I take some umbrage with the picture to the left and its prominent "poison" label. True, at high doses the contents of this bottle were probably poisonous. However, anyone who died from drinking this solution died because of its alcohol content and not because of the cannabis.
Tictures are essentially alcohol extracts of an herb, in this case Cannabis. The cannabinoids in cannabis are hydrophobic and therefore soluble in alcohol. This allows the cannabinoids to be readily extracted from the plant by soaking the leaves and bud in alcohol. Separation then of the liquid alchohol (with cannabinoids disolved) from the plant mater provides one with a basic cannabis "tincture."
Tinctures are a convenient way to prepare and store herbal extracts but they are also useful medicinals in and of themselves because they are suitable for subligual administration. To understand the importance of sublingual medicine delivery we need to discuss a bit of anatomy. When a medicine is taken orally and swallowed it first enters the stomach and intestines and then is absorbed into the blood. Once in the blood the first place the medicine goes to is the liver where it is subjected to modification and degredation by the liver's enzymes. We call this "first pass." When medicines are taken orally they must first pass through the liver before they are delivered to other parts of the body. This is especially important for cannabinoids because cannabinoids are degraded by the liver's P450 enzymes. By contrast when medicines are introduced into the blood vessels below the tongue they enter directly into the systemic blood flow and bypass the liver's enzymes.
To administer a tincture sublingually one places a few drops of the solution below the tongue and allows it a to absorb. In this way the medicine passes directly into the systemic blood supply. But be forewarned. Caution needs to be observed in taking cannabinoids in this way. Tinctures can contain very concentrated mixtures of cannabinoids and sublingual administration gives rapid absorption and direct systemic delivery. In medicine we say "start low and go slow." A couple of drops will do. Trust me.
