When I decided to approach the legal side of cannabis as a California registered patient a few years back, my first step was to educate myself on the legality of my decision before anything. I also wanted to know the history of the movement that gave me such an amazing gift as an expression of my reconnaissance, and respect. But most importantly, I was looking for the science, if any, behind everything I had experienced with local associations while traveling in producing countries. I had one question above all, a question that I had been asking myself for a very long time: 

Why does everyone in hashish producing countries press his resin before smoking?

I have had a callus in the palm of my left hand due to hand pressing resin since my late teen years, and the best answer I have ever received when asking for the reason behind was that pressing resin makes good hashish. I couldn't have agreed more with the result. However, I couldn't help but wonder why this was the case.

The best quality hashish available in producing countries and the late 70s and 80s had been hand pressed hashish. Only the best resin can be worked solely by hand. The Royal Temple Balls from Nepal, the Charas from India, the patties from Afghanistan, or the creamy Double Zero from Morocco are prime examples of such quality.

The craftsmanship and amount of work involved in creating the perfect mass of resin by hand has to be seen and experienced to grasp the depth of dedication it involves.

The answer to my question is decarboxylation which is a seemingly simple process in which a molecule of carbon dioxide (CO2) is removed so that can cannabinoid compounds can readily pass the blood barrier.

The procedure nonetheless requires precision and is a deciding factor of the final psycho-activity of the cannabinoids and of its overall quality. According to Brian Smith, Founder and Managing Director of Empathy Foundation of America:

When we heat cannabis to convert the THCA and CBDA into THC and CBD, we are also converting THC to CBN at a faster rate.

At about 70% decarboxylation we actually start converting THC to CBN at a faster rate than we are converting THCA to THC. After about 70% decarboxylation the levels of THC actually start to fall sharply. That of course means that the CBN also begins to rise and the medication is becoming more sedative."

I will have to be truthful here. I had not realized until reading the above quote, that he was such a vital element of the pressing process despite having used a source of heat from sun to live coals for over 30 years.

I had been nonetheless aware that the stronger the source of heat and the greater the amount of pressure necessary for the pressing procedure. The lower the resin quality while instinctively working at a lower temperature. for longer periods. I had no understanding of the complexity of the decarboxylation process.

Press 2 Activate

Looking at the traditional pressing methods I learned and considering past experiences with such knowledge has given me a deeper appreciation for the intuitive relationship that exists between traditional techniques, the plant and the resin. The knowledge that an excessive decarboxylation is the main reason behind the heaviness of certain hashish made me also aware of the reason behind the difference of quality and psychoactive effects I had experienced in the producing countries I had visited.

It wasn't all about terroir and genetics.

The decarboxylation process of cannabis resin is solely applied. When intended for edibles, tinctures and capsules in the US. The temperatures applied generally range from 180 degrees to 240 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes to an hour.

However, when smoking, cannabinoids compounds do need to lose their CO2 molecules as well in order to pass the lungs blood barrier.

I needed to eliminate as high a percentage of co2 molecules as I could without transforming THC into CBN while taking into account that the decarboxylation process also occurs spontaneously when the material is burned or vaporized.

However, since the more heat applied, the faster the process and the higher the ratio of CBN. The previously mentioned reasonable range of optimum transformation is a vital element to quality and to the final experience.

Pressing with a source of heat does degrade the THC as the resulting darker color of the press resin indicate. But when the procedure is done properly with the average amount of CBN is a quarter of the percentage for a total average of cannabinoids ranging from 60 to 70%.

I am looking for a decarboxylation level of approximately 40 to 50% to minimize the degradation of the THC and to CBN. The rest of the transformation will happen during combustion and logically if at about 70% decarboxylation. We are converting THC into CBN at a faster rate than we are converting THC A to THC. The least transformation happening during the combustion above that level, the lower the level of last minute on a avoidable degradation.

Meanwhile, we are always looking for a maximum decarboxylation. Let's do the math. We have first to take into account that the boiling points of cannabinoids span between 314.6 degrees Fahrenheit for THC to 420 degrees Fahrenheit for THCV and that a maximum conversion of THCA into THC has been applied has been reported to occur by heating for about 15 minutes at 300 degrees Fahrenheit, resulting in a 70% conversion rate. The window of excellence is small.

We have then to consider that most titanium emails are used at temperatures ranging between 650 degrees Fahrenheit to 800 degrees Fahrenheit. While ceramic and quartz bowl balls hold temperatures in the high 500 degrees Fahrenheit and over the degradation of THC and a joint is also quite important at temperatures as high as 100 as high as 1,652 degrees Fahrenheit, an average joint as a mass of 1000 milligrams, or one gram with a THC concentration of 15% meaning there are 150 milligrams of THC in this joint.

There has been no research done on maximizing the decarboxylation process for smoking concentrates, as far as I know, but science seems to indicate that it last minute decarboxylation at such a high temperature has to be far from optimum at best, and that a slow approach to such a delicate operation would be the most effective way to an optimal activation of the cannabinoids.

The intuitive knowledge that is at the core of traditional hashish methodology comes from a time when humanity was deeply connected with the plant kingdom and the land our relation most certainly beyond our modern conception of reality, the source nonetheless of our survival and evolution.

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