Hey folks! Welcome back to another trip down the smoke-filled rabbit hole that is learning about cannabis. This week I’ve been taking a hard look at cannabis sterilization processes and stumbled across the latest (and possibly greatest) method for cannabis sterilization: Cold Plasma sterilization.
That sounds fancy!
Right?! It is quite the neat little process. Now to review, many producers sterilize their flower prior to it being sent out to retailers to be purchased by you, the consumer. There are growers – particularly of the craft variety – who take pride in growing methods that don’t require any form of post grow sterilization, but there are far more who use irradiation as a means to ensure that they’ll pass all health regulation testing and meet consumer standards for mold free weed. As discussed in an earlier post, irradiation of cannabis is not nearly as scary as it sounds and is a process that is perfectly safe for humans and cannabis. That being said, I’ve played enough Fallout and watched enough Godzilla movies to be inherently leery of my cannabis being bombarded with radiation, so the idea of a method that produces the same results without instigating my inner desire to purchase a Geiger counter. Enter the cold plasma method.
How does it work?
First thing we need to establish is the definition of some of the terms we’ll be using. First and foremost, what is plasma? Plasma is often referred to as the 4th state of matter, being a state of matter that doesn’t comfortably fit into the other three categories of solid, liquid or gas. If you’ve ever looked up at the sun in the sky and wondered exactly what it’s made of, plasma is the answer. So, how does the same matter that keeps the lights on help us sterilize our weed?
Cold Plasma (which is really room temperature) has no detrimental effect on humans, but is quite capable of wreaking havoc upon the cells of microbes like mold. It breaks down the cell walls of the mold, irreversibly damaging its microbial DNA thus insuring that the undesired microbes die a painful death without ever having a chance to harm your lungs.
Damn…that’s pretty metal.
Rock on buddy. Using star stuff to clean your weed is some pretty next level stuff, and indicative of the fact that we’re living in a seriously science fiction-y age. As more research and technology is directed towards cannabis, we’re going to continue to see some pretty crazy innovations that will help to keep us healthy while letting us continue to get our groove on.
Want to learn more about cold plasma? Check out the website for the Cold Plasma Group, located right down the way in Kingston Ontario!
