How to Activate Weed Without an Oven?

Activating weed without smoking it is gaining popularity at a record rate. Just look at all the edibles and other marijuana products becoming readily available. Thanks to marijuana being legalized in Canada and other countries, you can now do this at home without fear of being prosecuted. The world of decarbing is fairly new to me, so I’ve been researching and experimenting as quickly as possible.

Activating weed without an oven is possible by using a decarboxylator among other methods such as using a crock pot, a rice cooker, the sous vide method, a frying pan or leaving the marijuana out in direct sun for a full day. Marijuana must be heated for the THCA which resides in marijuana to be converted to THC for weed to be activated.  

These processes need to be expanded on however, the most important part is to understand that the marijuana needs to be heated up to convert THCA to THC.

If you don’t have a stove or just don’t want to use one, I understand and honestly that’s why I wrote this article. Everyone has their reasons and preferences on how to make weed active. I wanted to be able to offer you something unique in this article and I really believe I was able to deliver.

Let’s face it, using an oven to activate weed is not ideal if you don’t want someone else to know what you are doing. It’s probably impossible to stifle the smell from an oven. To add to that an oven will fluctuate temperatures. You want as consistent a temperature as possible when trying to activate your weed.

Firstly, let’s try to understand what activating weed is. When you smoke weed, the heat from the ember activates it and you really don’t need to think about anything else, you just enjoy getting high. But what if you don’t want to smoke weed? Well, you should have a basic understanding of what and why you’re trying to activate it.

I understand that much of the information you find online is like reading a medical journal. I prefer things explained simply so any ‘average Joe’ can understand, which is what I have done in the next few paragraphs – not just for you but for future reference for myself as well.

To activate weed you must decarboxylate it. Here is how I understand it. The proper terminology is decarboxylation. Essentially, what you are doing is heating up cannabis to a specific temperature, so the cannabis releases a carboxyl group which then makes the cannabis psychoactive.

Carboxyls are weak acids and are common in biological molecules. By applying heat to THCA (which is the active compound in marijuana) it will convert to THC which is what gets you high. Phew!

Ways to Activate Weed Without an Oven

If you ask this question in a forum online, you will get many ideas, and some are solid ideas and some not so much. Here’s why.

To activate THC in weed you must heat the weed to a specific temperature ‘consistently’ for a period of time. I quoted the word consistently because some methods others use do not keep a consistent temperature. The temp fluctuates. This doesn’t mean the weed won’t be activated at all, what it means is not all of the THCA will convert to THC.

Now that you know I won’t point it out for each example. The method itself should be obvious as to which one’s temp might fluctuate. Let’s go!

• Use a Decarboxylator. These machines were made specifically for this purpose. They are super easy to use and are only about the size of a Keurig machine. You basically just put the weed into the machine and start it. Yes, it’s that simple. These aren’t cheap, though. If you want to check one out on Amazon here is a great option.

• Crock pot or rice cooker. Using one of these cooking appliances is a good option. If the smell is an issue for you then maybe not though. Place your weed in these mixed with some coconut or similar oil and cook for 30 to 60 minutes at 250 Fahrenheit.

• Use the sous vide method. The sous vide method is when food or in this case marijuana is vacuum sealed and cooked in boiling water. This option is great if you have a machine to vacuum seal your weed.

I have read some reviews that this method does not work as well as others and I have also read where some people swear by it. Try boiling your vacuum sealed weed for a minimum of 90 minutes at a temperature of 250 Fahrenheit.

• If you have a stove top. Using a mason jar mix coconut oil to the weed and boil for a couple hours at 250 Fahrenheit. The weed should be cut up or grinded to ensure the oil is soaking all of it. It’s the oil that gets hot and then gets infused with THC.

• Use a frying pan on the stove top. Finely chop or grind the weed and mix it with oil (preferably olive or coconut oil). Heat the pan to 250 Fahrenheit for 30 to 60 minutes. The oil should start to turn green. At that point it should be activated.

• Use a microwave. I have read some people in forums to try a microwave. I haven’t heard anyone reporting if this works or not. If you try this method, you can probably just place the weed on the turntable and set the temp to 250 Fahrenheit for 15 to 20 minutes. I would be curious to see how this one turns out and how much your power bill goes up.

• Leave out in full sun to bake. I read recently where a fellow in the USA swears by leaving his weed out in a dish in his backyard in full sun for the whole day. He says it activates the weed. If this does in fact work, the key to success here would be to do it on a day where there are no clouds in the sky, and it is an extremely hot day. By hot I mean 100 Fahrenheit and hotter.

I don’t think this method would activate the weed to its full potential, but it probably would be enough to get you high. The good thing about this one is if it doesn’t work, you can just take the weed and try something else.

Add citric acid to the weed to activate it. This is another new one for me. Apparently mixing food grade citric acid with ground up weed will activate it. Here’s what you do.

1. Grind the weed down with a coffee or similar grinder to a powder.
2. Using the same volume of water that you now have of ground up weed, mix citric acid into the water. Keep adding citric acid until it will not dissolve in the water anymore.
3. Mix both the ground up weed and citric acid together.
4. Cover both with a cloth somewhere that your mixture can sit undisturbed for at least a week’s time.
5. After a week, your weed should be fully activated and can be added to whatever medium you choose.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are a few ways to try and activate weed without using an oven. Some are tried and true and a couple I am not sure about, but others claim to work. The only way to find out for sure is to try them out and see for yourself.

Personally, I feel investing in a decarboxylator is the best option. These machines get excellent reviews online. If you’re interested in checking them out, here is one on Amazon to have a look at.

Hopefully, this article has been of help to you. Thanks for reading and good luck!

Related Posts
Can You Make Edibles Without Decarbing?

Why Do You Need to Decarboxylate Weed for Edibles?