Do Your Roaches Have More THC? By Dr. Hornby

[John Berfelo]

Some confusion exists over what happens to THC in cannabis smoked in cigarettes.
That is, what's left behind in the so called "roaches".

A long time ago i asked myself this question with the initial hypothesis that all of the THC would be gone from the roach. I presumed this would occur since the THC would be heated from the upper part of the burning cigarette, making it volatile and sending it from the un-burnt cannabis further up the cigarette.

To test this i first ran a sample of cannabis on the HPLC by the usual methodology
and determined the THC concentration. Then a sample from the same batch of cannabis was rolled and smoked in a cigarette, saving the last, roughly 1 cm (0.3 gm). This "roach" was then prepped and run on the HPLC by, once again the same methodology, and the two samples compared.

Surprisingly, the "roach" sample was 5-10 mg/gram higher than the original sample.
How could this be?
Well if you think of it, why not? The resin will accumulate at the butt of the cigarette,and it would have to reach temperatures near 200 degrees C (almost 400 degrees F) to boil off. As one pulls on the cigarette the resin oils are physically pulled back and accumulate in the cooler, butt, slightly increasing the amount of THC.

The THC, in the "roach", is for the most part activated, or decarboxylated, such that it can bind the THC receptor.
So one suggestion, would be to eat your roaches…

Dr. Hornby & research team
July 22, 2009

 

[pilgram]

cool!.....you want mine...lol

 

[The Ruiner]

This is like a really long explanation as to why people scrape their pipes in times of need.

 

[budlover13]

Gotta be some way to reclaim 'em.

 

[jdizzle22]

I don't think its wise to eat the byproducts of combustion like that
Reminds me of hearing idiots drinking bong water

 

[insane 559 jc]

i Thought Everybody Recycled Roaches...We Used To Reroll Blunt Doobies And All Kinds Of Crazy Sh#@ I Dont Have To Do Now (hash) But We Got High

 

[insane 559 jc]

Drink Bong Water Thats Steve O Crazy But Ive Cracked Seeds w/ Bong Water...Works Dunno Why

 

[TIZOC]

Sick man now i can tell this to my friends when we blaze and blow their minds but we always knew the weed in a roach is always better just tastes like shit if its ina blunt

 

[alberts]

interesting topic John
---

i Thought Everybody Recycled Roaches...We Used To Reroll Blunt Doobies And All Kinds Of Crazy Sh#@ I Dont Have To Do Now (hash) But We Got High

i always make a blunt out of my roaches. we call them grandad blunts/joints

 

[Aspiringpothead37]

We call them second gen an if u use 2nd gen roaches you get 3rd gen and so on and so forth I have never seen a 6th gen that is still properly smokable though I often piggyback one joint by using painters tape to attach the open end to the back of the joint I'm smoking making easy 2nd gen joints

 

[budlover13]

I used to save roaches and re-roll. 3rd gen is the most I ever got though and it was harsh enough I'd rather not try a 4th gen. That being said, wowza! Now I usually give 'em away to whoever wants 'em.

 

[Jet Li]

I used to save roaches and re-roll. 3rd gen is the most I ever got though and it was harsh enough I'd rather not try a 4th gen.

Most I've ever smoked is a 2nd gen blunt and that was nasty. 3rd gen seems crazy to me. God bless you haha

 

[dam612]

we call em graveyard joints/blunts and only the poor and needy do it, too gross imho. i like to taste my bud and i throw out gross roaches for a reason-i dont want to smk it anymore. goes the same for smking resin

 

[dam612]

and you know experiments mean nothing if the results cant reproduced multiple times with similar results, i hope you ran more samples.

 

[tet1953]

What about a vaporizer?

I asked this in another post, so sorry for the double post but seemed appropriate here

 

[Lil Czr]

When I was a kid, my guitar teacher told me this.

He said when he rolled a joint with all the saved roaches, that it was the best high of the bag.

Since I've always liked smoking out of glass, I've never tried this out.

 

[budlover13]

When I was a kid, my guitar teacher told me this.

He said when he rolled a joint with all the saved roaches, that it was the best high of the bag.

Since I've always liked smoking out of glass, I've never tried this out.

Yes, very potent high. Maybe from asphyxiation, but.....

 

[budlover13]

What about a vaporizer?

I asked this in another post, so sorry for the double post but seemed appropriate here

Excellent idea. You would definitely want to clip any ash, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

 

[John Berfelo]

and you know experiments mean nothing if the results cant reproduced multiple times with similar results, i hope you ran more samples.

We did this for a week in the lab, and then we rolled all the roaches ..
Probably ran 10-12 test and THC was always higher at the end of the joint..

 

[guy incognito]

I didn't realize people didn't know this. I thought this was common knowledge. I have rolled all roach doobs before, but they are kinda gross. Now I usually just break the roach open and reroll it into the next joint so I use all the weed and don't accumulate roaches.