Everything Ohio Cannabis Consumers Should Understand About Live Resin (and Ohio's Top Live Resin Brands)

Here’s everything patients need to know about live resin, a relatively new medical cannabis consumption method seeing increasing popularity.

What is Live Resin?

Live resin is a concentrate produced from flash-frozen, fresh cannabis plants. It is renowned for its prominent flavors, high quality, and medicinal potency.

More of its flavonoids and terpenes are preserved because live resin is extracted from newly harvested cannabis plants that have never been dried or cured. Thus, live resin offers a more delicious and aromatic experience, perfect for medical cannabis connoisseurs and new customers interested in the plant’s more effective medicinal side.

How is Live Resin Made?

Making live resin encapsulates the essence of live cannabis plants; the plants are frozen as soon as they are harvested and spared from drying and curing. Generally, fresh cannabis is frozen with liquid nitrogen or placed in a dry ice freezer. 

Uncured cannabis is kept frozen for up to 36 hours and is thawed immediately before the extraction process when put through a chilled solvent, such as butane or propane. Next, the solvents are evaporated and purged at a low temperature using a vacuum oven, leaving only the pure extract.

After the extraction process, manufacturers can choose to restore any lost terpenes or cannabinoids, depending on their product specifics. However, because the live resin process preserves the heart and soul of live cannabis, adding scent and flavor is not necessary. 

Producing live resin requires professional manufacturing equipment. Skilled manufacturers follow strict protocols to guarantee that live resin is made safely, and they thoroughly test their products to ensure no residual solvents. Therefore, amateur growers and extractors should not attempt to produce live resin (you should leave it to professionals like us).

A Brief History of Live Resin

The extraction revolution is real! 

And nowhere is this more evident than with live resin, the history of which traces back to two innovative minds. In 2013, cultivator William “Kind Bill” Fenger and lab founder Jason “Giddy Up” Emo melded their minds to produce the world’s first-ever live resin batch.

Their experiment continued with Fenger and Emo refining the process over 24 hours. They knew they had something special at the end of their lab work.

Why Does Live Resin Skip the Drying and Curing Process?

Flash freezing cannabis right after it is harvested allows the plant to retain its terpenes—the aroma and effects powerhouses of the bud. When dried and cured, air, heat, and light significantly diminish marijuana’s signature terpenes and flavor. Trichomes, which house these valuable terpenes, are also damaged by the persistent handling required for drying and curing. 

Skipping the drying and curing process allows trichomes and terpenes to remain intact from the live plant to the dab rig or pen. In addition, live resin’s natural scents and tastes make for a gratifying medicinal experience full of vitality and vibrance. 

What Does Live Resin Look Like?

Live resin varies in color from white to dark yellow to amber and exists in various forms, including sugar, badder, budder, sap, wax, and more. 

Its appearance depends on the strain, extraction process, and post-extraction alterations. A sample of live resin might be compared in texture to raw honey mixed with syrup, melting sugar crystals, or caviar, and it is undoubtedly more delicious! 

Like its concentrate counterparts, live resin is super sticky and malleable. Some live resin concentrates are looser than others as looseness increases with terpenes—the looser, the more terpenes, the more aromatic the experience. 

While live resin can come in several slightly different forms and textures, it will always produce the same effect—a potent medicinal experience.

Does Live Resin Make You High?

Creating live resin conserves its intense aroma and allows for pure potency.

Live resin is a high-quality concentrate, so consuming live THC resin can create a potent medicinal experience. Depending on the concentrate’s strain, variety, and preparation, live resin’s THC can range from 65 to 95 percent.  

As with any potent cannabis product, low and slow is the name of the game. The live resin experience can be pretty intense; even seasoned patients are urged to build up to their desired experience.

What Are The Benefits Of Live Resin?

Everyone in the medical cannabis chain, from growers and cultivators to patients, can reap the benefits of live resin. 

Connoisseurs and new patients can bask in live resin’s vivid flavors and aromas and its strength—a little goes a long way, meaning more medicinal impact for your buck. 

On a deeper level, high-quality concentrates like live resin can enhance therapeutic benefits. 

The chemical profile of the live cannabis plant is kept intact so that patients can experience the full entourage effect. Cannabinoids, flavonoids, terpenes, and other principal compounds work synergistically to deliver medicinal benefits.

How Do You Consume Live Resin?

Dabs are the most common way to consume live resin, but you can also vape or mix live resin into edibles.

Dabbing: Live resin is most often consumed via dabbing. A dab tool with a spoon or scoop shape is recommended to dab resin, as the concentrate is gooey and dense. You’ll also need other necessary equipment: a dab rig, nail, and torch. Once your setup is good to go, get ready for a memorable medicinal experience.  

Live resin’s terpene-forward nature calls for low temp dabbing. If your nail is too hot, you risk vaporizing the extraordinary flavors and scents of the medicine. On the flip side, if your nail temperature is too low, you might inadequately activate the resin’s potent cannabinoids and terpenes. 

Still, there is a sweet spot, somewhere between 315 and 450 degrees, to get the most out of your live resin dabs. With a bit of trial and error, you’ll perfect the temperature and find your optimal zone.

Vaping: Vaping live resin is simple and effective. Instead of a vape pen, you’ll need a dab pen designed for cannabis concentrates. Like dabbing, you’ll want a dab tool with a spoon or scoop shape when loading the live resin into your dab pen. 

Set the temperature and draw in some of that medicinal live resin mist once you’ve scooped the desired amount into the pen oven or bowl. 

Vaping with Carts: If scooping splendidly sticky concentrate into a dab pen isn’t your thing, don’t worry! You can utilize pre-packed cartridges to vape live resin. 

Live resin cartridges are just like vape oil cartridges in that they can be connected to a battery, heated, and inhaled. The only difference is that the cart is filled with rich medicinal live resin instead of a more typical concentrate. 

Edibles: Making edibles from live resin or other concentrates allows medical cannabis chefs and bakers to skip the tedious hassle of extracting THC for use in cannabutter or canna-oil. Pre-made edibles are also up and coming on the market, and they are a superb choice for anyone who likes to ingest their medicine. 

Since live resin is highly potent, it is essential to portion and dose any edibles created with the concentrate properly. Again, low and slow wins the day. 

How Do You Store Live Resin?

An air-tight, light-proof container is live resin’s preferred habitat. 

Ensure that your live resin is kept in a cool place where it’s not exposed to moisture. Open-air, light, and heat can cause terpenes to degrade and the resin to harden, which is not optimal. 

To preserve the freshness and fullness of your live resin, store it at room temperature or below, preferably in a glass or silicone jar. Then, when you’re done using your live resin for the night, tuck it away safely and securely, and maybe even sing it a little lullaby as it drifts off to sleep.

How Much Does Live Resin Cost?

Live resin fetches a higher premium than other medical cannabis concentrates. However, its intricate production process, high THC content, and robustness make the cost worth it. Plus, because it is so powerful, a little bit is all that’s necessary to feel the full medicinal effects. So, in the long run, you will most likely consume less than you will of other products, and the cost will balance out.

What Live Resin Products are Available in Ohio?

With cannabis legal for medicinal use in Ohio, there’s plenty to choose from. The state of Ohio’s array of available cannabis products includes dry flower, oils, tinctures, topicals, and extracts, including live resin.

As for specific cannabis product brands available in Ohio, it’s a list that includes:

Lighthouse Sciences believes in the therapeutic potential of cannabis. This belief drives us to champion all of our cannabis products that impart holistic ingenuity on the road to wellness.