THC pills can provide a convenient and discreet option for enjoying the cannabinoid. But if they’re not available where you live or if you’d like to avoid paying high prices and taxes at a dispensary, can you learn how to make weed pills at home? Turns out, you can.
What Are THC Pills?
A separate High Times guide gives the full rundown on just what THC pills are. But as a quick review, THC pills are a capsule filled with some type of cannabis product, often mixed with oil to improve the body’s absorption of the cannabinoids. They are an odorless, smokeless, and convenient way to ingest cannabis.
How To Make THC Capsules
The simplest how to make weed pills method is to mix finely ground cannabis flower with vegetable oil to make a paste. But this method produces low-potency pills that are not likely to last as long as those without remaining plant material. It’s also not easy to get the paste into the empty capsules.
A better way of how to make THC capsules is to extract your cannabis product into an oil base.
Before you begin, assemble your materials and supplies. Besides your choice of cannabis product, you’ll need some sort of vegetable oil. Just about any oil will work — medium chain triglyceride (MCT) coconut oil is an increasingly popular choice for commercial cannabis capsule manufacturers.
You’ll also need empty gelatin or vegetarian capsules. A special tray to hold the capsules and a syringe to fill them make the process easier.
How to Make THC Pills Step 1: Choose Your Cannabis
Just about any flower, kief, or extract can be used when you are learning how to make weed pills. The trim left over from harvesting and manicuring buds is also commonly used. What you choose might depend on what you have available or what fits your budget. The more potent the material you use, the more potent your canna oil will be.
How to Make THC Pills Step 2: Decarb Your Cannabis (or not)
If you want to know how to make THC capsules, there is a good chance you’re expecting a buzz from your pills. If that’s the case, you’ll want to decarboxylate your cannabis product first. This important step in how to make weed pills converts the non-psychoactive THCA into THC.
Tetrahydrocannabinolic acid, or THCA, is the form of THC that is most prevalent in live or fresh cannabis plants. As plant material dries, THCA converts to THC naturally, but very slowly. This process is known as decarboxylation, or decarbing in the parlance of pot. Heating, burning, or vaporizing a cannabis product speeds up this process greatly.
THCA is not psychoactive, so if you want a buzz from your weed pills, decarboxylate it first. This is done by gently heating the cannabis at about 220 degrees Fahrenheit for about 45 minutes.
However, if you don’t want to get high with your weed pills, skip this step. THCA can still help reduce pain, inflammation, and nausea and may also have neuroprotective qualities, all without the buzz.
How to Make THC Pills Step 3: Prepare Your Cannabis
The next step in the process of how to make weed pills is to make the cannabis oil that you will use to fill your capsules. You can use a crock pot, mason jars, or other recipe and method you prefer.
In this step, you will be extracting the THC and other cannabinoids from your cannabis product, as well as any terpenes and flavonoids that might be present. If you are using a concentrate or kief, you are likely to produce a very potent canna oil. Proceed with caution when determining dosage.
Once you’ve created your canna oil, you can determine the potency of it using a simple and inexpensive device at home, if desired. Then by measuring how much oil you put in each capsule, you’ll be able to calculate the dose per pill.
How to Make THC Pills Step 4: Fill Your Capsules
Once you have made the canna oil of your choice, the next step in how to make THC capsules is filling your capsules. Separate the two pieces, setting the caps aside. Place the other half of the capsules in the filling tray, if you have one.
Using a syringe or large dropper, fill each of the capsules with the canna oil. If you’re using coconut oil, putting the tray in the freezer for a few minutes will solidify your oil and make it easier to put the tops on the capsules. Adding this step to how to make THC capsules will help prevent spilling the canna oil.
Next, carefully recap the capsules. Store them in the refrigerator or freezer to keep them fresh.
How to Make THC Pills Step 5: Enjoy Your Weed Capsules
Now that you know how to make weed pills, it’s time to enjoy their medicinal and recreational benefits. Be sure to try them at home the first time, when you don’t have anywhere to be or anything important to accomplish. You’ll want to know how they affect you before you attempt to mix them with other activities, which should not include driving or operating machinery. Enjoy!
Just wondering, I’ve got powered thc is the process the same?
I’ve been just decarboxylating high-octane bud and stuffing it in caps, about 250 mg of decarb in each. If the bud is 20 to 25% THC content that would mean approximately 50mg of THC per cap (equivalent of about 5 gummies). One cap in the early AM and I’m flying until lunch time. No fuss, mess, or loss due to extraction process and no extra calories from sugars or fats.