Can you smoke old weed? Science reveals the answer

If you’re looking for answers online as to whether old marijuana will still get you high, you’ll probably come away more confused than before. The internet is decidedly conflicted when it comes to the pros and cons of smoking old weed, and even the science on this topic can be unreliable at times.

But if you find yourself in possession of some very old weed, we have good news and bad news.

Does weed get old?

Old weed can’t spoil like expired milk or cheese — smoking it won’t make you sick. But that also means you can’t always tell off the bat whether it’s still any good.

One thing to look out for is whether the weed has lost its scent. Pot is a plant, so even if it doesn’t go bad, it does degrade over time. Good weed smells like weed or, if you’re in college, that skunk that keeps getting into the crawl space of your dorm. Older weed loses its scent as aromatic terpene oils drop in potency and the THC slowly degrades. Also, it will crumble in your hands.

On the other hand, if you accidentally left your stash somewhere damp, it may have grown some mold or fungus. If you see little white spots or you smell anything other than weed on your weed, throw it out. Old pot won’t hurt you, but mold will make you pretty damn sick.

Do weed brownies get old?

Old edibles, however, are a different story. If you baked your pot into some brownies a few months ago and forgot about them in the back of your fridge, you should probably steer clear. There’s nothing special about old weed that you baked into brownies or other food.

But get this, food goes bad after a while.

So as far as getting high goes, you should treat your expired edibles like any other weed, though if it’s been in your fridge the whole time the THC might not have broken down as rapidly. The only thing to watch out for is if whatever you concocted has gone bad as well.

For what it’s worth, you can avoid this whole mess by just not leaving leftovers.