With the legalization of recreational cannabis, there has been a renewed interest in trying out marijuana edibles. Old favorites like pot brownies and cookies, and the infamous Space Cake found in many of the coffee shops in the Netherlands, are becoming more popular than ever.

Nowadays, weed is being used in a wide variety of snacks that cater to people who enjoy their marijuana high but prefer to avoid the harmful effects of smoking.  

Edibles have become so popular that there are now machines on the market designed just for making cannabutter. This enables marijuana connoisseurs a variety of ways to eat their bud to get high.

If you’ve been itching to make your own goodies, the following 5 tips are important to remember when making your own edibles.

1. Don’t Just Dump Your Weed Into Anything

Surprisingly, this isn’t as obvious as you might think, and many people think you can simply throw a bag of herb into brownie mix to get high. In truth, if you just throw some weed into your favorite meal, the only result will be a terrible tasting meal.  

In order to properly cook edibles, you need to make an infused oil or butter first. Then, you use that oil or butter to make your cannatreats.

2. Calculate the Dosage and Potency

This is the first thing you need to always do in order to cook properly with cannabis. If you don’t know the potency of the bud you are using, then it will be impossible to determine the concentration of THC in your edibles. You may not get the proper dose.

Unfortunately, not all smokers will know how much THC, CBD or other cannabinoids are in their stash because most street dealers don’t test their bud at a lab.

This is why it’s best to get your bud from a local or online dispensary like The Green Ace to get reliable information on just how potent your bud is.

Many people have negative experiences when they first try edibles because they ate too strong a dose of THC. Edible takes longer to feel the effects than smoking, so many first-time users end up consuming more than they should. This can be very uncomfortable in high doses. Calculating your dosage and potency beforehand can prevent these mishaps.

3. Don’t Waste Your Good Weed

It is important to understand that dumping as much weed as you have into the butter or oil will not make your edibles more potent. The fat molecules are only able to bind to certain amounts of cannabinoids. Adding a massive excess amount of weed will just waste your herb.

Most often, you can make cannabutter using the shake leftover from your baggie of weed. This means you don’t need to waste beautiful, high-quality bud—you can enjoy that separately and still make your cannabutter.

4. Don’t Forget to Decarboxylate

This is a simple step but incredibly important because it is what allows you to activate the THC compounds in the herb.

For this step, simply grind the herb—not too fine though—and spread it on a baking sheet. Then heat the herb in the oven for an hour at 110°-120°F.

5. Don’t Overheat Your Herb

This is crucial since THC starts to burn around 186 degrees. You need to keep the temperature below this level or you will lose a lot of the potency.

Keeping a digital thermometer handy will enable you to be sure that you aren’t letting the temperature get too high.

Making edibles is a great way to enjoy getting high in a different way. Not only can you cook most anything you like, but you will be able to enjoy the foods you love while getting high at the same time. By following the 5 tips outlined above, you’re now ready to embark on your culinary canna-adventure!