Hi Guys!
So I am in Ohio and we have a 70% THC cap on concentrates in our medical market. I have been making the distillate and its been coming in around 90% which is no problem for edibles and things of that nature that will be naturally diluted in formulation but not when it comes to vapes and syringes. I am currently planning on using terpenes and CBD isolate to try and cut it below 70% because I don’t want to have to use a diluent with all the news around vapes recently. I probably am going to have to use food grade terpenes at first since we don’t have the setup to pull terpenes and cash is a bit strapped with the startup.
From what I have been researching it seems I will only be able to add 3-5% of food grade terps before it starts to become too strong and has the burnt flavor, but I am not sure how much CBD isolate I can add to cut it before I run into problems with the CBD crystallizing or causing issues as we are primary a THC company and my knowledge on CBD is a bit behind the curve. One big thing I am looking at is the viscosity because right now the distillate is rock solid and I’m not sure how the terps and CBD will affect that as our R&D capacity its a bit limited with the current regulations. I know that right now that distillate isn’t going to work very well in a cartridge at its current solid state so I am hoping the terps and CBD will lower the viscosity and allow it to work in a cartridge or syringe.
Any tips, Info, advice, opinions or just about any comment will be very appreciated!! Thanks in advance!
Can you use CBD distillate to cut instead?
Either way add 15% CBD and then your 5% terps and see how that goes. No need to worry about the CBD crystallizing until 60%ish concentration
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Why make distillate then?
It’s more work, and then you need to cut it.
Why not make great crude and run that?
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Well with the current set up, The crude is all black and nasty and I cant imagine it would make a great vape or syringe product, but I may be wrong. With our current lab setup the winterization process is just mixing with ethanol, freezing, filtering, repeat and rotovap. I am not sure when the funds to expand that process to make a better crude will come in. The crude itself has been testing in the 75-80% range so really the short path is just to make a cleaner product.
I’m sure I could get some my hands on some eventually but right now we have a couple kilos of isolate in the lab so I figured I would start there if possible. Are there any cons of isolate and/or pros of distillate that you could inform me on, by chance?
Flavor, character, etc. but if isolate is all you have then let it rip. It will work just fine.
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awesome, thanks for the knowledge! Do you by chance know how the isolate will affect the viscosity? I would like to think that it would lower it a bit since the THC concentration would drop, but the isolate being a crystal itself I am not sure and assuming does not seem to be the best course of action.
Yes it will loosen it up a little. You’ll have to get it all nice, hot & fully homogenized but you’ll see once you heat it up and mix it in
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I just turned down a job in ohio doing the same thing and i asked the same question and the jurisdiction or state guidelines didnt say anything was banned. I was gonna go the cbd route as well so as to jot add a cut, i dont think it would crystallize if your only adding 20% or so. I have stopped trying to fix the problem now that the job is no go
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cool, gonna try a small test batch to see before hand but I think between the terps and CBD, it should work out great! Thank you very much for the insight!!
Yeah the 70% limit sucks but I just got out of school and am located in Ohio so I figured get the experience any way possible and I still love the job! Hopefully we have recreational coming in the not so distant future and we can kick the limit to the curb and get to the real fun stuff 
Ya it was wierd. Ive lived all over ohio so it would have been nice. Im sure rec will be there shortly
CBD distillate cut should help you out! Make sure you homogenize for about 20 min.
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I have seen that before but kinda just brushed through it since we are missing some key items needed. I may see if I can get some of it in, so we can try that cause it seems like an excellent approach. Thanks!!
@DesertTerps I am gonna try the isolate and look into some CBD distillate, Im sure we can source it pretty easily now a days!
What is your method for making your crude?
Cbd isolate will loosen it up and give a nice viscosity. No need to worry about crystallization at 20-30%. Shit, there’s even a good market for 1:1 and 2:1 (CBD:THC) carts.
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If you have a source to hemp (or cannabis) with high enough levels of the other cannabinoids such as CBG, CBC, CBN, CBL, you could extract and make it into distillate to mix with your high THC distillate.