Cannabis Storage – Could Your Safe be Ruining Your Product?

Like a fine wine cellar or whiskey barrel, cannabis is best when aged in a cool, dark place. Heat can dry out essential oils and too much moisture can cause dangerous bacteria and mold to grow.

Cannabis and Heat
Organic matter thrives in temperatures between 77° and 86° F, so keep your product stored below this temperature to prevent mildew and other molds from growing. Additionally, extra heat can dry out the cannabinoids and terpenes that take months to develop. When the plant material and essential oils get too dry from extra heat, it can result in a harsh and unpleasant smoke. Furthermore, warm air facilitates more moisture than cool air, which leads us to our next consideration…

Cannabis and Humidity
Keep your cannabis stored in a controlled environment with the proper relative humidity (RH) ranges. Humidity control is key to keeping mildew and other mold impurities away from your cannabis. Generally, in order to keep cannabis product at its freshest, store product between 59% and 63% RH  to maintain and enhance color, consistency, aroma, and flavor. Mold occurs when medicine is exposed to humidity of 65% and above.
Worried your product may already have mold? To check, break the product under a bright light and look for webbing similar to moldy bread. If mold is present, the product should be discarded

Cannabis and Gun Safes
Remember, in addition to being an unacceptable means of secure storage, gun safes are notorious for higher humidity and warmer temperatures, which may decrease the quality of your product.
Many gun safes are lined with a type of wallboard that contains moisture, so it's only natural that there could be a problem. Safes located near a body of water or where plants are located are even more subject to moisture collecting inside.
Humidity can reach 65-70% or more inside of gun safes and temperature can increase from 8 – 10 degrees compared to the outside.

Cannabis and Security
Instead of a gun safe, store your product in a TL rated safe. TL rated safes are not only cooler and dryer, they are also an appropriate means of securely storing the high-value product.
A TL rated safe has been designed and tested to withstand an attack for a period of time. For example, a TL15 rated safe is designed to withstand an attack for more than 15 minutes, a TL30 is designed for 30 minutes etc. Gun safes do not have a TL rating because they are designed for: GUNS.
When designing your security plan, remember that properly protecting your cash, assets, and the quality of your inventory can spell the difference between being profitable and being out of business.