THC: a closer look

THC is the compound most people mean when they talk about how strong a cannabis product is. It’s worth understanding slightly better than that.

The plant doesn’t make THC

This surprises people. What the plant produces is THCA — an acid form that isn’t intoxicating. Eat raw cannabis flower and remarkably little happens.

THCA converts to THC when it’s heated, in a reaction called decarboxylation. That’s what’s going on when you light a joint or run a vaporiser, and it’s why edibles need the cannabis heated in fat before it goes into a recipe. Skipping that step is the single most common reason a home-made edible does absolutely nothing, and the second most common reason somebody makes a second batch.

It also happens slowly, at room temperature, over months. Cannabis stored badly for a long time is chemically different from the cannabis that went into the jar.

Why the number on the package isn’t the whole story

A percentage tells you how much of one compound is present. It tells you nothing about the other cannabinoids, the terpene profile, how the flower was grown and cured, or how any of it will suit you.

Which is why the customer asking for the highest number is very often not the customer who ends up happiest. The plant is a mixture, and the mixture is what you experience.

Where our figures come from

For our own branded products, the cannabinoid content is transcribed off the packaging. It’s what the label says, and we do nothing cleverer than read it to you.

For the weekly flower menu we publish no figures at all. We’d only be guessing, and a guess with a decimal point in it looks exactly like a fact.

If you’re new to it

Start with a small amount and give it time. You can always take more later — and we are happy to talk it through before you buy.