Can You Get High off Pot Leaves? [The Truth Might Surprise You]

If you take the time to grow a nice and large marijuana plant feeding it water and nutrients for weeks then take the appropriate amount of time curing the bud wouldn’t it be nice if you could also use the leaves to get high as well?

The answer is yes you can get high smoking pot leaves but not all pot leaves will get you high. There are some leaves on a marijuana plant that are called the fan leaves that might not get you high. The leaves higher up the plant especially around the bud area will most likely get you stoned.

That being said when I was a teenager in the seventies, my friends and I used to grow plants that never really reached proper maturity because we were either too anxious to smoke the pot and we really weren’t knowledgeable enough at the time to know that we should let the plant grow that long. Even though our plants weren’t ready by today’s standards we still got high from them.

So there is really no definitive answer to this question. It all depends on what type of plant you’re growing and what location on the plant you source the leaves from to smoke.

What Leaves Can You Smoke to Get High?

Any leaves above the fan leaves

So now the question is exactly what leaves can you smoke then to get high? Let me just mention again that I can tell you the best location to pick the leaves for smoking however this is not 100% accurate all the time. It is pretty close to 100% accurate but location of the leaves and not mentioned yet but depending on what stage the plant is in will affect the THC levels as well.

If your plant is a female plant but it is still in the vegetative stage then it is too soon to harvest leaves for smoking. The vegetative stage is when the plant is just first growing prior to the flowering stage.

The flowering stage is when the buds start to grow. Even then once the buds are growing you will want to wait for the trichomes to grow on the buds. Once the trichomes are growing and start secreting a sticky substance which is called terpenes then it is time to pick some leaves for smoking.

The leaves you want to focus on are the ones that are midway up the plant and all around where the buds are growing. The reason is that trichomes seem to start popping up all over the plant after the buds are fully loaded and oozing terpene.

That being said even if your plant only had trichomes growing on the buds most likely the terpenes will rub onto the leaves adding there THC to those areas and that is what you want so you can get high.

Can You Smoke The Lower (fan) Leaves and Get High?

The marijuana leaves that are at the bottom of your plant which are typically larger than the leaves higher up the plant are known as the fan leaves. In general the fan leaves will not come into contact with trichomes or terpene so might not have very much THC in them which is what you need to get stoned.

The fan leaves can be identified by the larger size of the leaves or by standing back looking at the plant and noticing all the bottom leaves that are growing larger and further out from the plant than others without anything other than leaves branches and the stalk. These are the fan leaves.

From my experience I would say yes you can smoke the lower leaves on a marijuana plant and get high. I have smoked all the leaves on a plant and have gotten high from it. The marijuana plant has THC running through it whether you’re looking at the buds or the leaves. Of course the buds will have a higher percentage of THC because of the trichomes and terpenes growing in that location however you can’t discount the leaves for a lower dosage of THC to get stoned.

Other Useful Things You Can Do with Your Pot Leaves

• Marijuana tea is an option. If you enjoy tea especially leaf style teas then why not try steeping some leaves and drinking the ganja? You probably won’t get high though unless you mix the leaves with an oil based product like an olive oil or butter as cannabinoids apparently are not soluble in water alone.
  • If you choose to try this method steep the tea for a good 15 to 20 minutes to ensure the extracts of the pot leaves leach into the hot water.

• Making marijuana edibles is another option. I have to be honest here I am not an expert on how the human body absorbs the cannabinoids you ingest versus smoking a joint. What I can tell you is that when you smoke pot the substances that makes you high transport through your system easier without filtration so you get high.
  • When ingested it’s a different story because now the edibles are digested in your stomach and then processed through your liver. Your liver will do an excellent job of filtering the bad stuff you digest so you won’t get as high as when smoking but you still will get stoned. Otherwise the booming edible market would not be as popular as it is today.

• Vape your pot leaves. I am not a vaper myself so I can’t speak about this method very much other than I do know that some people who prefer to vape do use marijuana when vaping. Whether you use the leaves or buds or mix them together you will get high using this method just like when smoking a joint.
  • The big difference is that vaping would be quite a bit safer as you wouldn’t be extracting carcinogens with vaping like you would if you lit a joint and started inhaling the smoke.

So Why Keep Marijuana Leaves on the Plant While Growing?

• Leaves help to identity if there are any health issues with the plant. Marijuana plant leaves will always tell you if there is a problem with the health of the plant.
  • For example if you are under watering the leaves will drop downwards almost like they are telling you they give up. Once you give the plant some water you will notice in as little as 30 to 60 minutes that the leaves start to stick straight out again and start reaching for the light.
    • On the other side of that if you are over watering the leaves will start to curl up. Don’t water again for a day or more until the leaves have recovered. A great way to prevent over watering is to make sure when you stick your finger into the plants soil up to your second knuckle that the soil is dry.
    • Another way the leaves tell you if there is a health or other problem is when the lights are to close they will burn the plant. You will start to see the leaves closest to the lighting turning yellowish. To remedy this raise the lights immediately and keep a close eye on the plants to see if you need to adjust again.
    • In general if the plant is not 100% healthy the leaves will turn color, curl up, dry up ETC to let you know.

• This doesn’t mean you have to keep all of the leaves on the plant. If you wanted you could selectively clip leaves away where you find they are blocking light from buds to ensure the most important part of the marijuana plant is getting as much light as possible.
  • Most of the leaves beneath the buds could be cut off as long as you leave a few growing so the health of the plant can be monitored as mentioned above.

On a Side Note Will Clipping Pot Leaves off My Plant Increase the Bud Size?

As I already started explaining in the section above you can clip the leaves off the plant and the best reason I can come up with to do this would be so the buds will grow longer and thicker. The leaves will not rob the buds of nutrients if they aren’t attached to the plant anymore.

So if you want bigger buds then feel free to trim off a bunch of leaves. Remember to leave a few on so you can keep an eye on the health of the plant. It’s probably okay to trim off all of the lower fan leaves and keep the leaves that grow near the buds. Those leaves will get you higher anyways so you would obviously want to keep them.

Related Growing Marijuana World Articles

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Do Clear Trichomes Get You High?