Cannabis tinctures are liquid cannabis extracts that are made using alcohol. They’re usually found in amber eyedropper bottles, and can be taken orally, or added to foods or beverages. Tinctures are a popular cannabis delivery method for medical cannabis patients. Unlike smoking cannabis, tinctures are not hard on the lungs. They also offer an edible form of cannabis that, unlike products like cannabis brownies, are not packed with unnecessary calories.

One downside to tinctures is that they include alcohol. For this reason, they’re not always a suitable option for certain medical cannabis patients, such as children, or people with a history of alcohol use disorder. However, the amount of alcohol you would consume in a few drops of cannabis tincture is minimal, so for many adults, they’re a safe option.

Making cannabis tinctures is easy. You can do it yourself at home with only a few ingredients. Follow these simple steps to make your very own cannabis tincture.

What You Need:

• 1 ounce of ground cannabis for every two cups of high-proof alcohol
• Mason jar
• Cooking pan
• Parchment paper
• Cheesecloth
• Rubber band
• High-proof alcohol, preferably Everclear
• Bowl large enough to comfortably fit the quantity of liquid that would fill your mason jar
• Empty eyedropper bottle

Instructions:

1. Preheat your oven to 220° Fahrenheit. Then line your cooking pan with a sheet of parchment paper.

2. As you’re waiting for your oven to preheat, grind up your cannabis flower and spread it out evenly across the parchment paper on the cooking pan.

3. Once your oven is preheated, it’s time to decarboxylate your cannabis flower. Put your cooking pan of ground cannabis flower in the oven, and allow it to bake in there for 30 to 45 minutes. *Warning: make sure your oven is capable of holding a precise temperature, as any temperature above 250° Fahrenheit could negatively affect the quality of your cannabis.

4. Take your Decarboxylated cannabis and pour it into your mason jar. Fill the mason jar to the top with your high-proof alcohol. Close the jar and shake it.

5. Allow your cannabis and high-proof alcohol mixture to sit in the jar for a few weeks. Every day, give the jar a good shake.

6. Once a few weeks have gone by, it’s time to filter out the ground cannabis flower. To do this, take the lid off of your mason jar, and put your cheesecloth over the top so that you have some cloth hanging down the outside of the jar. Then, use your rubber band to tightly secure the cheesecloth to the top of the jar. Next, tilt the mason jar upside down over your bowl so that the liquid pours out of the mason jar and collects in the bowl. Do this until all of the liquid has exited the mason jar and is now in your bowl. To get any remaining liquid, you can take the cheesecloth off the mason jar and wring it out over the bowl, being careful that no pieces of ground cannabis fall into the bowl.

7. Fill up the empty eyedropper bottle by squeezing its top, submerging the shaft, then releasing the top so that it fills with liquid. Then put the tip of the dropper’s shaft into the eyedropper bottle and squeeze the top of the dropper again so that the liquid is squirted out into the bottle. Keep doing this until all of the liquid has been transferred into the bottle. You may need multiple bottles.

8. Your tincture is ready for use. Start with a dose of 1ml. If that’s not enough, try 2ml the next day. If that’s still not enough, keep adding an additional 1ml to your dose, day by day, until you find the dose that’s right for you.