as an active solvent, meaning that it dissolves completely at low temperatures thus reducing the amount of toxic residue left over in the hash. Unfortunately, N-butane is only sold by gas companies, forcing the unknowing, typical at-home“ hash blowers” to use to the more toxic isobutane instead, thus leaving dangerous residuals in the hash.
Finally, CO 2 extracted oil. This proves to be a safer method than BHO yet perhaps more effective in retrieving the most beneficial terpenes, which are in this case, medicated plant resins. CO 2 dissolves much better than butane too and is less harmful to humans. CO 2 requires more equipment and expensive products. Not exactly practical in most cases. You wont find anybody blowing CO 2 hash in their back yard.
The quality of the product goes back all the way to the plants.“ Whatever you put on your plants will come out in the product,” said Verzura, which is why RiverRock uses 100 percent organic freeze dried trim. Anybody trying to make a quality product should start from the beginning.
RiverRock created their method of a heatless extraction process. They use a vac purge system, meaning they“ purge the butane out and use a pressurize system to crystalline the compounds,” according to Verzura.“ We invented our process so we could control and ensure a medical grade product.”
If concentrates aren’ t purged correctly, harmful residuals are left over for the lungs. Be sure to investigate where your meds come from. Most dispensaries will confirm their methods for the patients, at least the ones doing it right.
The Ugly Most of this section refers to how incredibly dangerous blowing butane hash is. As the trend of“ dabbing” rises so are the explosion rates caused by pure ignorance and blatant disregard for the laws of chemistry.
Butane is a colorless, odorless and highly explosive gas. Once released into the air, the tiniest spark or static flare up can cause an explosion. Not only that but inhaling butane can cause drowsiness, narcosis and asphyxia to name a few of the awful side effects, especially if this is done in a poorly ventilated area.
“ Hash Oil Explosions Increasing Across U. S.,” a FEMA report stated,“ Some explosions in residences and hotels around the country are being traced back to a process using butane to extract and concentrate compounds from marijuana. The extraction method appears to be more common on the west coast; reported fires and explosions have blown out windows, walls and caused numerous burn injuries.” Yikes.
Furthermore, those burn injuries are leading to too many deaths.
“ I would not recommend a butane extraction in the home. A simple fact is that our lab is static proof for a reason. There are static plates that you walk in and touch because you have to have a static proof room. People blow themselves up all the time because they don’ t understand the sophistication and the science behind what is going on here,” said Verzura.
Basically, the BHO extraction process is extremely dangerous and should not, under any circumstance, be performed at home. To boot, this chemical extraction process and its results are illegal in California for obvious reasons.
There are too many incidents to name them all but for purpose of scare tactics here are a few stories to prove how dangerous it is to blindly attempt to make butane hash in your house like a batch of cookies:
-October 2003( Ottawa, CA) MMJ activist, Rev. Donny Appleby, attempted to make butane hash in his home. The explosion resulted in his death.-February 2004( CA) A BHO related explosion blew out three walls, shot glass 20 feet from home and severely burned the hash maker.-December 2008( CO) A man and woman’ s bloody footprints were found in the snow, windows and insulation blown out after a butane hash explosion.-February 2009( CA) Teen dies from burns on 40 percent of his body after attempting to make hash in his bedroom.-January 2013( CA) A couple attempted to make butane hash in a hotel room, blew out the walls, seriously injuring themselves and their neighbor-March 2013( OR) Nicholas Broms“ engulfed” his condo in flames, lit his arms on fire, blew out a wall and glass door.
Let these people’ s unfortunate stories be lessons.
Please Dab Responsibly From sprinkling it on a bowl to blasting it with a blowtorch, there’ s a variety of ways to utilize concentrates. Some coldwater concentrates are in fact dabbable, such as Nikka T’ s super high-grade stuff. Other ice water hash just bubbles or fully melts. thcmag. com 39