How Do I Calculate Cannabis Edible Potency?

By Author: Stephen Robert
Total Articles: 32

One common question from medical edible cannabis users is about determining the THC content of their homemade products. THC levels can vary widely, especially if the content of your starting material is usually not known. After baking your batch, can you even tell the amount of THC in every serving? Even commercial manufacturers get it wrong at times.

It is hard to get the exact measurement if the plant you’re using hasn’t been tested in the lab, which involves lots of complex analysis and tests. But even when you don’t know the precise percentage of some cannabinoids, you can still get a close estimate by using a simple formula. First of all, you need to pick your weapon: will it be your brain or a calculator?

How to Calculate Homemade Cannabis Edible Potency

If you have a hard time doing math, there are lots of online calculators that can help you determine the THC percentage for you. But if you are fine with crunching numbers, here is the formula to use.

Start the estimate with an average THC percentage. Low quality cannabis or trim contains as little as 3 percent THC. On the other hand, top-shelf strains can have over 25 percent. Government guidelines place the national average quantity at 10 percent.

If you don’t have the exact amount from lab testing, let’s then assume that that number is 10 to do the equation more easily using a round number. The first step is to divide 1000 by 10 so you can get the amount per milligram. So, one gram has 100 milligrams of THC.
The next step is the divide the amount of THC by the number of servings to get the per-serving dose. For example, if you used cannabutter with a cup of butter and 7 grams of cannabis, multiply 7 by 100, and you have 700 milligrams of THC in the butter. Then divide this by the number of servings made.

More Tips for Making Homemade Cannabis Edibles

Never add too much cannabis. An ounce of cannabis makes a cup of cannabutter. Anything more than that will only be wasted. A 1:1 ratio of cannabis to butter is enough.
Adjust the recipe as necessary if it doesn’t yield the right dose per serving. You can add more cannabis extract or oil to weak recipes, or dilute stronger ones with regular butter.
Don’t forget to decarboxylate the cannabis before with it. Besides tasting bad, raw cannabis will make your cooked edibles ineffective—you won’t get high.
Thoroughly stir the batter to make sure that the cannabutter is properly distributed, and each dose has the right serving.
Don’t grind the cannabis into powder. This makes the cannabis in the butter hard to strain and will give your recipe a plant-like taste. Instead, use a hand grinder to grind it coarsely.
Test the potency of the cannabutter before using it to bake. Take a little bit with your food, wait for about an hour, and see how you feel.

There are lots of online dosing guides and calculators to better help you determine the amount of CBD or THC in every serving of the cannabis edible you make, and to figure out the number of grams that you should use to bake. Check them out whenever you find yourself craving some homemade marijuana goods.