How Long Does Weed Stay Good?
It's probably happened to you before: you're cleaning out your closet, and in the middle of it, you notice a baggie of flower stashed away in the back of a drawer. It's a pleasant surprise. But hold on: the bud is as crisp as a potato chip.
This leads you to ask yourself a bunch of questions. Will this ancient herb turn into dust if I try to grind it? How long does weed stay good for? Will it work? Is this even weed?
How Long Does Weed Stay Fresh?
The good news is that many weed varieties remain in full potency for up to 12 months. That is, if it's properly harvested, dried, cured, and stored under good conditions. Smoking it after that time won't do you any harm. However, your herb won't provide you with the same high as a fresh flower. Why?
Just like any other substance, the chemical components that make up cannabis break down over time. THC is the primary psychoactive weed component. It is responsible for getting you high. When it breaks down, your stash loses its spike. This explains why you can't seem to get high from an old baggie
According to research, marijuana loses about 16 percent of its THC each year, and it just keeps dropping after every year until there's none left.
It loses 26 percent of THC after two years
It loses 34 percent of THC after three years
It loses 41 percent of THC after four years
How Do You Know if Your Weed Is Old?
Weed has a way of showing off its beauty when it's healthy. It also has a way of letting you know when you shouldn't touch it. It can only stand the test of time if the process of growth, harvest, and packaging are handled correctly.
Unfortunately, you don't always have the power to control the quality of weed before it reaches your hands. Therefore, having the ability to recognize old and bad weed is a vital defense mechanism that every stoner should master. After all, you wouldn't want to waste your money on a bag of dried-out or moldy ganja.
Here are some things that you should check to tell if your weed is old or bad.
Smell
Weed that has passed its shelf-life smells different. Its earthy, herbal scent fades away with time and if it's not been treated well. A vibrant aroma of terpenes is an indicator that your weed is worthy of smoking. Any unusual smell should prompt you to put down the herb and reconsider smoking it. It indicates a compromise in quality. If you pick up a damp smell, be careful. It could be a red flag for mold presence. Look out for chemical aromas as well. It's usually a sign of preservatives or improper pesticide use. No smell is also fishy.
Appearance
It's definitely old if you can't tell if it's cannabis. Two things could've happened to old weed- it either took in moisture or dried out. Old and dried-out weed breaks apart into fine powder. It contains fragments of stems and seeds: that's how you can tell if it's weed. You can try to make the best out of it by moistening it with a humidity control pack or a citrus fruit peel. However, dry weed doesn't make for a good smoking experience. It's harsh to the throat.
On the other hand, spongy weed is highly likely to contain molds. In most cases, it's easy to identify molds visually. They assume several appearances. You can differentiate them by looking at where the concentration is. Bud rot mainly grows in the core of a cannabis bud. It spreads like wildfire and shreds your weed into fragments. Don't smoke it if it smells like urine or has a black or white fuzz on it. Moldy weed has serious health repercussions such as lung infections, intense coughing, and sometimes, death.
How It Feels Like
You can always know if weed is old or bad by handling it. Check if it's over-compressed or has any moisture content. Does it break down when you touch it? Pick a bud and check the inside layers. If it feels like it has been squashed under an elephant's foot, it's a no-go. It has probably been stored for too long in tight bags without room to breathe. You can identify all these by making physical contact with your herb.
Taste
If you haven't had time to inspect your stuff, sniff it to decide if it's up to snuff. An avid weed smoker can recognize the smell of good weed, even among an array of other smells. However, it's not advisable to roll up a joint without checking if your marijuana is old or bad. That said, bad weed doesn't smoke well. If your stash is compromised, you'll notice a difference in smell and taste. Sometimes you may just have to dig in to know if your weed is all good.
What Conditions Determine Weed Freshness?
Proper storage is a must if you want your stash to stay longer and maintain its quality. Whether you are keeping it long-term or till the end of the week, where you store your buds plays a major role in preserving its potency and flavor.
Below are a few factors that may influence your weed's freshness at home.
Light
The cannabis flower hates light. While the plant thrives in light during different stages of its growth, UV rays can break down chemical components in the flower after harvesting.
This is why you should never leave your buds out in the sun. You should also make sure that your containers are always kept in the dark. And if you're unable to store your containers in a dark environment, use opaque containers. Under the right conditions, the terpenes and cannabinoids in your buds will remain intact for up to two years.
Humidity
Keeping your marijuana at the proper humidity levels is important to keep it fresh and safe for consumption. High humidity breeds molds and mildew, while low humidity can dry out the herb and degrade its terpenes and cannabinoids.
It's hard to find the right balance when you're storing your stash in an ordinary polythene bag. So you might want to invest in a humidity pack that you can place inside your storage container. To maintain your cannabis's consistency, color, aroma, potency and flavor, the recommendation is to keep it at a relative humidity of 59 percent to 63 percent. Mold usually starts developing at a relative humidity (RH) of 65 percent and above. And your flowers begin to dry up at a relative humidity of below 55 percent.
Temperature
The same way heat can destroy chlorophyll pigments in your vegetables, it can break down the terpenes in your buds, making them dry out. You don't want the temperatures to get too low, either. Excessive cold can slow down decarboxylation (a process that activates cannabis compounds such as THC).
Ideally, you should store your marijuana at temperatures between 32 degrees Fahrenheit and 68 degrees Fahrenheit. This strikes the right balance needed to keep it moist but not too moist and dry enough to retain its potency and springy texture.
Some people store their flowers in the fridge thinking that it's an optimal choice. But it's one of the worst places you could ever think of storing your marijuana in. Condensation can happen inside the refrigerator, creating excess moisture that reduces your plant's quality. Avoid the freezer too. It damages the flower's delicate surface and makes it lose potency and flavor.
Air
When you expose marijuana to too much oxygen, its cannabinoids and terpenes degrade at a higher rate than usual. And when you store it in too little air, it dramatically affects its relative humidity, especially if it hasn't dried up well. Cannabis requires just the right amount of air to stay fresh and in its original form.
What's the Best Way to Store Your Weed?
Keeping your stash in an airtight container protects it from too much air and other environmental factors that work against it. Use containers made out of glass. Glass is airtight and nonporous. It can keep your stash safe for a long time. Mason jars are popular with cannabis growers. They have been tested and approved as the best storage for weed.
You might want to avoid metal and plastic. While you can use them for short-term storage, they will affect the quality of your stash after a while. Plastic has a static charge, making the trichomes fall off the buds and stick to the container.
If you're using a wooden container, avoid tobacco humidors. Most of them are made out of cedarwood and can easily corrupt your weed's quality.
Bottom Line
At this point, we've probably answered all your questions. So the next time you discover a long-forgotten container of weed in your closet, you will be in a better position to tell if it's worth a spliff.
Your stash should stay good for as long as you keep it well. The only problem is that old weed might not give you the same high as fresh weed. Make sure to keep it in an airtight container away from moisture, sunlight, and heat.