered 90 to 100 mg of CBD.
“The amount of cannabinoid that gets to your mouth is higher for CBD than for THC,” said Markus Roggen, president and chief science officer of Delic Labs. “I cannot explain it, but I am very intrigued.”
This new information is especially useful for the creation of manufactured prerolled cannabis joints. It will also be helpful for doctors who prescribe medical marijuana to patients who prefer smoking cannabis over other forms of ingestion.
“This information could be particularly useful for medical marijuana patients and clinicians for whom dosing control and consistency is a significant issue,” said Robert Strongin, a professor of organic chemistry at Portland State University.