There are a lot of reasons you might want to know how to weigh your cannabis without having to use a scale. First, it will help you avoid getting cheated by a dispensary. It can also give you a better understanding of the measurements of cannabis in general. In addition, it is useful for knowing how to determine the amount of THC that you have in an edible, so you know how much to take each time. You might think that you need to have a scale to determine the weight, but it is about more than that.
Why You Should Weigh Your Cannabis
Knowing how much you smoke every day can help you create a good budget for your hobby or medicinal needs. As a medical user, it is even more important to know how much you use. For instance, many doctors will prescribe a daily dose of marijuana, such as a couple of grams each day. You can ensure that you are getting the right dose each day and make sure that you buy more of it far enough ahead of time, so you do not run out.
Determining the Amount of THC or CBD in a Serving
When you weigh your stash, you can also estimate how much CBD or THC you are ingesting using the average percentage of THC and CBD in that strain. If you buy edibles, the seller will do the work for you and tell you how much THC is in each serving. But if you are making your own, then you might want to determine how much is there, so you can get the right dosage.
For example, let’s say you are using 5 grams of cannabis that has 15 percent THC to make oil or butter. You will need to get the average THC percentage of the strain you have. Your dispensary should give you this information, but you can also do an internet search if it is not marked on the packaging.
First, divide the THC percentage by 100. Fifteen percent divided by 100 is 0.15, which is the amount of THC in each gram.
Next, you can multiply this number by 1,000 to determine the number of milligrams of THC in each gram. 0.15 x 1,000 is 150 milligrams of THC.
You can now incorporate the amount of marijuana you are using in the oil or butter. You will do this by multiplying the weight you are using by the total milligrams of THC. That would be 5 grams x 150 milligrams, which is 750 milligrams of THC in total.
This means if you have a cup of butter or oil that has 5 grams of this strain of cannabis, there are 750 milligrams of THC per cup. If you use this entire cup in your recipe, divide 750 by the number of edibles that you got out of the batch. That will tell you how much THC is in each serving. For example, if you made 25 small brownies, you would have 30 milligrams of THC in each one.
Measuring Without a Scale
The easy way to measure your cannabis without using a scale is to use a ruler and a penny. It is a common way of measuring cannabis because it is so simple. Make sure that the penny was made after 1982 because it will weigh 2.5 grams. The ruler will be a balancing tool with the cannabis on one side and the penny on the other. If you have an eraser, you can use this as the pivot in the middle.
The DIY Method
If you don’t have the tools above, you could make your own scale. You will need scissors, a hanger, stringer, and small baskets or other containers. Now, drive a hole in the center of your hanger. The scissors can be helpful for this. Add two more holes. One should be in each corner, and they should be the same distance from the middle.
Cut the string in half and tie one half on each side using the holes you just made. You will tie another piece of string in the middle, so you can balance it. Then you can tie your baskets or other containers in the corners. Now, you can use your homemade scale to measure your cannabis.
Do Cellphone Apps Work?
You can find many different apps out there that claim they can weigh things that you put on the screen. However, their accuracy is not necessarily the best. Your phone does not have a scale inside of it, and the app tries to use your phone’s sensors to creatively guesstimate at a weight. These apps might be best left for when you want to have a fun party trick.
Should You Estimate the Weight?
You do not want to determine the weight of your marijuana by just looking at it and trying to make an educated guess. A certain number of grams of weed does not look the same all of the time. There are factors that might impact the size of your flower, such as moisture content, density, and age. That is why you should stay away from determining the weight just by looking at it. This is ineffective and also inefficient.
Properly Weighing Your Weed with a Scale
If you want to be technical when weighing your cannabis, you should have the right equipment. Usually, if you are serious about cannabis and measuring it more precisely, you will get a scale. It is vital to have a digital scale that goes to two decimal places or more. You should also have a dish or tray that you can place the marijuana on during the process.
Having even a small dish can help you avoid contacting the scale with the cannabis, which can keep the scale free of resin and clean. You will also need marijuana to measure.
How to Do It
Place the container that you are using for your marijuana on your scale first. That will help to neutralize the weight of your container, so that doesn’t get factored into the final number. This is called setting the tare. Now you can place the cannabis in your dish. The digital number should appear on your screen. This is the weight of the cannabis, which does not include the container.
Picking Out the Right Scale
Many experienced cannabis users choose to use a digital scale, which is still the most accurate method of weighing cannabis. You can find them at many different dispensaries, although you can find others online or in your local department store. As long as it has two or more decimal places, you should be able to get highly accurate measurements.
You can use a baker’s scale for a smaller amount, but a jeweler’s scale will give you higher precision. With many scales, you can get results in either metric or imperial results, which is good depending on where you live. You can even get commercially sized scales online for larger measurements.
Looking at Standard Cannabis Measurements
If you have already gotten some weed, you should have an understanding of the way that cannabis is standardly measured. It is usually sold in standard empirical measurements, even if it is not in the United States. The measurements include:
- A Gram
- An Eighth of an Ounce
- A Quarter of an Ounce
- A Half-Ounce
- An Ounce
- A Pound
How Much Cannabis Is in a Quarter?
Grams are often used to measure out even larger quantities of weed at a dispensary. This is why you need to understand how many grams one quarter of weed contains. To be highly precise, there are 7.0874 grams of cannabis in a quarter. This refers to a quarter of an ounce. However, it is much more common to round down when it comes to the marijuana industry, so there are generally around 7 grams in one quarter of marijuana.
It is a good idea to understand how grams and ounces relate to each of the most common cannabis measurements. To keep with the standards of the industry, it is rounded down to the nearest whole or half number.
An eighth of an ounce has 3.5 grams in it, while a quarter has seven grams in it. A half-ounce has 14 grams, while there are 28 grams in a full ounce. It can often be less expensive to purchase your cannabis in a slightly less standard amount. For example, you might get an eighth of an ounce instead of getting only 3 grams.
Another way that you can think of the number of grams in a quarter is to break that quarter into eighths. If one eighth has 3.5 grams in it, then you can multiple 3.5 grams by two to find two-eighths. That will give you the amount of cannabis in a quarter.
Can You Increase the Weight of Your Weed?
You might want to know how to make your weed weigh a bit more, even if you are not selling it. It can be helpful to know about the tricks that a less-reputable dispensary might use to try to shortchange the amount of cannabis you are actually getting.
The essential element that can make your stash weigh more is moisture. If you increase the moisture, you will increase its final weight. Some might put a damp cotton swab at the bottom of the bag. Others might put in a citrus peel, depending on the strain. It is easy to hide the scent if the strain already smells like citrus. This might rehydrate the cannabis and then be removed.
Unfortunately, this can lead to mildew and mold growing on your cannabis. Avoiding leaving too much moisture in the bag can prevent this, but not every seller is careful when doing this.
Getting What You Pay For
Make sure that you only purchase your cannabis from a reputable seller and look at its third-party lab reports to determine how trustworthy they are. If you go to a dispensary to get cannabis, whether that is a full ounce of your favorite strain or just 1 gram to test it out, you want to get what you are spending your hard-earned money on. The best way to make sure that you are getting the correct weight is to weigh your cannabis yourself.
Make sure that the budtender weighs out the cannabis where you can see it. That way, you can determine that you are getting the correct number of grams and that it is what you have asked for. If you can’t remember the gram conversions when you are at the dispensary, ask the budtender. They can tell you the number of grams in a half, quarter, eighth, or full ounce. Then, they will weigh it out, so you can see that cannabis is the right weight.
In some areas, you may have to buy your buds prepackaged. They may have been measured before they get to the dispensary. However, you will still want to make sure that you are getting every gram that you paid for, so compare the number on the package to what your scale at home says. This is also the case if you are purchasing it from an online dispensary.
Closing Thoughts
If you are going to use cannabis, you need to know how to weigh your marijuana, even if you do not have a scale. This skill is one that you can master easily. Trying to make your own scale is one option for doing this. However, remember that digital apps are not the most accurate.
Remember that as a cannabis user, you should arm yourself with good information, so you can make informed decisions on the right amount of cannabis to purchase. Now that you know how to measure weed without using a scale, you can walk into a physical dispensary or order some bud online and know just what you are getting.
