How Many Milligrams Of THC Is In A Gram of Cannabis?

Now that medical cannabis is legal in Australia, and marijuana is even decriminalised in Canberra, ACT, people are looking to understand their cannabis better.

Whether you are taking CBD oil of cannabis flower (bud), its important to understand the ingredients and measurements for cannabis compounds.

A quick note for our readers, whether its marijuana, hemp, weed, dope, grass or ganja, its all the same cannabis plant and we will refer to these names interchangeably.

Do you know how many milligrams (mg) of THC is in your marijuana bud?

In this article, we are looking into cannabis measurements of THC dosage and how to measure the THC content in your weed.

Cannabis Measurements

Marijuana has always been sold on the black market until its medical legalisation in Australia (2016).

Cannabis consumers had no real method of understanding its potency and bought based on the weight of dry bud that included:

• one gram (1000mg)
• eighths (3.5 grams
• quarters (7 grams
• halves (14 grams)
• ounces (28 grams)

This is like buying alcohol by the millilitre or litre, but not really understanding the percentage or standard drink amount per bottle.

Now that people are becoming more informed about legal marijuana products, they are beginning to understand that the concentration of cannabinoids in the products related to its potency.

The most popular cannabinoids are CBD and THC. These cannabinoids are measured in milligrams (mg) or percentages.

Where previously you would be one gram of dry weed, now you can buy one gram of weed with a 30% THC potency.

You can now buy CBD and THC oil per mg. A bottle of Little Green Pharma’s Classic 20:5 comes with 20mg of CBD and 5mg of THC.

Instead of grams, the potency of edibles is measured in milligrams—or one-thousands of a gram. Edible potencies can range anywhere from 5 milligrams of THC to 500 milligrams, and higher.

How many mg of thc in a gram of weed?

As marijuana (cannabis) has become legal, for medical in some regions and personal/recreational in others, the way to measure CBD and THC in your bud has changed.

Previously people would lean on the rule that one gram of weed has 1000mg of THC.

The truth is that it is hard to measure, especially on black market weed, as your don’t know the estimated THC content expected in your weed.

Most marijuana plants have between 10% and 30% of THC in their bud. This then means that your one gram of cannabis has anywhere between 100 and 300 milligrams of THC.

You can then can then roughly measure how much THC you want when preparing edibles, vaping, bongs, or simply smoking a joint.

The other factors include how your consume the one gram of weed as joints waste 40-50% of the THC while smoking. Up to 50% of your 100-300 milligrams of THC in your gram of weed can be lost due to smoking a joint.

How do I tell the percentage of THC in marijuana?

The most accurate way is to use a potency device to test the amount of THC or CBD per gram of cannabis flower. An example of this is the TCHECK cannabis potency device.

This isn’t hugely popular in Australia as we are still adapting to the marijuana being legally available, and most manufacturers list the percentage of THC and CBD on each product.

There are ways to understand the THC potency in your weed at home with a little estimating, we cover this next.

How can I test my weed’s THC potency at home without a particular device?

Just like humans, every cannabis plant is different, and its characteristics are depending on:

• genetics
• environment it was raised in
• its diet and nutrients

There is no real easy way to understand how much THC is in your weed at home, but we can always estimate!

Raw cannabis flowers have an average of 10-25% THC in Australia. Most marijuana cultivated outside of a commercial facility generally has 10-15%.

This means you can potentially extract 100 to 300 mg of THC per 1 gram of dry cannabis flower.

So if you are looking to make oil, tinctures, or edibles, and want to measure the dosage, you can make the assumption that your weed has a 15% THC potency.

So if you are looking to make 100ml CBD and THC oil with a 20% THC potency, then you may only need 1-2 grams (1000-2000mg) of weed with a potency of 10-20%.

How do I extract the full amount of THC from cannabis flowers?

You don’t always get all the THC in your cannabis flower.

There are different methods of consuming cannabis, and some are more efficient than others.

If you are making CBD and THC oil or tinctures from cannabis, you may be able to extract 60-80% of the cannabinoids (CBD and THC) from the flower.

If you are smoking or vaping, you may be burning 50-70% of the THC.

This is also another reason why people who are confident with smoking or vaping weed, may be surprised when eating edibles.

If you smoke one gram of cannabis flower, you may only intake 30-50% of the THC. If you are taking oil drop or eating edibles, you may be intaking up to 70% of the THC from that one gram.

Example Of Measuring Your Cannabis THC Tolerance

An example is someone growing cannabis in Canberra where it is decriminalised, and after doing their best to extract the flowers and dry them, they want to understand their potency to ensure safe use.

After testing or estimating, they discover that their marijuana has 15% THC potency per gram.

They are used to smoking their cannabis and have one to two grams (90-150mg of THC intake) per session.

With confidence in the THC tolerance, they decide to make weed brownie or gummies edibles in Canberra, Australia and use the same 2 grams of weed that they are used to.

The only difference is that the THC intake from 2 grams in one portion of brownies is now up to 210mg.

Conclusion: Can I Measure THC In My Weed?

Historically Australians have been used to buying weed per grams, quarter, half or ounce.

Now we are able to legally buy cannabis per gram of flower, a millilitre of liquid or per milligram of THC and CBD concentrate.

You can test the THC potency of marijuana at home with a special device. This is more popular in the USA and Canada, as they are a few steps ahead of us with cannabis legalisation.

There are ways to measure the THC content in your weed at home with a little estimation. Most marijuana in Australia has between 10-15% THC potency per gram (1000mg).

It’s important to understand that smoking weed is not efficient and can waste up to 70% of the THC in each gram.

When switching over to a more efficient method, such as oils or edibles, these can be stronger and more potent per gram as they generally only waste 20% of the THC in each gram.

The moral of the story is to think smart about cannabis consumption, understand your limits and if you switch from smoking weed to edibles, understand that the potency will be a lot higher.

The Research, Science & Evidence

How to measure and calculate a THC dosage for edibles - high times.

Standard THC units in milligrams (mg) - Wiley Online.

How to measure THC per serving for brownies and edibles - thecannabist.co.

Cannabis dosage calculator - how much thc is in my marijuana.

Cannabis measurements and THC in milligrams guide - PLPC.