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.

Similar Posts

  • Drug Tests and Cannabis

    Manfred Donike, a German biochemist born in 1933, invented the first drug test. In 1966 he successfully demonstrated that an Agilent gas chromatograph could be used to see anabolic steroids as well as other drugs in urine samples. Drug tests can be fairly common these days, but unless you’re on probation you’re most likely to…

  • The Endocannabinoid System

    The endocannabinoid system (ECS) was named after the plant which led to its discovery, cannabis. As we learn more about it some have begun to think that the endocannabinoid system is very important in establishing and maintaining health. The ECS is essentially a collection of cannabinoid receptors that can be found all over the body….

  • Cannabis Hangovers are They Real?

    Hangovers are typically thought of in context with drugs that have greater body loads than cannabis such as alcohol and MDMA. However, some people claim to get a hangover from cannabis. Traditional symptoms from alcohol hangovers often include dizziness, fatigue, nausea, etc. and MDMA hangovers can leave a mild to serious depression in conjunction with…

  • Nausea and Medical Cannabis

    Medical cannabis advocates can at times make it seem like marijuana is this cure-all medicine. While it doesn’t cure everything, it can be immensely beneficial for people with a myriad of different ailments. In this article, I’ll be detailing the effects marijuana has on nausea. Medical cannabis has long been known by many to be…

  • Treating PTSD with Cannabis

    Post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD is a psychiatric disorder. It is generally found in people who have been exposed to life-threatening or terrifying situations. For this reason, it is a common disorder among veterans. Although persons with PTSD are not limited to living through life threatening/terrifying situations, other causes for PTSD can be physical or sexual abuse….