Medical cannabis in Missouri must be kept in the container it was purchased in. However, this specifically applies to cannabis purchased at a licensed dispensary. This leaves additional storage options open for the home-cultivator – just don’t forget that a caregiver must have all medical cannabis labeled with the patient it belongs to. Storing in an appropriate container can help maintain potency and keep the cannabis in top form until consumption.
The enemies of freshly cured cannabis are light, heat, moisture, and oxygen.
After drying and curing your cannabis, the moisture content should be low enough that off-smells (usually a fresh-hay smell) are no longer present. These smells occur due to biological activity within the cannabis itself, but this biological activity must stop when moisture levels drop sufficiently. Without enough moisture, mold spores and other nasties cannot germinate and spoil your medicine. Your storage container must be air-tight to keep moisture out.
Exposure to atmosphere, oxygen in particular, will cause THCTHC is the most famous cannabinoid and is psychoactive. TH... to degrade into CBN. This can be useful as CBN has a highly sedative effect, but is not usually desirable. Professional packagers will back-fill cannabis packages with nitrogen (non-reactive) to prevent this from occurring. However, as long as your storage container is air-tight and you don’t open it frequently, there is only so much oxygen that can possibly react with the medicine. Once again, you need an air-tight container.
Light also degrades cannabinoids – UV light especially. For this reason, your container should be opaque or kept in a dark place. If complete darkness is not possible, brown/amber glass may be used as these containers are known to block UV (see bottling practices in the beer industry).
Heat is the least of your worries considering that people tend to avoid uncomfortable heat and if the temperature is comfortable for you, it’s ok for your medicine. Cooler is better. This is also a good time to note that keeping a stash in your super-hot car during the summer is generally a bad idea. Keep only small amounts if you must, as it will degrade quickly. Also keep in mind that the most volatile terpenes will start to disappear at around 70 degrees (F).
Storage Container Materials
A final consideration is to select containers made of appropriate materials. For example, did you know that the terpenes (e.g. limonene) found in some varieties can melt plastic? This takes time, but it can happen. I’ve seen it and I do NOT want to smoke plastic.
Paint can be reactive as well as the aluminum or stainless steel that ammo cans are made of.
Glass is always a great choice. It is non-reactive and has been used to store food for a very long time. Finding brown glass can be challenging though and glass is fragile.
Paper (cellulose) can be a good choice given that the plant material is made of pretty much exactly the same thing. Just be sure that the paper doesn’t have any ink that could transfer to your medicine. However, paper is not air-tight.
Since plastic and paint can be reactive you can find success by lining such containers with a paper bag, which holds the cannabis.
Some plastic vacuum seal bags are specially made to be non-reactive, but you will want to test this with each manufacturer to be sure. Changing brands can be an issue where vacuum seal bags go, but it can be a good option to remove excess oxygen as well. Just be sure not to crush your cannabis as that will reduce quality.
I like to use food-grade buckets with GammaSeal lids. I just put a large paper grocery sack inside and fill the contents loosely if curing. I also like vacuum sealing, but only with premium FoodSaver bags and only for long-term storage. Ammo cans are also good, but I’m leery about the paint used.
Off-gassing
New food grade plastic buckets, ammo cans, cars, and many more things have a ‘new’ smell, have you ever noticed that? This is caused because just after manufacture, many materials will need to continue curing before they become stable. During this process you will need to allow them to air-out prior to use. Heat and steady air flow can help accelerate this process.
The processing of out-gassing new products can sometimes take a VERY long time. I’ve had a few buckets and ammo cans that I never ended up using to store my medicine in. They never seemed to lose that chemical smell and I refuse to use such items for storage of cannabis that I intend on consuming.
If you need to store something quickly, the ol’ fashioned canning jar is hard to beat. Otherwise, be thinking of these needs well in advance. I’ve already got some buckets being prepared for the fall harvest. I’m only 3 months early – but I might need every single day between now and then.
As a final note, you can use products like Boost or Boveda to help maintain the ideal humidity in your storage container. Many have used these products with good results and they can help to keep your medical cannabis from becoming either too dry, or too moist.
Happy Harvests!
— The Lit Farmer —
