Marijuana Infused Beverages: How To Make

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marijuana-infused beverages

Medical Marijuana-Infused Beverages

As cannabis legalization continues occurring throughout the U.S., people are starting to show more interest in medical marijuana-infused beverages. These drinks allow quick absorption into your body, make great alternatives for individuals who don’t want to or can’t smoke and taste great. While they can be a little costly to buy, you can save money by making them yourself.

What Are Medical Marijuana-Infused Beverages?

Marijuana drinks are another way of medicating with cannabis besides smoking. They’re a great way to keep your body hydrated while enjoying all the other benefits cannabis provides. They also make an excellent option for people who want to drink socially but are trying to cut back on their alcohol consumption.

How Do Medical Marijuana-Infused Beverages Work?

Marijuana beverages have been becoming more popular over the years and often work better than cannabis edibles. Flavonoids, terpenoids, cannabinoids and other bioactive compounds make these drinks very bioavailable.

Bioavailability is the amount of a material or substance that enters circulation when you ingest it, allowing it to make physiological or cognitive changes. Medical marijuana-infused drinks’ high bioavailability means their effects are more consistent than smoking, eating edibles and other methods of weed consumption.

Who Medical Marijuana-Infused Beverages Benefits

The individuals who stand to benefit most from using medical cannabis are those suffering from serious health conditions such as:

If you are 18 years old or older and one of these or other health conditions have negatively impacted your quality of life, marijuana drinks might be able to help manage your symptoms safely and improve your everyday living.

Types of Medical Marijuana-Infused Beverages

If you’re wondering how to drink medical marijuana, there are many options. Here are some of the ways to drink medical marijuana:

1. Cannabis Coffee

For many people, combining medical weed with a cup of coffee is the simplest way to drink their marijuana. You can use decaf if you’re looking for an anti-caffeine kick.

marijuana coffee

2. Cannabis Tea

People have been using tea for ages as a natural remedy. For thousands of years, individuals have been curing their ills with marijuana. Therefore, it would only make sense to mix both tea and cannabis to create a natural medication to help treat your ailments.

3. Syrups

Weed-infused syrups are introducing individuals to concentrated liquid cannabis. After making a bottle of cannabis syrup, you can start adding small doses to your favorite beverages. Some ideas include:

  • Mix it into a smoothie
  • Spike your coffee or tea
  • Cool off with a canna-cocktail
  • Make a glass of lemonade

4. Cannabis-Infused Water

Put a little kick into your water. Some flavored, cannabis-infused waters contain as much as 40 mg of active cannabinoid. This water is not only very potent, but it’s also free of sugar, making it ideal for individuals watching their waistlines or for people with diabetes who have to keep an eye on their sugar intake.

5. Cannabis-Infused Energetic Drink

When you use cannabis, CBD works as a THC antagonist, decreasing and counteracting its effects. CBD-infused drinks could be a great way to counteract marijuana’s psychoactive effects when individuals start feeling unpleasant, especially for first-timers. Drinks containing vitamins, minerals and a high concentration of CBD can help minimize the unpleasant effects of using the herb, including nausea, imbalance, dizziness and loss of sense of time.

6. Cannabis Soda

Marijuana sodas often contain 20 mg of CBD, low calories and are naturally sweetened. CBD sodas contain all-natural, high-quality CBD taken from agricultural hemp. These cannabis sodas are ideal for active, healthy people. THC-infused sodas are also available with just the right amount of THC extract.

7. Canna Punch

These are cannabis-infused, non-carbonated drinks which are frequently soy-free, gluten-free, corn syrup-free and all-natural vegan drinks.

8. Canna Love Lemonade

Cold marijuana-infused lemonade could be one of your greatest pleasures in the summer. Some are spiked with CBD oil concentrates using only whole high-quality cannabis buds.

9. Cannabis Wine

Cannabis-infused wine might be just the thing to help you unwind after a long day. Many are blended with CBD specifically to reduce stress while others contain as much as 20mg of THC per bottle for a more euphoric feeling. Like tea, people have been making marijuana-infused wine for thousands of years. In the United States, it’s only legal in California right now, and you need a medical marijuana card to buy a bottle.

marijuana wine

10. Cannabis Beer

Beer is a fermented beverage that uses grain, yeast and barley to create alcohol. The type and amount of hops added will determine the beer’s flavor. Craft brewers experiment with different kinds of grains and hops to come up with various flavor profiles in their beer. Marijuana can replace the hops to color the beer’s flavor profile.

How to Make Medical Marijuana-Infused Beverages

There are different weed-infused drinks you can make such as:

1. Cannabis Coffee

The simplest way of creating marijuana-infused coffee is just to add the herb to the coffee grounds. Start with a tablespoon of grounds and 1 1/4 teaspoons of ground marijuana for every five ounces of water. Make adjustments as needed. Adjust the ratio if you prefer a different brewing method.

Know that heat activates marijuana’s THC compounds. The brewing process triggers the herb’s full medicinal properties unless you are cold-brewing the coffee. The THC will also produce that “high” sensation which some people try to avoid. This “high” could either complement or counteract the caffeine.

Consider a cannabis strain’s properties when you add it to coffee to ensure you get your desired effects. Make adjustments to the quantity of marijuana too because each strain’s strength varies. You’ll want to start small so the effects won’t surprise you.

2. Cannabis Tea

There are a variety of ways to make cannabis tea including:

  • Mix the fat and bud: Coat your bud in butter or oil and mix it into your tea leaves. Fill a tea infuser with the new mixture, or you can simply put everything in a tea bag.
  • Use a coated tea bag: Empty out a tea bag and add your bud into it instead. Coat it with your choice of fat and steep it in hot water using a regular tea bag.
  • Use marijuana butter instead of bud: If you’re able to buy or make weed butter, you can steep it with your tea.
  • Use milk instead of oil and butter: If you enjoy matcha lattes or tea lattes like chai, mix the bud, tea and water with milk. Heat up this mixture for around 30 minutes without boiling it.

3. Cannabis Soda and Lemonade

We can now create carbonated, sugary drinks with tinctures thanks to advanced technology developing in the cannabis world. If you’re looking for a quick pick-me-up, cannabis lemonades and sodas will do just that. They’re a simple way to get all the benefits of medical pot and are incredibly refreshing.

marijuana lemonade

Add water, lemon juice and sugar into a blender and blend for about 15 seconds or until it’s all well-blended. Add in mint leaves and a tincture of cannabis. Run through a sieve into a pitcher. You can serve it immediately with ice or let it chill in the refrigerator.

Medical Marijuana-Infused Beverages Uses

You likely know inhaling and eating marijuana provides numerous health benefits. Drinking your cannabis does too. Take cannabis tea, for instance. It’s a healthy beverage loaded with nutrients, vitamins and antioxidants. Individuals drink it to ease everything from stress to nausea.

Cannabis-infused beverages can help with:

1. Chronic Pain

If you suffer from chronic pain, research shows drinking marijuana can help. Cannabinoids such as CBD and THC have pain-relieving properties. When you consume a marijuana beverage, the plant’s active ingredients absorb through your liver and digestive tract. Because of the slow acting, yet long-lasting effects, weed beverages can help with chronic conditions like:

  • AIDS
  • Cancer
  • Rheumatoid arthritis
  • MS

Rather than having to dose several times a day, just one cup of cannabis tea can provide you with extended pain relief.

2. Anxiety and Depression

Depression and anxiety are two of the most common conditions. Worldwide, estimates show around 350 million individuals struggle with depression and one of every 13 individuals globally have anxiety.

Research shows marijuana has strong neuroprotective properties, helping to regulate emotional behavior. Cannabis also contains antioxidants that help protect DNA from damage and repair cells.

3. Heart Health

According to a journal Pharmacological Research study, cannabinoids improve circulation in human tissue and lower blood pressure. Essentially, the compounds in marijuana open the arteries and cause them to relax. Blocked arteries and high blood pressure can cause heart disease and heart attacks. Marijuana can help prevent this.

4. Lung Health

Medical cannabis also helps enhance, not inhibit, lung functioning. It works like a bronchodilator instead of a bronchoconstrictor. This means marijuana increases airflow and reduces respiratory tract resistance. The herb can even work as a lung cancer treatment. Harvard University researchers found THC reduces tumor growth by 50 percent in lung cancer, reports Science Daily. It also helps reduce cancer’s ability to spread.

5. Nausea

Nausea can be a symptom of various serious conditions. Many individuals, particularly those undergoing chemotherapy treatment, have nausea regularly. Cannabis’s active substance, THC, helps relieve nausea and stimulates the appetite. Taking the marijuana tea example again, sipping on a cup of cannabis tea will provide you with anti-nausea benefits and is easy on your stomach. Cannabis tea could also stimulate your appetite if you make it with a strain high in THC. This could change the lives of chemo patients who are vulnerable to deadly weight loss.

The Benefits of Medical Marijuana-Infused Beverages

There are many benefits of medical marijuana-infused beverages. The effects of smoked weed kick in quickly and the effects last for several hours. But, then you “sober” up and to experience relief again, you have to smoke the herb again.

Cannabis-infused beverages, on the other hand, take up to an hour for you to feel their effects, but they last for many hours before slowly descending. Due to their long-lasting effects, marijuana beverages are ideal for individuals with conditions like chronic pain and nausea.

Also, when you drink cannabis, you experience more body-centered effects of the THC compared to smoking. These effects are also distributed over your body more evenly. Because of this, medical drinking pot is a better, more effective treatment for epilepsy, muscle spasms and other similar illnesses. Not to mention, you experience less of the “burned-out” effect that often occurs when smoking cannabis.

When you drink marijuana, the active compounds absorb more slowly, and this prolonged onset of the effects can be more calming than the sudden “rush” you get smoking. The effects are also longer-lasting, as they are with other edibles.

Marijuana-infused drinks are often a lot healthier than using other weed products. Many edible products use sugars, carbohydrates and fats as carriers for cannabinoids. Medical pot-infused drinks like coffee and kombucha are better options for health-conscious marijuana consumers.

Side Effects of Medical Marijuana-Infused Beverages

No matter how you ingest marijuana, you may experience some general side effects. Some side effects of medical marijuana-infused beverages include:

  • Red eyes
  • Dry mouth
  • Increased appetite
  • Increased breathing rate, heart rate and blood pressure

Where to Use Medical Marijuana-Infused Beverages

You’ll find venti-sized wellness lattes or CBD oil cappuccinos in some coffee shops. You can also make them at home. A great thing about cannabis-infused beverages is you can enjoy them out in public in places where smoking isn’t allowed or at home without worrying about the negative effects of smoke. Many dispensaries offer beverage alternatives like coffee along with their edibles.

public use

Tips to Consider When Drinking Medical Marijuana-Infused Beverages

Just like with any other method of consuming medical pot, it will take some experimenting to find the proper dose. If you are new to medical cannabis and haven’t even tried it in other forms, start out with a small amount to allow your body to get accustomed to the effects. For example, you can start off with a half cup each day and gradually work your way up to one or two cups each day in 12-hour intervals.

Remember, not all states have legalized marijuana, so you’ll want to check with your state laws first.

Find a Medical Marijuana Doctor for Medical Marijuana-Infused Beverages

There are many ways to drink medical marijuana and these cannabis-infused beverages are a healthy alternative to smoking the herb, and you feel the effects quicker than with edibles. But, like with all medication, you need to consult with your doctor first to make sure these tasty drinks are right for you.

At MarijuanaDoctors.com, we have an extensive directory of qualified marijuana doctors who can recommend marijuana drinks to treat your ailment. Cannabis drinks can provide you with faster, more effective relief than other consumption methods. You can also check out our marijuana recipes.