The Current Buzz Newspaper VOL 2 ISSUE 7 | Page 18

The Current Buzz Vol 2 Issue 7
Page 18
The BLUNT Truth
your medical cannabis primer:
extraction, extracts, and hash oil by Amy Addams
extraction with a solvent. Of all the
processes, only ONE we feel is ‘newbie-
safe’; the Rosin Technique (below). We’ll
give you a little knowledge of the others to
make you dangerous, so please don’t use
it.
Physical Extraction Methods:
We promised to teach you more about
this new world of Medical Marijuana (MM
to save space). Today’s lesson is about
EXTRACTION: what it is, why it’s done,
how it’s done, the expected results, and
how the resulting product is used.
1. Ice Hash: ice is mixed with flower
and water and filtered through fine
screens where the resin is collected
and dried.
2. Drying and Curing: hash is made
when dried and cured buds are
run through a screen where the
trichomes are collected. We’ve
simplified this a lot, but generally,
the screening process of banging
the screens or rolling the buds in a
tumbler (called a ‘pollen collector’) is
called keifing.
3. Finger Hash (or Charas): this gets
its name from the sticky brown goo
you get on your hands when you trim
buds. If you put some (clean) latex
gloves on when you trim buds, then
freeze the gloves for 15 minutes, the
resin on them will harden and can be
gathered into a ball of hash to use.
Extraction, simply put, is the process of
pulling the waxes, oils and compounds such
as trichomes, terpenes and cannabinoids
from the MM flower via mechanical
Chemical Extraction Methods:
or chemical processes. Most of what
extraction takes out of the bud are the oils
1. Alcohol Extraction: soak buds in
that protect the plant from animals eating
high-proof ethanol, then allow to dry
it or provides a sunscreen to the DNA in
either naturally or over a low heat
the seeds. All of these oils are trichomes.
allows the residue to dry and stick to
If a female plant is pollinated, it will stop
container (glass is recommended).
producing trichomes and use its energy on
This can be dangerous as alcohol
growing seeds and reproducing.
fumes can become flammable or
explosive.
Generally, there are two broad categorical
2. Rosin Technique: this is one
types of extraction: physical extraction
technique you can use at home,
and resin head collection OR chemical
using a hair straightening iron,
parchment paper, and cannabis.
Fold parchment paper around your
MM and use the straightening iron
to squeeze and heat the oils out of
the cannabis. The oils will form a
halo around the bud onto the paper
(they won’t absorb into parchment).
Scrape oil and use in vaping, shatter
rigs or food.
Now, this is where I get lost. All the dang
NAMES! Most of the extraction methods
net very similar results, with the look being
more what defines the name of the resulting
product than anything else.
What many of the names define are butane
hash oil or BHO, CO2 oil or hydrocarbon
extracts for our tech readers, but for the
canna-savvy folks, shatter, wax, budder, oil,
honeycomb, sap, pull-and-snap, dabs, vape
oil, tincture, hash, CBD oil, and concentrate.
What I found was this: what your resulting
extract looks like will be its definition. A
clear, hard extract will be named shatter,
but a cloudy, soft extract will be named wax.
It’s not nearly as complex now that you
know how the extracts get their names, eh?
So, the naming ceremony happens after the
extract is born, like waiting to name a baby
Ginger, or Ebony or Blanca. You can’t use
names like those until you know the color
scheme.
If the experiment with the straightening iron
laid out your life’s path like a vision, there
are plenty of companies out there looking
for knowledgeable people who know
the science and have the artist’s touch.
You’ll want to read up beyond this before
submitting your resume, but you could be
the next bud whisperer. Make sure you tell
your employer that The Current Buzz gave