Posted on 05/06/2014 12:08:06 AM PDT by Olog-hai
The opening months of Colorado’s first-in-the-nation recreational marijuana industry have seen a rise in fiery explosions and injuries as pot users try to make the drug’s intoxicating oil in crude home-based laboratories.
Since Jan. 1, when sales began, the state’s only certified adult burn center has treated 10 people with serious injuries they suffered while making hash oil, compared with 11 in 2013 and one in 2012.
Law enforcement and fire officials, meanwhile, are grappling with how to respond, as the questionable legality of the process has made it difficult to punish amateur chemists. Some prosecutors are charging them with felonies, while others say hash oil production is protected under a provision of the new legal pot law. …
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
What’s worse is that “butane hash oil” is often abbreviated “BHO”. The Choom Gang rides again.
I had not really heard of hash oil so I went and read the article - seems they use it for a more potent high. I was hoping someone might have been trying to distill (if that’s the word) it for a more medicinal reason - say for an additive to a rub for pain killing or something. I have heard for so long that cannaboids have great potential for new pain killing drugs - surely the new laws would allow for further research in this area - that is if that was not just BS from those who like to smoke it!
Ummm ... it is simple distillation, but I suppose you have to ensure adequate ventilation - assuming that vapors are flammable. It ain’t rocket science ...
I had a distillation business in college, distilling cedar oil for the biology department. Extremely pure cedar oil was used for use with microscopes, as it has excellent refractory properties. Place a drop on a microscope slide over the specimen ...
Made $15/ounce ...
Looks like solvent extraction to me rather than distillation. Using butane as the solvent is hazardous in any case; quite flammable.
Hadn’t read the article b4 posting.
Butane? Talk about STUPID !!!
Use the universal solvent - H2O ...
Stuff the pot in a large flask, add distilled H2O, heat, run thru an H2O-cooled condensing tube, and collect in a beaker. Oil floats on top of the H2O - pipette the oil out of the beaker. Have to ensure to add H2O to the flask as it evaporates.
Exactly like making moonshine ...
It may take longer than using butane, but MUCH safer, also only costs about $30 for the lab equipment ...
Water’s not a universal solvent. It doesn’t dissolve non-polar compounds.
I would agree with you...a typical guy with some basic science knowledge and enthusiasm...can run a distillation system in his garage. Course, there are some general rules on ventilation and flames in the garage...which I suspect in this case, were violated. The same is true of safe ways to manufacture meth, which most people refuse to do in a safe manner....and you end up with folks doing in bathtubs and using some lousy sanitation habits.
Just proves what I already said earlier in these type of threads. Legalizing does nothing to stop the illegal drug trade. Governments will set limits on drug potency and people will find ways to make more extreme versions.
All legalizing any of these drugs do is make it more likely others will try them and get hooked. The the cycle of needing more for the same high, then repeat the vicious cycle.
Nothing is 100%, but water is referred to as the universal solvent since it dissolves more substances than any other liquid ...
You wan to rethink that sentence?
This dumb ass blow the side of an apartment out 6-9 months ago. The taxpayers and owners are the ones paying for the damage.
Another source for info would be to read about the stock symbol GWPH. I can't remember the name of the company, but they are working on several chemicals removed from pot. They are excited about a treatment for MS right now. The stock looks risky, but maybe they will hit on something, no pun intended.
Butane is cheap, readily available, and very pure. It would make a great solvent for extracting the very hydrophobic THC. The problem is that these are stoned idiots doing the extraction.
I live east of Seattle.
The miscreants are three former Microsoft employees who were “cooking” in their apartment.
After the explosion, which moderately injured and burned the three guys, an entire section of the complex caught on fire.
An elderly woman, the first female Mayor of Bellevue, WA, fell and fractured her hip trying to evacuate.
She died a few weeks later, from respiratory and bladder infection issues, which is quite common for elderly females after hip fractures.
Marijuana will be legal in Seattle by July according to the latest estimate.
I think King County handles major criminal cases like this.
Bellevue PD has asked for a murder charge against the main perp.
The outcome is iffy.
The perp has a history of schizophrenia.
Plus, a strict reading of Bellevue Code actually seems to allow the manufacture of hash oil inside a residence.
It would be great to see it’s potential be realized. Yes I have heard some claim that it can cure cancer when ingested. When my niece was younger she used to smoke it and parroted the line “If God hadn’t meant us to smoke it then why did he put it here?”. I always responded that smoking it may be a misuse and we may find with it’s properties it is useful for many things in the future - besides rope and clothing which it was used for before being banned. I would like to be proven right in my lifetime! :)
Thanks for the info!
“Hash oil explosions rise with legalized marijuana”
See my Comment #16.
A Bellevue, WA explosion may result in a murder charge.
An elderly former Bellevue mayor died two weeks after fracturing her hip trying to evacuate.
There are really no enforced safety codes at the moment.
A recent survey of edible marijuana in Colorado found E. Coli, pesticides, herbicides, fertilizer, and high levels of certain metals.
I don’t intend to go that way my friend but thanks for your concern - I am just hopeful that the plant may be used in a way that safely benefits people. I get arthritis in hands and feet plus a bad back - I noticed that there are some topical creams that are supposed to have some effect on pain without any psychotropic effect at all. I doubt they are available here in Australia or if they are they might be hard to find and not produced under any great scrutiny - but who knows the near future may change things.
Mel
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