States that allow medical marijuana typically have rules defining which types of products are available to patients. Almost all of them allow flower in some form, though many states prohibit smoking it. Flower must be dry-heated instead. Then there are concentrates. These look to be the next big thing in medical marijuana.
Concentrates are derived from marijuana and hemp plants. As you likely know, the term ‘concentrate’ denotes a product with a higher concentration of the desired compounds. Processors are learning to do some very interesting things with concentrates, which is why they are suddenly all the rage in the medical cannabis industry.
Using Marijuana Flower
Before medical cannabis was a thing, smoking raw flower was the way most people used marijuana. In fact, most of us who don’t use medical cannabis perceive its consumption in that way. We imagine patients sitting around in dark rooms and smoking joints. That is really not the way it works most of the time.
Patients can utilize raw flower by either smoking or dry heating. When you smoke, you are looking at inhaling all of the byproducts of combustion along with THC and the other valuable components in marijuana. When you dry heat it, you release most of those components without the smoke.
Unfortunately, the benefits of both smoking and dry heating cannabis are limited. This is especially true for patients who are more interested in CBD than THC. But even patients that benefit from complex cannabinoid profiles do not necessarily get maximum benefit from raw flower. They do get what they are looking for from concentrates.
Extracting Valuable Components
Visit the Pure Utah medical cannabis dispensary in Payson, Utah and you’ll discover a wide range of products. One of their product categories is tinctures. A tincture is essentially a concentrated oil. It is created by processors who utilize a variety of means to extract the necessary components they need to make their products.
Processors can obviously extract THC and CBD. They can also extract terpenes, compounds that give plants their unique scents and flavors. It is believed that terpenes can interact with CBD and THC to influence their effect on patients. And of course, there are a number of additional cannabinoids that can help certain patients.
There are both chemical and non-chemical extraction methods available to processors. Right now, the big thing in the processing environment is figuring out the best way to extract all of the valuable compounds without minimizing their potency. Then those compounds are combined in various formulas to come up with unique products.
Specialized Medicines Are the Goal
Processors in Utah and elsewhere are still learning about terpenes, cannabinoids, and compound extraction. The more they learn, the more they are able to develop precise formulas that can be expected to deliver a certain effect under most conditions. None of this has been perfected yet, but they are working on it.
The eventual goal is to come up with specialized medicines that can be prescribed for specific conditions, in the same way other drugs are prescribed by doctors. Right now, such specialization is difficult due to the fact that medical cannabis is still so new. Thus far, there hasn’t been enough research into terpenes and cannabinoids to create specialized formulas.
Concentrates are the next big thing in medical cannabis because they will eventually lead to the specialized products processors are hoping for. Flower will still be a good solution for many patients who prefer either smoking or dry heating it. But for others, concentrates will be the better treatment option. That is the way it should be.
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Dispensary jars: Shop glass or plastic cannabis jars with lids and custom labels. Child resistant lids. Smell Proof. 1g, 2g, 3.5g, and 7g. Bulk Pricing (30ml, 60ml, 90ml, 120ml) 1 oz, 2 oz, 3 oz and 4 oz.
