How Long Does an Eighth of CBD Flower Last?
Whether it’s CBD flower you buy online or THC flower you buy in a dispensary, an eighth is one of the most convenient sizes of cannabis you can buy. The eighth has long-since replaced the “dub” as the standard cannabis size for newbies, but factors like dosing and shelf life can be less-than-clear when you’re dealing with dried plant matter.
In this guide, we’ll explain what an eighth of CBD flower is, and we’ll tell you how long it will last—both in terms of how long it will stay good on the shelf and how long it will take to run out due to normal usage habits. Get ready to learn everything you need to know about just how far an eighth of CBD flower can get you.
What is an eighth of CBD flower?
An eighth of CBD flower is one eighth of an ounce of dried CBD-rich hemp buds. An eighth of an ounce corresponds to roughly 3.5g, and an eighth of CBD flower is just about enough to nicely nestle in the bottom of a snack-sized zip-lock bag. Usually costing between $20-$40, an eighth of CBD flower is a convenient and accessible size for any type of hemp user, and it provides a significant amount of CBD for a comparatively low price.
Is an eighth of bud a lot?
In terms of physical size and price, an eighth is not very much hemp or cannabis flower. When it comes to the concentration of cannabinoids contained, however, flower often contains more cannabinoids-per-dollar than more-processed types of cannabis products.
If a particular strain of CBD flower contains 20% CBD, for instance, an eighth will contain around 700mg CBD, which is quite a lot for the average price of an eighth. The amount of CBD you get per eighth increases along with the potency of CBD flower, so keep an eye out for extra-potent CBD buds to get both the best deal and the most potent effects.
How long will CBD flowers last?
An average smoker will make their way through an eighth of CBD flower over the course of 1-7 days. Preserved properly, CBD flower can stay smokeable for up to 6 months after it was packaged. Technically, you could smoke CBD flower that’s even older, but your experience will not be pleasant.
What is the shelf life of CBD flower?
CBD buds can remain usable for 6-12 months after they were originally dried, cured, and packaged. Past the six-month mark, however, even the best-stored hemp flower starts to lose its integrity, and most experienced smokers know to use their buds within the first 90 days or so to get the most out of their CBD flower experiences.
Does CBD flower lose potency when stored?
Yes, all forms of cannabis flower lose potency over time. Cannabinoids oxidize as time goes by, transforming into other substances that don’t affect the human body in the same ways. It’s best to use CBD flower soon after it has completed the curing process, but CBD buds should retain their full potency for at least three months after they were cured.
Where do you store CBD flowers?
It is best to store CBD flowers in an airtight, vacuum-sealed, light-proof container that is kept slightly below room temperature. Refrigerating or freezing your buds could damage their cannabinoids, but excessively high temperatures will spoil cannabis plant matter.
Vacuum-sealing cannabis in-between uses can be unreasonably time-consuming, but at least make an effort to ensure your storage container is airtight. UV light can hasten the cannabinoid-damaging oxidation process, making it necessary to keep your cannabis in the dark. Hemp flower stored in transparent containers like mason jars can be placed inside plastic totes to achieve the desired level of darkness.
How do you keep CBD flowers fresh?
To ensure your CBD flowers retain their freshness as long as possible, keep them in an airtight container stored in a cool place out of direct sunlight. To take things one step further, you can store your buds with a humidity-controlling device that keeps them at the ideal moisture content—buds can become crumbly or fall apart when they get too dry. Just make sure the humidity in your storage container doesn’t get too high, which could promote the growth of mold.
How long does an eighth of CBD flower last for daily smoking?
If you smoke CBD flower on a daily basis, you should make your way through your stash within 1-4 days. An eighth of cannabis or hemp flower doesn’t last that long: Roll 2-3 good-sized joints or smoke 5-6 bowls, and your eighth is gone. Daily smokers would be advised to invest in larger sizes of hemp flower for better value and increased convenience.
How much CBD flower should I smoke a day?
It’s normal to smoke anywhere between 1-3 grams of CBD flower per day. Some users smoke more, but CBD’s non-intoxicating, soporific effects naturally disincentivize excessive use.
If you smoke less than a gram of CBD flower per day, it’s questionable whether you’re getting the desired effects. Some users, though, find that a single half-gram joint per day is more than enough for their particular purposes.
As a baseline, a gram of hemp flower containing 20% CBD contains 200mg total CBD. Whether it’s capsules or tinctures, 200mg per day is a relatively common CBD dose.
How many puffs of CBD flower should I smoke at a time?
Most users find that 1-3 puffs of CBD flower are sufficient for a single session. More intensive sessions can consist of as many as 7-8 puffs. That’s enough to clear around two bowls or an entire joint, however, which even the most hardcore CBD smokers usually admit is enough to satisfy their desires.
If you’re new to CBD flower, you should start by taking a single puff and determining how it affects your system. You may want to revert back to the one-puff rule every time you try a new strain of CBD flower to get an idea of how it will affect you before you dive in.
How long does it take for CBD flower to kick in?
When you smoke or vape CBD flower, you’ll feel the effects within a minute or less. One of the most impressive benefits of inhaling CBD is the fast activation time users enjoy, which is highly preferable compared to oral products that often take 30 minutes or more to take effect. If you don’t feel effects shortly after taking a hit of CBD flower, make sure you’ve ingested a high-enough dose by following up with another hit.
How long do the effects of CBD flower last?
The effects of CBD flower generally last for 30-60 minutes when inhaled. If you vape or smoke an especially large amount of CBD flower, you might feel residual effects for as long as two hours.
Generally speaking, though, the effects of inhaling any substance are not very long-lasting. If you want to experience the effects of CBD for longer, consider following up your flower-smoking session with some oral CBD. By the time the inhaled CBD wears off, the oral CBD will have kicked in, providing a seamless transition to effects that last more than three hours.
If you’d prefer to keep your CBD experience going by smoking more, just take another hit or two every 90 minutes or so. For the average person, that translates to 6-7 sessions per day—or the perfect amount to run through just about an eighth of an ounce of CBD flower.
How long does CBD stay in your system?
Like other lipid compounds, residual amounts of CBD can stay in the human body for up to 30 days before they are fully excreted. The amount of time CBD remains detectable in the body varies depending on the amount of CBD ingested and the frequency of ingestion.
If you only use CBD infrequently and don’t use very much at a time, your system may be completely clear of this cannabinoid within a week or less. Heavier users, however, should expect to contain CBD in their bodies for a full 30 days after the moment they ingested their last molecule of cannabidiol.
Will smoking an eighth of CBD flower show up on a drug test?
It is very unlikely that smoking an eighth of CBD flower would cause you to fail a drug test for any reason. CBD is not usually tested for in urinalysis and other forms of drug testing, so it’s not an issue here.
The potential problem lies with the trace amounts of THC present in CBD flower. By federal law, hemp products can contain up to 0.3% delta-9 THC, the substance usually screened by drug tests.
Even if a strain of CBD flower contains the full 0.3% of THC, however, that’s only around 10mg of THC in an entire eighth. Your body will filter out that trace amount of THC very quickly, making the likelihood of inadvertently testing positive for THC after smoking just an eighth of CBD flower very low.