Can I eat raw cannabis leaves without cooking it first? I was thinking this would be convenient. Instead of making edibles I could, for instance, add some chopped fresh leaves to a salad. What do you think?
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Yes you can, and raw cannabis leaves are in fact extremely nutritious and loaded with antioxidants. However don’t expect much of a high, if any.
Why? Because raw fresh leaves contain no THC. They contain the acidic form of this cannabinoid, THC-A, which is not psychoactive. It takes age and/or heat to create the chemical process called decarboxylation that changes the THC-A to psychoactive THC.
Click here for my full decarboxylation tutorial including why it’s so important and how to do it.
That said, raw leaves offer a nutritional powerhouse. They are in fact a superfood.
You can chop them up to add to salads. You can also juice them, although be sure to use a masticating juicer (like used for wheat grass). https://amzn.to/48WdZ1k Cannabis leaves will quickly gum up and ruin a regular juicer.
If you grow your own, you can juice the fresh leaves, then freeze in ice cubes trays for later. Add a cube or to two smoothies to boost the nutritional content.
So yes you can eat raw cannabis for its exceptional nutritional value but no it won’t make you high.