If you’ve ever smoked weed from a pipe, you’ve seen the black greasy gunk form inside it. This substance is called resin, and it’s the residue left behind after you smoke cannabis flower.
A similar substance forms inside your dab rig when you smoke concentrates, only instead of resin, this yellow/gold/brown sticky substance is called reclaim.
What is reclaim?
Reclaim is best described as the re-condensed form of cannabis concentrates left behind after a dab sesh. Think of it as the cold solid that remains from the hot oily liquid.
Reclaim coats the walls and base of your dab rig and dropdown, and also collects in the water. Cannabis extracts are oils, and as we all learned in second grade science class, oil and water do not mix.
Read more of Leafly’s guide to dabbing
Can you smoke reclaim?
Great question. The short answer is: Yes, it is safe to consume reclaim, and yes, you will get high from it. According to MCR Labs, a state-certified cannabis testing lab in Massachusetts, reclaim still has the main active cannabinoids that promote physiological changes.
The long answer is: Yes, you can get high from smoking reclaim, but it will not be the tastiest or most enjoyable experience because truly, reclaim is oily sloppy seconds with zero terpenes and no taste or smell.
Also, quality matters, so the higher the quality of the original concentrate, the higher the quality of the reclaim.
But overall, it’s still going to have a pretty gross taste as the terpenes were zapped during the original burn.
How to collect reclaim
There are couple ways to collect reclaim from your dab rig, both pretty simple.
The first way is to pour the water out of your rig and then pick out the little goldish clumps. Chances are there won’t be many as the majority of reclaim will be stuck to the inside of your device.
The second way to collect reclaim is to melt it out. All you need is a torch and some wax paper:
- Pour the water out of your rig
- Let it dry (you don’t want water in your dabs/reclaim)
- Remove the nail and hold the connector/dropdown over the wax paper
- Torch the reclaim enough to liquify, and it will drip onto the wax paper
Just don’t let it get too hot because you don’t want to burn out the cannabinoids.
After you melt the reclaim out, you may want to throw some isopropyl alcohol in your rig to make it extra clean.
Ways to use reclaim
There are three ways to use reclaim after collection: dab it, eat it, or trash it.
If you dab it, just be aware that it will not taste anywhere near as good as your original dab.
Since reclaim has already been decarboxylated, you can just straight up eat it as is and you’ll be fine. However, we suggest consuming reclaim alongside something flavorful like a handful of grapes or a Reese’s cup to mask that dirty hash taste. To completely avoid that taste you can also infuse food with reclaim.
If consuming reclaim doesn’t appeal to you, but having a squeaky clean bong does, you can also just collect your reclaim and toss it in the trash.
Dante Jordan contributed to this article.
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