I came across a simple and effective way of making potent cannabis capsules, and thought that this community would like to hear about it.

All you need for this procedure, is your starting material (buds, trim, hash), a couple of pyrex jars, a thermometer to measure the heat of the oil, a jar of coconut oil, a syringe, and pill capsules.

The procedure is as follows,
1. Grind up your starting material. It does not need to be a powder, but if using a powderized material you can later leave the powdered material in the oil to maximize effectiveness.

2. Place the starting material into one of the pyrex jars, and note where the top of the cannabis pile is in the jar.

3. Boil some water, and place your coconut oil into the other pyrex jar. Place this into the boiling water, which will cause your oil to melt. Keep adding more coconut oil until the melted oil is slightly above where the cannabis would be.

4. Once you have a good amount of the melted oil, dump the cannabis or other starting material into the oil jar.

5. Keep mixing this solution every twenty minutes or so, and monitor it to make sure it does not burn. The nice thing about coconut oil is that it starts to burn at the temps that THC start to break down. So as long as the oil isnt burning, your product should not be degrading. I usually keep the water at a steady boil for the time that the oil jar is sitting in it.

6. After a few hours, or even a day of cooking if you really want to get everything you can, you then filter out the material with whatever means you have to do so. I use a metal strainer that has pretty small holes in it, so as long as I dont powderize my material it will catch all of it.

7. Once you have separated your oil from your plant material, you can then let it cool a little bit before using the syringe to fill up your pill capsules. If you used powdered material, you should be able to suck it up into the syringe with the oil and add it to the capsules as well.

I have only made these with low grade cannabis, and find that half a gram worth of low grade buds gives a decent high. It is more relaxed then smoking, and doesnt give as much mental effects but more so a relaxing body high that feels amazing. It is not like being couch locked either, because its still possible to get up and do strenuous activity.

I also remember reading somewhere that when using coconut oil to make the capsules, it actually potentiates the thc. Something about how the coconut oil gets metabolized by the liver, which creates a more potent form of THC before it is absorbed into the blood stream. I dont know how accurate this is, but it does seem to be more effective then using traditional butter and cooking it into foods.

I would love to hear others thoughts on this process and especially anyones thoughts on the note of the liver possibly metabolizing THC into a more potent form.

What size capsules and how many would one take if they had no tolerance built up and is a lightweight when it comes to thc? I know it depends on the bud, but lets say buds with 17% thc content.

Here's what I do to make cannabis capsules:

1. Grind starting material, then put it in canning jars with lids halfway unscrewed.
2. Put jars in oven at 220 F for 2 hours to decarb.
3. Do a fast 3x extraction of the material with acetone (few minutes per pull). Collect and filter the 3 pulls.
4. Evaporate under fan in a glass bowl (few hours).
5. Put glass bowl on top of my toaster oven at high heat, bowl becomes hot but can still touch it. Add coconut oil a little at a time until it's all dissolved.
6. Suck up oil with a syringe.

This is a pretty easy way to get a very clean extract that mostly retains the aroma/flavor of the bud.

You can either make capsules with the syringe, or drop it sublingually (my favorite and tasty). I usually take 2 or 3 0-sized capsules for a strong high.

They are size 0 capsules, and I had used enough coconut oil to fill enough of them to make it so each capsule contains the equivalent of .1g of the starting material. I also used material that was very low in thc concentration, so I had to take 5 capsules (half a gram) to feel the effects. It was somewhat mild for me, but I am a daily smoker. I gave 5 of them to a friend who just started smoking again, and he took three of the capsules and had really good effects from it. An hour later he took the other two and was pretty stoned once they set in.

So for a light weight, using mid grade or good buds at 17%, I would say take no more then whatever the equivalent of .2g of the starting material. This should give a very good high, at least in my experience.

Arcologist, that sounds like a very effective way to make capsules. I shall have to give that a try next time, I never thought of de-carbing before adding it to the oil. Its interesting that you make an extract first, does this give better results then just adding the plant material to the oil? The only difference I can think of is that you dont have to deal with the process of filtering the buds from the oil, which would be very nice. I shall try this at some point too.

I think it might give a higher yield, and you can maybe get a more potent oil since you don't have to filter the oil (which will result in some loss). I've never tried just doing the extraction with oil, it seems like it would be hard to get it to be potent (needs less oil) and have high yield (needs multiple pulls, more oil) at the same time, plus it will be hard to filter. You can't really evaporate the oil if it is too dilute either...

Acetone may also pull more of the polar terpenes than coconut oil will, and these are known to potentiate the effects of THC/CBD.

I have had good result just packing the leftovers from my EZvape into gelcaps and taking a few of those on an empty stomach. Strong body feel.

There is no need too evaporate the oil though. If it is too dilute, just take a couple more pills. I will eventually make a ratio of how many grams of oil per gram of cannabis.

Next time I try this I will make note of how much oil was used and do adjustments if needed. Maybe I will also make a batch made with an extract of the cannabis, and compare the two.

On the note of the acetone pulling more then the coconut oil; would the extra terpenes just not dissolve into the oil when you add the extract? Is there ever anything left over after it has been sitting in the hot oil for a while? If so, do you just suck this up with the oil and add it to your capsules?

I never have any issue with getting it all to dissolve in the oil once mild heat is applied, I'm just not sure the oil would be a good solvent to pull all of the water-soluble terpenes out of bud.

If you have a problem with thinking that the oil wont pull all the cannabinoids from the cannabis then why wouldn't you just leave the material in the oil? I read this and thought immediately how awesome it would be to have cannabis infused coconut oil and just leave the material in it, then dose your self orally with a TBSP or half depending how strong it is. It would be a delicious treat and you could just let your body finish extracting the already decarboxylated cannabis.

Can't fit plant matter into a pill or dropper bottle!

I wasn't implying that lol litterally take a TBSP or 1/2 TBSP scoop and scoop your dose out and plop it in your mouth. Coconut oil is solid at temperatures lower then like 70 degrees or something so you would just store it in your fridge.