There are a few reasons for this. One is that they’re administered via a syringe or dropper, so you’re able to easily and accurately dose yourself in really small increments because you can basically count each drop as you administer.
It also the tinctures come in many non-psychoactive options, and they also carry little to no smell.
The most popular and beneficial way of taking them is sublingually, so the solution is absorbed in the body through the oral mucus.
To do this, you use a dropper, and you place the cannabis solution right underneath your tongue. You hold it there for about a minute before swallowing, and then you will feel the effects typically in about fifteen to thirty minutes, and it lasts for about three to four hours.
In this way of administration, cannabinoids and the terpenes absorbed through the tissue lining into your bloodstream, and this increases the bioavailability of the cannabinoids.
If this is the method that you’re interested in, then here are four tips for you on how you can get the most value from cannabis tinctures.
1. Specific cannabinoid options.
When it comes to tinctures, many people don’t realize that there are many options such as Sativa, Indica, and hybrid options that they’re used to.
Tinctures can be made with specific cannabinoids and some with different ratios of 1:1, 3:1, or 20:1 of a combination of cannabinoids to meet different patient’s needs.
because each cannabinoid is known for helping to treat different symptoms and ailments and can cause different effects
You can find tinctures that are in THC, which is psychoactive, CBD, which is non-psychoactive, THCA, and CBDA, which is the acid form of THC and CBD before it’s exposed to heat.
Both of these are fairly new cannabinoids to be offered and studied. They are non-psychoactive, but there are astounding results that have been discovered with patients who are using these cannabinoids for an assortment of different reasons.
2. Using whole plant tinctures from the flower.
We tend to favor whole plant tinctures from the flower as opposed to trim.
The flowers are just the most cannabinoids and terpenoids richest part of the plant.
The trim doesn’t have as many terpenes, and it mostly has the cannabinoid THC in it.
These types of tinctures will give you the fullest entourage effect from cannabis and provide you with the widest range of terpenes.
The cannabinoids and terpenoids are where all the medicinal value of the plant resides, and with some trim only tinctures, you just lose quite a bit of the therapeutic benefit from this lack of a rich terpene profile.
What happens is that multiple cannabinoids work together to enhance the medicinal value of each of their individual properties.
3. Choosing alcohol extractions.
Lots of manufacturers tend to favor tinctures that are made from an alcohol extraction process.
Since this process is the gentlest on the plant, it keeps the terpenes more intact because some extraction processes they strip the terpenes from the cannabis. Other ones like CO2 break apart the bonds between the cannabis and the terpenes.
The alcohol extraction process keeps the terpenes completely intact with cannabis; that’s when you’ll see the best benefits.
Alison Ettel from TreatWell, which is a leading cannabis tincture company, said that with alcohol extractions, she’s seen that with her clients and patients that they’re not building up a tolerance to cannabis. So they’re able to use less cannabis to achieve the exact results that they need, which is a really big plus.
4. To choose products with testing and proper labels.
When you’re purchasing tinctures, there are a few that you want to make sure to look for and to favor.
You want to make sure that the bottle itself says how many total milligrams of THC and other cannabinoids are also present in it as well as how many milligrams are in each dropper.
Otherwise, you’re not going to be able to accurately and safely dose yourself.