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Stickywater:

"As far as I understand the issue is that solid THC crystals can't be absorbed straight into the blood stream. I guess our body just can't metabolize it and passes it straight through. Keep in mind that in biology the slightest change in the atomic structure of a molecule can completely change its path through our bodies. Going on hypothesis alone I'd assume that like certain molecules (I believe cellulose? I could be wrong on that) simply aren't metabolized and just irritate our bowels so we poo. Although when you heat the THC it goes back into a gaseous state making it easier to absorb (molecules moving more freely and at a faster rate making them able to go through chemical bonds/reactions faster and easier,in the instance of smoking, where the THC vapor is inhaled and absorbed through the lungs). Assuming the statement about THC simply irritating the bowels or just not being metabolized in its natural solid state is true then that would mean that it would have to be taken out of this solid state and the chemical would have to be altered in some way. As smoking suggests, heating the molecules to accelerate them and make them more ready to perform bonds and reactions is one way. Another way would be to join them to another molecule that would allow them to be carried into the bloodstream rather than simply passed through the intestine and out the pooper. Of course this brings us to binding the THC with fat. As we all should hopefully know, heat speeds up chemical reactions and makes molecules more readily activated (I'm assuming that's not always the case but generally speaking of course) so therefore the heat would be required as a catalyst to seperate the THC molecules so they could bond to the fat.

Purely a hypothesis, but it does provide an explanation. "

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minesstudent said:
You need heat to convert some of the chemicals in the bud into THC. Heat doesn't "activate" the THC, its already active. Using a lighter converts it, as does baking it. If you just eat it, a lot of that chemical (I don't know its name) remains. It doesn't get you high.

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