Will Cannabis Stems Get you High?

We’ve all been there, you’re at the end of your bag but still want to smoke a bowl. After picking through it you realize it’s pretty much all stem and you can’t decide if you should give it a shot. So will smoking stems actually get you high?

The short answer would be no. However, it can depend largely on the strain and quality of weed you had. If you’re smoking mid grade cannabis theres a solid chance that there’s no THC at all on your stems. With high-grade cannabis, there might be small amounts of residual THC left on your stems, but it’s likely not enough to produce a real high. Not to mention the fact that smoking stems is essentially the same as smoking wood. It can give you a bad headache, potentially a sore throat, and will likely taste terrible. And while we’re on the subject don’t try smoking seeds either, they contain even less THC than their counterpart.

So at the end of the day are stems completely worthless? Not quite, if you’ve been saving them up and happen to have a large quantity of them it is possible to use them in other ways. This brings us to the classic, brewing up stem tea.

Most guides recommend using a minimum of a quarter of a cup of cannabis stems. Feel free to add in additional shake to increase the strength of the tea. And while it’s completely preference based, oftentimes a tea bag of whatever your favorite tea is will also be added to the concoction. It’s also recommended to add coconut oil, butter, half & half, or something of that nature to help bind the THC. You can either grind your stems, break them up or leave them as is. The process is pretty simple, boil 3 cups of water, add in your stems and let them simmer for about ten minutes. Strain and enjoy!

  If stem tea doesn’t sound the most appealing to you, but you’re still trying to find a use for all of those pesky stems you have laying around you can also use them to make stem butter. While it likely won’t come out as potent as standard cannabutter it’s better than completely wasting them right?

To start you’re going to want to bake your stems at 225°F for about 45 minutes. Let them cool and then break them up or grind them as best as you can. Use however much butter you see fit, typically 8 tablespoons (or one stick) melt it slowly preferably in a nonstick pan. Add your ground stems and let them simmer for about a half hour. Strain with a cheesecloth, let it cool and you’ve just made your first batch of stem butter!

At the end of the day, any of these methods aren’t going to get you insanely baked, but if you really didn’t want to waste those stems these are definitely your best options.