How To Tell If Your Weed’s Gone Bad

Not sure if your weed has gone bad or not? Don't worry, there are ways to check before having to suffer through a bad buzz. Leafly offered up five helpful hints to know whether your marijuana is past its prime, starting with the sniff test. What your weed smells could be a big indicator of whether or not its time to get rid of your stash. Mildewy smells or chemical-heavy scents are possible red flags. But the website warns no smell at all could also be a sign that your weed has gone bad. Since weed takes in scents easily — including the smell of where you store it — Leafly suggests going down this list to see if it's actually a problem. Taking a closer look and actually feeling your weed is the next way to investigate its status. If it's crumbling to dust in your hands and it's not kief — the sticky crystals that you may find on a cannabis flower — it's time to let it go. Another sign that you shouldn't puff, but pass, is if you detect mold, often a white powdery substance, anywhere on your weed. Sound, believe it or not, can also help you figure out whether it's time to buy some new stuff. "Properly dried and cured flowers will audibly 'snap,'" the website explains. "Dried stems will also snap. These are good audio indicators that your buds are still within their moisture sweet spot." By contrast, bad weed will sound "crackly" in your hands or won't make any sound at all, a sign that it's too wet. If your weed passes all these tests, the last check is to actually smoke it. If it tastes good on first puff, then, it is. If it doesn't, well, it's probably time to throw it out. Leafly says, if handled properly, marijuana has an "indefinite shelf life," which means you could still be enjoying your favorite strain of weed a decade from now. As Food and Safety News pointed out, this is a good thing to be aware of, since at least five more states — Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada — are going to vote on legalization bills for both medicinal and recreational use this November. Right now, Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Washington state, and Washington, D.C., have legalized recreational, as well as medical, marijuana for adults (although in D.C., it still isn't legal to buy). That's a fact Miley Cyrus probably wishes she would have known recently.