If you are looking for a way to manage your chronic pain with a marijuana extract, try making marijuana-infused coconut oil.  Although other types of oil can also be used (olive oil is also a favorite choice), coconut oil has the ability to absorb more of the cannabis than other types of oil. Coconut oil infused with high-grade medical marijuana is so easy to make, and it keeps in the refrigerator or in a cool, dark cabinet for a long, long time.

There are a few different ways you can use marijuana-infused cocnout oil. You can buy empty gelatin capsules on Amazon or at many other places, and fill them with your infused coconut oil, making your own homemade pills.  This is an easy way to avoid the butter/sugar/flour of baked goods containing medical cannabis (although they are delicious), and is much more discreet than pulling out a pipe or vape the next time you are out in public and in need of pain relief.

Coconut oil infused with marijuana can also be placed directly beneath the tongue, drop by drop.  Hold it in your mouth without swallowing for at least 20 seconds, and the marijuana will pass directly into your bloodstream.  This sublingual method bypasses the stomach, making it ideal if you have digestive issues, and takes effect very quickly, literally in a minute or two.  This makes dosing much easier, as you can see in a few minutes whether or not you’ve taken enough.  If pain wakes you up during the night, this is an easy way to get back to sleep quickly.

That’s not all you can do with it, though.

I’ve struggled with chronic pain for years, lower back pain that can stop me in my tracks.  How I wished that there was some magic cream that I could just put on the parts of me that hurt. Try this: Take a few – or several – drops of coconut oil infused with medical marijuana, add a nice dollop of your favorite moisturizer, rub your palms together for a moment to mix the two together, and then spread the mixture on the part of you that hurts.  Ahhhhhhh.  The first time I tried this, I laughed out loud.  What a relief!

Here’s what you need to make your own coconut oil infused with medical marijuana:

a crockpot

a meat thermometer

coconut oil, about 1/2 cup or so

3.5 – 7.0 grams of marijuana, chopped

measuring cup with spout

spatula

one-cup drip coffee filter

paper liner for the coffee filter

small glass bottle with dropper

tiny funnel that fits the glass bottle

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First, if you have not already done so, decarboxylate your marijuana.  This extra step takes time (40 minutes, to be exact), and maybe you are thinking that you don’t have time to do this, or that it won’t matter anyway.  You would be mistaken.  Please don’t skip this step – you can thank me afterwards.

My first batch of infused coconut oil used 3.5 grams of medical marijuana.  The next time I made it, I used a full 7.0 grams (1/4 oz.) of medical marijuana, to make it stronger and more concentrated.  To me, it seems very strong; I need only 2 drops beneath my tongue for a daytime dose of pain relief. You might also want to start off slow and see what you think, before forging ahead with all of your precious weed. Note that 2 drops sublingually, beneath the tongue, will affect you differently than 2 drops taken by pill, which goes through the stomach and liver, etc. Just sayin’ – so be cautious and try things out carefully.

Take the decarboxylated marijuana out of the oven, and let it cool for a couple of minutes.  Then very carefully lift the sheet of parchment paper or non-stick foil and carry it over to the crock pot.  Add the marijuana to the crockpot.

Pour in enough coconut oil to completely cover the marijuana, but not more than that.  The less oil, the more concentrated the marijuana will be.  Just make sure that the medical cannabis is saturated with the coconut oil, and that there are no little pieces of medical cannabis poking up from the surface of the coconut oil.

Cover and set the crockpot on low heat setting for six hours.  That’s it.  Really, that’s all there is to it.

In no event should the temperature in your crockpot exceed 245 degrees.  You should walk past the crockpot and check the temperature with a meat thermometer every once in a while.  If it is getting too hot, turn it off for ten minutes and then back on.  You can do this every hour or two, during the six-hour cooking period.

When the six hours is up, the infused coconut oil is done.  Turn off the crockpot and let it cool until you can comfortably touch the handles.

Place a measuring cup inside a large bowl or on top of a plate to catch any potential spills, and place the coffee filter on top of the measuring cup, paper liner inside the filter.

Pour the contents of the crockpot right into the coffee filter, using the spatula to get every last drop out of the crockpot.  If your crockpot is heavy like mine, try this:  use a small ladle to get most of the cannabis-infused coconut oil into the coffee filter, before lifting the crockpot to pour out the last little bit of infused oil. 

Gently stir the coconut oil-saturated medical marijuana inside the filter with a spoon, encouraging it to completely drip through.  When it is just about done, pick up the filter and give it a good squeeze with your fingers, pressing hard to get all of the infused coconut oil out of the filter.  The filter can then be discarded.   

Using the funnel, carefully pour the infused oil into the waiting dropper bottle, and screw on the cap.  Done!  You can store the coconut oil in your cabinet (not next to the stove, please – a cool, dry storage place is best), or you can use the dropper to fill empty gelatin capsules each with a small amount, and store them in your refrigerator. 

Before you go filling all of your capsules, though, remember to try a test capsule or two to see how much coconut oil you want in each capsule.  There’s no way to tell you exactly how much you will need; everyone has a different tolerance level, as well as different ideas of how much is enough.  Also, every strain of medical marijuana is a little different, some stronger and some weaker.  Just as with any other medical cannabis product, you will need to test this every time you make a batch, but once tested, you can be sure that your results will be consistent each time for that one batch.  That is one of the great advantages to making your own.  There are no weird additives, and no surprises or inconsistencies.

Cannabis-infused coconut oil is a favorite daytime method of ingesting medical marijuana.  You can make several cannabis-infused coconut oil capsules at one time and store them in the refrigerator. “Canna-caps” are simple to make, neat and inconspicuous, and have no smell when you take one out of your purse or pocket, pop it into your mouth and swallow it with a drink of water, right there in public.  Hah!  Ahhhhhh.