Decontaminating Cannabis: What Marijuana Enthusiasts Overlook

Marijuana is unquestionably medicinal. It's not the cure-all that many marijuana advocates insist that it is, but there are situations in which cannabis really is the best treatment for a health condition. However, the fact that marijuana can be medicinal doesn't mean that any marijuana you get anywhere is good for you. Here are 10 rules, a few of them really basic, for choosing the marijuana that works best for appropriate health indications.

1. The medicinal power of marijuana is in the bud, not the leaf.

There actually is a small amount of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), in marijuana leaf, but it's the flower bud that contains the highest concentration of THC and a range of other health-helpful chemicals, not the leaf. A surprising number of neophytes to marijuana have been persuaded to buy marijuana leaf. It won't hurt you, but in its unprocessed state, it won't help you, either.

2. Moldy pot is dangerous.

Most of us know about the danger of black mold growing inside damp walls and floors. The same strains of mold that contaminate damp houses can contaminate damp pot. The problem isn't common by any means, but a few people have come down with a disease called aspergillosis from smoking moldy marijuana, and without treatment, a few of those users died. To be clear, the problem was the mold, not the pot, but the mold was in moldy pot.

3. Irradiated pot is almost, but not quite, as medicinal as non-irradiated pot

Many fruits and vegetables are treated with gamma radiation to kill bacteria, fungi, and molds before storage and shipment. In the European Union, gamma radiation is also used to kill microbial contaminants of marijuana. While irradiated marijuana certainly isn't organic, it can be medicinal. The stimulant THC and the calming CBD content of the irradiated herb isn't affected. However, the concentration a group of compounds known as terpenes is reduced in the process. These are the chemicals that give the different strains of marijuana their distinctive flavors. Beta-caryophyllene, which gives some strains of marijuana a peppery flavor and counteracts hangover, limonene, which gives some strains of marijuana a lemony scent and lifts depression, linalool, the lavender scent component that relieves pain, myrcene, the chemical that keeps you glued to couch and that is particularly abundant in the Bedrocan strain of pot, and ocimene, the chemical also found in basil that stimulates soft tissue regrowth after injury, are all reduced by irradiation. On the plus side, since drug-sniffing dogs are trained to point when they smell beta-caryophyllene, your purchase is less likely to draw attention from canines in police service.

READ Addicted to Cannabis: Marijuana Addiction Treatment

4. With marijuana, less is sometimes more.

Heavy users of marijuana sometimes develop a condition explained by a phenomenon neurologists call "receptor downregulation." It takes more and more marijuana for less and less effect. Abstaining from cannabis for 30 days can restore sensitivity to its medicinal effects, but the simple fact is, heavy users have trouble doing that. It's best to know how much marijuana you are getting in each "dose," and to use the amount of marijuana, and the right strain of marijuana, to feel optimally better. That's not always more pot. Sometimes it's less.

Does Pot Need to Be Organic?

Marijuana is the most widely used drug in the world, after coffee, tea, alcohol, and chocolate. Because marijuana has been illegal in most countries for most of the last century, few users give much thought to how it is grown, but cultivation techniques make a difference.

5. Organic marijuana is more expensive for a reason.

Illegal pot operations tend to grow large number of plants in highly fertilized (manured) soil under intense light indoors. To counteract molds and bacteria that would interfere with the crop, illegal growers use chemicals.Legal, outdoor operations don't need the chemicals, but their production is limited by weather, particularly storms and frosts, limited sunlight, seasons, and theft. Organic marijuana almost has to be grown outdoors, but when it is, there's less of a crop and the price will be higher.

6. Contaminated marijuana should not be used to make marijuana oil.

There are probably no marijuana dispensaries that use moldy marijuana to make marijuana oil, although using the marijuana to make an oil will cover up certain defects in the product. The oil used to make marijuana oil suffocates some strains of bacteria and some strains of mold, especially the oxygen loving and potentially deadly fungus Aspergillus, but not all problem microorganisms. If you make your own marijuana oil, start with a quality product.

7. One of the major problems with grow-room marijuana is not an insecticide, but a chemical added to an insecticide to make it more readily absorbed.

Spider mites proliferate if they are not washed off leaves by watering or by rain. Overhead sprinklers are incompatible with the high-intensity grow lights used by most pot farmers who grow their crops indoors. To keep spider mites under control, most farmers use "bug bombs" between crops. These insecticides contain a chemical called piperonyl butoxide to speed up the rate at which spider mites and other pests absorb the toxin. The insecticide dissipates, but the piperonyl butoxide stays in the walls, the floors, in water hoses, and in tools. It gets into marijuana, and can break down into toxic compounds when pot is smoked or vaped.

READ Marijuana and the Immune System

8. The chemicals in marijuana that give it taste are produced in response to stress.

Plants make chemicals called terpenes to protect their seeds from adverse environmental conditions. The marijuana plant makes these chemicals in the trichomes or "hairs" on the marijuana bud. When a plant is grown indoors under "perfect" conditions, it doesn't make as much of these compounds that give the bud a distinctive flavor and aroma.

9. The chemicals in marijuana that give it calming effects are also produced in response to stress.

Many of these terpenes also act to enhance the psychoactive effect of the herb as a whole. Grow-room plants don't make as many of the chemicals that give the product its subtle effects.

And, finally, 

10. "Grass" isn't supposed to smell like grass.

If you open your bag and the contents smell like lawn clippings (assuming that they aren't in fact lawn clippings), there is a problem. Marijuana needs to be cured for several weeks to several months to make the THC within it more potent. If you are getting fresh grass, you aren't getting all the psychoactive potential of the herb.