You get your stash out of the dingy cupboard you threw it in a month ago and get ready for the night to come. The flower doesn’t look that appealing, a little dark at some places, but who cares, right? It smells weird and as you smoke it, the taste puts you off. An hour from now, you could very well be in the emergency room.
Why, you may ask? Cause you just smoked some moldy weed.
Buying good quality, high potency weed with your MMJ card isn’t enough, you have to take proper care of it if you don’t want it to go bad quickly. But how do you know if the weed has gone bad? And if you know, can you fix it? What are some ways to ensure your stash doesn’t get furry? What are the side effects of consuming this type of weed?
Let’s find the answers to these questions.
Table of Contents
How do you recognize Moldy Weed?
Moldy weed has some obvious giveaways if you’ve smoked pot before but if you’re new to cannabis smoking you might not catch on just yet. That’s exactly why we’ve given you a list of things to look for, especially if you left your weed in some dingy corner rather than storing it properly.
The Appearance
For good quality flowers, the look says enough. The glistening trichomes and bright colored flowers are proof of quality. However, when your stash starts to go bad, it loses that magnificent appearance too.
Even if you don’t find white furry growth on your flower just yet, look for dark spots across the trichomes, cobwebs or dark fuzzy growth that wasn’t previously there. Darkened roots in weed is also a tell tale sign of weed that’s going bad.
However, this growth can be a little hard to find in the beginning, especially by the naked eye. If you have a UV light laying around (like any normal person has) you can go ahead and look at your weed through it to find any unwanted growth.
The Aroma
When we talk about weed, there is a signature smell we associate it with. And that’s what we look for when buying even the tiniest gram of it. So the change in smell shouldn’t be too hard to tell.
Usually if your weed starts smelling like sweat, urine or any off-putting odor that’s unlike weak, chances are that the stash has gone bad.
The Taste
Similar to how the aroma works, the taste too gives away the quality of weed being consumed. Rid of its general spicy and earthy flavor, molded weed could sometimes taste like hay. We’re just hoping you didn’t have to find out the weed has gone bad this way. Because not only is it going to taste awful, you’re also likely to get very sick after smoking it.
Preventing Weed From Going Bad
You didn’t spend a few hundred bucks to get that high quality weed just to let it turn to ruins. So when you buy some first-rate loose flowers with your MMJ card, make sure you store it properly too.
Mold usually grows when your stash is stored in moist, warm and humid areas. That in itself is clue enough. Don’t store your stash in moist, warm and humid areas. Instead, make sure that the container you use is free from all moisture and preferably just the size you need to store the flower. Store the container in a dry place, away from any source of moisture or heat/light.
Weed that accidently gets wet can be dried and used immediately to avoid any growth.
Mold on weed works similar to mold on vegetables and fruits. The more exposed they are to humid areas, the quicker they end up in the garbage can.
Can You Fix Your Moldy Weed?
No, you can’t.
Sure, you can remove the layer of mold that’s visible to you but that can lead to 2 things.
Firstly, there is a possibility that there is still some mold on the weed that you just cannot see. When you smoke this flower, you’ll still end up with mold in your lungs. Even without being a science major, we’re sure mold in the lungs doesn’t sound too healthy to you.
Secondly, if you try to cut out all the moldy parts or scrape off the mold, you’ll end up removing all the trichomes that contain THC. You’ll lose out on the most important cannabinoid of that flower only to end up smoking some still-moldy weed.
Side Effects of Smoking Moldy Weed
If, even after all these red flags, you end up smoking some of the moldy weed, you’ll end up with white fur in your lungs.
It is crucial that you carefully administer your cannabis consumption, especially if your stash could have been exposed to mold. Not only does the mold make your weed smell and taste bad, it can also prove to be extremely harmful for you.
Inhaling the mold, a type of aspergillus can lead to fungal infections in the lungs and the development of aspergillosis. While we breathe in these types of particles on a regular basis without getting infected, smoking its direct source can be very damaging. The infection can lead to high fever, breathing problems, chest pains and bloody coughs.
In some cases patients can have allergic reactions while in more critical situations the consumer might end up in the ER.
Lasting Words
We’ve already established a few things regarding moldy weed.
It’s appearance changes. You can notice white mold, black growth, spores, darkened roots etc.
The smell and taste become unappealing and very un-weed-like.
Mold grows when the weed is stored in humid and moist areas, you can prevent mold by storing it in airtight containers.
You can prevent mold from growing but once the mold starts growing, you cannot fix your weed.
Continuing to smoke moldy weed can lead to lung infections, which can be both mild and critical. It’s better to avoid consuming a product that has gone bad.