Bho Disasters (PLEASE READ!)

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2014/feb/07/pot-extraction-method-using-butane-poses-hazard/

Sayman was driving when his concoction of plants, butane, a PVC pipe and a coffee filter exploded as he attempted to light a cigarette with his daughter in the back seat, according to court documents. He faces charges of assault and manufacturing a controlled substance, with a sentencing enhancement because he was within 1,000 feet of a school bus*stop.

Lets hear some comments on this one. Daughter in back seat, lights a cigarette, blows up himself, his daughter, his car and is looking at 10 years in the slammer. How many feel like sending money to the Prosecutor so that they can do a real job? This one can go National News, its got everything; #1 candidate for the Darwin Award.

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2022868147_hashfiresxml.html

Amateur hash-oil production, explosions bound to continue
From Spokane to Seattle, Vancouver to Mount Vernon, amateur chemists have caused a rash of explosions in recent months making hash oil. This phenomenon is not part of the state’s legal licensed marijuana industry.

From Spokane to Seattle, Vancouver to Mount Vernon, amateur chemists have caused explosions in recent months, often in homes, while using flammable solvents to produce hash oil.
The most recent blast occurred Monday in a Spokane Valley kitchen. Three weeks earlier, an explosion in a Vancouver home left a man hospitalized with burns to his face.
Last month, hash-related explosions caused $100,000 in damage to a Kirkland apartment and lifted a South Seattle house off its foundation.
The most devastating local explosion may be a November blast in Bellevue that did more than $1 million in damage to the Hampton Greens apartment building. In escaping the fire, former Bellevue Mayor Nan Campbell, 87, fell and suffered injuries that contributed to her death in the hospital two weeks later.
Bellevue police said they are investigating the fire and have declined to release a cause. A source close to the case said investigators found all the supplies to manufacture a marijuana-related oil — possibly hash oil — inside one of the burned apartments.
This phenomenon is not part of the state’s legal marijuana system. Under rules for the state’s new industry, hash oil can only be made in licensed facilities, and those do not include homes.
State rules also require that only certain equipment and chemicals be used, for safety reasons. No facilities have yet been licensed by the state, which is sifting through 7,000 applications for marijuana businesses.
Still, amateur hash-oil production and resulting explosions likely will continue, as the Internet is rife with tutorials and the popularity of the super-potent hash oil is increasing with young stoners.
In its Weed Issue last year, Rolling Stone called hash oil “America’s insanely baked future.” Mark Kleiman, author of “Marijuana Legalization,” has predicted that concentrated extracts will eventually eclipse traditional marijuana in the state’s new recreational-pot industry.
Explosions are not limited to Washington state. A search of news reports last year turns up stories of hash-oil explosions from Florida to Hawaii, with a rash along the West Coast.
The Oregonian reported a Jan. 10 blast in Forest Grove that left a man in critical condition. In the past 14 months, at least 17 people have landed in Southern California burn centers due to hash-oil accidents, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Another 27 victims were treated by a burn unit in Northern California, the paper reported, noting that the hash-oil toll was far worse than injuries attributed to meth-lab explosions in the same period.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) sent out an alert last year noting that many explosions were misidentified as meth-lab mishaps.
Concentrated forms
People have consumed concentrated forms of marijuana for several thousand years. The most common form has been hashish, generally made by removing the most psychoactive resin from pot plants and compressing it into slab form.
Several years ago hash oil — in forms called honey oil, budder, shatter and wax — exploded in popularity.
Hash oil can be superstrong. Marijuana in Seattle medical dispensaries tends to contain 12 to 20 percent THC, pot’s key psychoactive chemical. Modern hash oil tends to have 40 to 70 percent THC.
“We’ve seen purities as high as 73 percent,” said Jodie Underwood, spokeswoman for the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
The drug’s use has soared with the rise of vaporizing devices, such as “vape pens,” sleek cylindrical gizmos that look like e-cigarettes. Vaporizers are used to consume “dabs” of hash oil in a way that lacks the telltale odor of burned marijuana flowers and is more discreet than sparking a joint or blazing a pipe bowl.
Amateur chemists have taken to making hash oil at home. The most popular method — called “blasting” — involves flammable solvents, particularly butane, which can be bought in hardware stores.
Usually, a glass or steel canister is stuffed with dried pot. The canister is then flooded with the solvent, which strips away the psychotropic plant oils. The resulting golden-brown goo is then purged of the solvent, often by boiling it in water.
The danger comes in improper ventilation. Odorless and colorless, butane is heavier than air and puddles in a closed room; sparks can cause catastrophes.
That’s what happened in the Kirkland blast last month, according to a Police Department spokesman.
Sometimes explosions occur despite precautions. The Los Angeles Times reported that one injured oil-maker made sure a window was open, a fan was blowing and the stove’s pilot light was off. He told the paper he believed a static spark from his shirt ignited the butane that left him with serious burns over most of his body and required 16 skin grafts.
Another mistake was highlighted by the South Seattle blast last month. Fire investigators said butane was left in a freezer, apparently leaked into a refrigerator below and into its electrical system. When the refrigerator kicked on, it ignited an explosion.
Washington state is requiring that extractors use closed-loop systems that keep flammable gases from escaping. There also are alternatives to butane. Carbon-dioxide extraction is considered the cleanest, safest way to make hash oil. But equipment can be expensive.
Brandon Hamilton, owner of WAMOIL in Seattle, produces concentrates sold in about 50 medical-marijuana dispensaries in the state. His carbon-dioxide extractor cost $65,000, he said. He said he employs a professional chemist and has given tours to the Seattle police and fire departments, to help them understand how hash oil should be made.
As for the amateurs, Hamilton said risks are pervasive no matter what precautions they take because butane can slip undetected into electrical outlets and wiring.
“They’re walking on a cliff with no safety net whatsoever. It only takes one little thing to get you off kilter and you’ll cause an explosion,” he said.
Calibrated doses
It’s tempting to call hash oil the “Breaking Bad” of pot, referring to the television series about methamphetamine manufacturers.
But not all marijuana concentrates are the same, not all are consumed by “dabbing,” and concentrates, including some that have virtually no psychoactive chemicals, can be especially helpful to medical-marijuana patients.
CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta hosted a special last year that showed how marijuana concentrates alleviated the frequent epileptic seizures of a girl in Colorado. Locally, Thurston County resident Ryan Day has testified to state legislators about the way concentrates relieve his 5-year-old son’s seizures.
One advantage of concentrates is they allow patients to consume calibrated doses orally, so they don’t have to smoke or vaporize.
Hash-oil production has been allowed under the state’s vague medical-marijuana laws. The state’s new recreational-pot law does not explicitly bar making hash oil at home for personal consumption, as long as it does not involve more than one ounce of dried marijuana.
The DEA’s Underwood said she expects to see a continued increase in hash-oil explosions with the current climate of marijuana. All forms of pot remain illegal under federal law, she noted.
But the U.S. Department of Justice has said the states of Colorado and Washington can proceed with legal marijuana as long as they adhere to eight priorities, such as keeping legal pot from minors, and keeping it from being diverted to other states.
If the DEA finds a hash-oil case violated one of those priorities, Underwood said agents might investigate.
Hamilton, the professional extractor, agreed that accidents will likely continue because amateurs can buy “blasting” supplies for $100 or less. And, even in a legal recreational market, minors won’t be allowed to buy pot.
“Kids are going to do it while their parents are not at home,” he said. “That’s the primary thing that will happen after Initiative 502 stores open, I believe.”

http://www.9news.com/news/local/article/376982/346/Hash-oil-production-causes-house-explosion

KUSA - Fire officials say an explosion at an Aurora townhome was caused by two men making marijuana hash oil. The blast on Saturday afternoon was so powerful, it blew windows out of homes.
The substance is pure THC, and as its grown in popularity, it has become a big safety hazard. There have been several incidents around Colorado in the last six months as people try to make hash oil.
"It's sad to see that these are adults misusing something that's been legalized," neighbor Ashleigh Estrella said.
The explosion happened in the 4500 block of S. Hannibal St.
9NEWS talked to the father of one of the men responsible. He said his son and his roommate made a dumb mistake and paid for it with serious burns that put them in the hospital.

Another explosion while blasting inside, lit a joint maybe.

http://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/high-nu...ers-found-in-charred-woodstock-home-1.1677930


Officials uncovered what they describe as an unusually high number of butane containers at a fire-ravaged Woodstock home.
Demolition crews started tearing down the charred structure Sunday morning, allowing police and investigators from the Ontario Fire Marshal’s Office to pick through the debris.
“It’s unstable,” explains OFM investigator Richard Derstroff. “There’s no way we can actually physical get in there safely.”
RELATED STORIES
Four people sent to hospital after explosion and fire at Woodstock home
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PHOTOS

Workers tear down a Woodstock home on Sunday, Feb. 9, days after a devastating fire.
The Alberta Avenue home burst into flames Friday afternoon, following an explosion. The blaze sent four unnamed people to hospital.
Officials say they pulled several items from the wreckage on Sunday, including a dog’s remains and a large number of butane containers.
The discoveries are only fuelling neighbours’ suspicions that illegal drug activity may have been happening inside the home.
“We’ve seen a lot of activity at night," says Jessica Dodd. "And we’ve heard rumours that in the back of the house there are lights on 24 hours a day,”.
Dodd lives across the street from the burnt-down home and says this isn’t the first time she’s seen trouble.
“A vehicle was smashed in back in the summer,” she notes. “And we did see their door try to be broken down.”
Others say the incident has left them concerned.
“Almost every house on the street has kids in it, so yeah, it’s very scary being that close to home,” says another neighbour, Wil Timmins.
Officials say there should be no threat to other residents in the neighbourhood, as they believe the explosion was directly linked to just the one home.

http://denver.cbslocal.com/2014/02/10/hash-hash-oil-fire-aurora-aurora-fire-department/

AURORA, Colo. (CBS4) – Investigators in Aurora say a butane canister used to cook hash oil exploded over the weekend and injured two men.
Officials with the Aurora Fire Department say the incident, which happened on Saturday on the 4500 block of South Hannibal Street, was the latest in a string of hash oil fires in recent months.
Argentina Rubenstein lives in an apartment that is next door to the apartment where the explosion happened.
“You don’t know the sound,” she said. “(The) explosion is terrible.”
Firefighters are concerned that if there were to be another fire, Rubenstein’s apartment, which shares a roof with the apartment where the explosion happened, could be damaged.
“I think that is ugly and my neighbor, I’m sorry, needs to go to jail,” she told CBS4.
Last year CBS4 reported on other hash oil fires in Longmont, Lakewood, Breckenridge and Colorado Springs. But in Aurora, fire officials said there have been four such fires since November.
“We hope that you can be adults and handle it appropriately and if this is something that you’re doing and you’re not in a common area like this, we hope you be respectful of your neighbors and people around you,” Ashleigh Estrella said.
Butane is used to extract hash oil from marijuana and officials warn that it is an unstable, flammable substance. The oil is a pure form of THC and creates the high.
The conditions of the two men who were hurt hasn’t been released.

Might have some doubles, let me know and I'll delete.

http://www.oregonlive.com/beaverton/index.ssf/2014/02/forest_grove_man_injured_after.html

Three Cats dead and man upgraded to serious.

A Forest Grove man who was critically injured last month in an alleged hash-oil cooking explosion has been upgraded to serious condition, according to a hospital nursing supervisor.

Christopher S. Regensburger, 27, had been in critical condition at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center since the Jan. 10 explosion.*

Police say that Regensburger was*cooking hash oil, a concentrated form of marijuana, in a Forest Grove home when two explosions occurred.*Manufacturing hash oil, police said, requires extracting a highly flammable gas.*

Two others sustained non-life-threatening injuries and three cats were killed in the fire.*

well we know there are stupid people already .....some peeps should just buy it lol boom boom there go two more dumbasses

http://union-bulletin.com/news/2014/feb/14/amateur-hash-oil-production-explosions-continue/

Amateur hash oil production, explosions continue
Amateur chemists have taken to making hash oil at home, using flammable solvents found in hardware stores.
Bob Young of the Seattle Times
As of Friday, February 14, 2014

SEATTLE — From Spokane to Seattle, Vancouver to Mount Vernon — and also in Walla Walla — amateur chemists have caused explosions in recent months, often in homes, while using flammable solvents to produce hash oil.
#
The most recent blast occurred Feb. 10 in a Spokane Valley kitchen. Three weeks earlier, an explosion in a Vancouver home left a man hospitalized with burns to his face.
#
Last month, hash-related explosions caused $100,000 in damage to a Kirkland apartment and lifted a South Seattle house off its foundation.
#
On Jan. 6 in Walla Walla, an explosion blew out a window of an apartment where a man was cooking down marijuana to produce hash oil, police said.
#
The most devastating explosion in the state may be a November blast in Bellevue that did more than $1 million in damage to the Hampton Greens apartment building. In escaping the fire, former Bellevue Mayor Nan Campbell, 87, fell and suffered injuries that contributed to her death in the hospital two weeks later.
#
This phenomenon is not part of Washington’s legal marijuana system. Under rules for the state’s new industry, hash oil can only be made in licensed facilities, and those do not include homes.
#
State rules also require that only certain equipment and chemicals be used, for safety reasons. No facilities have yet been licensed by the state, which is sifting through 7,000 applications for marijuana businesses.
#
Still, amateur hash oil production and resulting explosions likely will continue, as the Internet is rife with tutorials and the popularity of the super-potent hash oil is increasing with young users.
#
In its Weed Issue last year, Rolling Stone called hash oil “America’s insanely baked future.” Mark Kleiman, author of “Marijuana Legalization,” has predicted that concentrated extracts will eventually eclipse traditional marijuana in the state’s new recreational pot industry.
#
Explosions are not limited to Washington state. A search of news reports last year turns up stories of hash oil explosions from Florida to Hawaii, with a rash along the West Coast.
#
The Oregonian reported a Jan. 10 blast in Forest Grove that left a man in critical condition. In the past 14 months, at least 17 people have landed in Southern California burn centers due to hash oil accidents, according to the Los Angeles Times.
#
Another 27 victims were treated by a burn unit in Northern California, the paper reported, noting that the hash oil toll was far worse than injuries attributed to meth lab explosions in the same period.
#
People have consumed concentrated forms of marijuana for several thousand years. The most common form has been hashish, generally made by removing the most psychoactive resin from pot plants and compressing it into slab form.
#
Hash oil can be superstrong. Marijuana in Seattle medical dispensaries tends to contain 12 to 20 percent THC, pot’s key psychoactive chemical. Modern hash oil tends to have 40 to 70 percent THC.
#
Amateur chemists have taken to making hash oil at home. The most popular method — called “blasting” — involves flammable solvents, particularly butane, which can be bought in hardware stores.
#
The danger comes in improper ventilation. Odorless and colorless, butane is heavier than air and puddles in a closed room; sparks can cause catastrophes.
#
Washington state is requiring that extractors use closed-loop systems that keep flammable gases from escaping. There also are alternatives to butane. Carbon dioxide extraction is considered the cleanest, safest way to make hash oil. But equipment can be expensive.
#
Brandon Hamilton, owner of WAMOIL in Seattle, produces concentrates sold in about 50 medical marijuana dispensaries in the state. His carbon dioxide extractor cost $65,000, he said. As for the amateurs, Hamilton said risks are pervasive no matter what precautions they take because butane can slip undetected into electrical outlets and wiring.
#
“They’re walking on a cliff with no safety net whatsoever. It only takes one little thing to get you off-kilter and you’ll cause an explosion,” he said.

http://www.bendbulletin.com/localst...h-oil-productions-blamed-for-damage-injuries#

Up date on injuries: The most devastating local explosion may be a November blast in Bellevue, Wash., that did more than $1 million in damage to the Hampton Greens apartment building. In escaping the fire, former Bellevue Mayor Nan Campbell, 87, fell and suffered injuries that contributed to her death in the hospital two weeks later.

http://www.turlockcitynews.com/news...oduction-allegedly-led-to-briarwood-explosion

Hash Oil Production Allegedly Led to Briarwood Explosion
Written by Brandon McMillan - brandon@turlockcitynews.com


Brandon McMillan/TurlockCityNews.com
Turlock Police believe narcotics manufacturing was the cause of a Tuesday night explosion at the Briarwood Apartment complex in Turlock.

Turlock Police Drug Unit was called out to the Briarwood Apartments to investigate the cause of the explosion. The unit determined the explosion was caused by the attempted extraction of THC from marijuana, said Turlock Police Lt. Ron Reid.

THC, the main mind-altering element of marijuana, is most commonly extracted by passing pressurized butane gas through a tube containing marijuana. The butane then evaporates, leaving behind concentrated THC known as butane hash oil or “honey oil.”

Police originally responded to reported vandalism in progress at the 3300 block of Fosberg Road Tuesday night when they became aware of the explosion. Witnesses saw two people running away from the apartment.

No known injuries have been reported at this time. The explosion did blast a door off its hinges and broke several windows.

The Briarwood Apartments are located on the corner of Monte Vista Avenue and Fosberg Road near the California State University, Stanislaus

http://www.9news.com/news/local/art...aking-hash-oil-dangerous-to-you-and-neighbors

Firefighters: Making hash oil dangerous to you and neighbors

AURORA -*Aurora firefighters have responded to one hash oil fire or explosion every month since November 2013.

They're seeing the explosions take place in multi-family dwellings like condos or townhomes. Aurora Fire says in these situations, people manufacturing hash oil not only put themselves at risk, but they put their entire building at risk.

The most recent fire happened on Feb. 9 when an explosion blew windows out of homes in the 4500 block of South Hannibal Street. 

Aurora's fire captain, Diane Lord, says making hash oil is like an underground operation. You can't smell anything while it's manufactured so there's no way to warn others of the harm.

The substance is pure THC, and it's very potent. Hash oil has grown in popularity, but it's a major safety concern for firefighters.

The injuries are extremely harmful and dangerous. Aurora Fire has seen first and second degree burns, injuries from the explosions and blasts, and severe property damage. 

Right now, they're trying to educate people just how dangerous it is to make. Multiple manufacture sites end up exploding because it's highly volatile material.

A rehash of some previous fires and explosions in residential areas in Colorado, it's averaging about 1 explosion per month.

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/20...e-hash-oil-alarms-east-bay-fire-investigator/
2 ounces of hash oil. (jlcoving/Wikipedia)

Related Tags: Butane Hash Oil, Contra Costa County Fire Department, Fire danger, Honey Hash Oil, Margie Shafer, Marijuana, THC Extraction

Margie Shafer
Clues to Margie's future profession, came early.* Somewhere in her... Read More
PITTSBURG (KCBS) – A growing trend among marijuana users of using highly flammable butane to create hash oil has firefighters in Contra Costa County on edge about potentially explosive fires that can lead to serious injuries.
Since 2011 when Contra Costa County firefighters first became aware of the crude, volatile process used to extract the main active ingredient from marijuana to create butane hash oil, also known as butane honey oil, there have been eight fires, said fire investigator Vic Massenkoff.
“Almost every person that’s been involved in a butane hash oil fire or explosion has been airlifted to a burn unit,” he said.

Honey hash oil typically comes from packing pot into an open PVC pipe with a screen on the other end, then injecting butane as a solvent for the tetrahydrocannabinol.
“They’re taking their shake, basically what’s left over from the good part of the marijuana, and they’re processing it using butane,” Massenkoff said.
“It comes out a liquid, but starts to vaporize immediately.”
And even the how-to videos that have proliferated on YouTube acknowledge just how easy it is to accidentally ignite butane, often advising smokers not to light up anywhere nearby.
Massenkoff said the results in Contra Costa County have been nothing short of spectacular.
“We’ve had the roofs lift off of homes. We’ve had houses blown off their foundations,” he said.
Making honey oil is a felony charged under the same section as operating a meth lab.

"It seems like a relatively recent trend of people who have figured out how to turn a benign plant into an explosive."

Burns of a 2nd and 3rd Degree type associated with Butane type explosions below:

http://www.google.com/search?q=2nd+...7Aqa_2QXS04CoDQ&ved=0CCcQsAQ&biw=1345&bih=841

Gray Wolf's safety tips below.

http://skunkpharmresearch.com/butane-safety/

REDDING, Calif. - A woman was arrested Saturday after an explosion at the Howard Johnson Express Inn on Bechelli Lane Friday night. Investigators said a honey oil extraction lab exploded in one of the rooms.
Redding Police said the blast left one man in critical condition with severe burns. The burn victim, 28-year-old Daniel Ogram, was flown to a burn center in another county for treatment of his injuries.
After the explosion Friday night it was reported two women with two toddlers or infants fled the scene in a red, Ford Mustang.
Officers searched the area for the women and children but they were never found.
On Saturday afternoon Redding police got a tip one of the women was at the Lazy Landing mobile home park outside of Redding.
Officers said they contacted 27-year-old Amanda Hepler.
She was with three of her five children, a two-month-old, a one-year-old and a two-year-old.
Officers said Hepler confirmed she and her three young children were at the Howard Johnson during the explosion and fled fearing police contact.
Hepler was arrested for an outstanding felony burglary warrant.
The children were taken into protective custody.
Hepler and her children had no obvious physical injuries from the explosion.
Police and firefighters responded to a report of an explosion the motel at 2731 Bechelli Lane at 9:50 p.m. Friday. Officers found Ogram standing outside his motel room with severe burns all over his body.
Firefighters extinguished items that were still burning inside the room.
Police said Ogram had been operating a marijuana honey oil extraction lab inside the motel room when the lab exploded, causing major damage to the room and severely burning Ogram.


http://www.krcrtv.com/news/local/ex...on/-/14322302/24615052/-/486wfuz/-/index.html

Are there any instances of explosions caused by people using closed loop systems?

i didnt read about any closed system explosions yet. should be quite safe if you have a leak free unit and know what you are doing.

I wonder about passive systems. Do they vac out
the air before flooding?

gaiusmarius said:

i didnt read about any closed system explosions yet. should be quite safe if you have a leak free unit and know what you are doing.

Click to expand...

Lol, that's two "If's" in a row, one more and you're in immolation territory.

Kcar said:

I wonder about passive systems. Do they vac out
the air before flooding?

Click to expand...

Tamisium offers a system of loading, which does not, but I do and highly recommend it for passive systems.

prune said:

Lol, that's two "If's" in a row, one more and you're in immolation territory.

Click to expand...

Sooner or later, someone will find a way. Anyone who thinks they have a fool proof system, hasn't met the right fool yet.

The key is that a closed system is orders of magnitude safer to operate, and more environmentally friendly. There are less opportunities to get killed operating it, than there are driving to the store to get the butane.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101445332

Dabs—marijuana's explosive secret
***Text Size**
*
Published: Wednesday, 26 Feb 2014 | 12:37 PM ET
By: Celia Watson Seupel, Special to CNBC


Colorado is cashing in
Wednesday, 26 Feb 2014 | 11:40 AM ET
CNBC's Jane Wells reports the first tax revenue numbers are being reported in Colorado. Pueblo County did $1 million in gross sales netting the county $56,000 in one month.
Two months into Colorado's great marijuana experiment, a single trend may be poised to tarnish the "natural and healthy" image of legal weed: hash oil concentrate. Washington, the next state to roll out legal recreational marijuana, has banned it. Colorado is trying to regulate it.
Hash oil concentrate, a powerful distillation of marijuana's essential active ingredients, is mixed into many new and popular cannabis products: edibles, drinks and liquids that can be "smoked" in vaporizer pens like e-cigarettes. The problem-child of concentrates may turn out to be the actual concentrate itself—a hardened or viscous mass of cannabinoids created via a process of butane-gas extraction.
Making it can be explosive. In fact, all over the country, people have been exploding kitchens and basements trying to make their own butane hash oil.

AP
Nicholas Broms, who was involved in a drug-related explosion last November. Broms was one of the growing number of casualties from manufacturing hash oil, a potent marijuana byproduct made with butane.
And smoking it—a new craze called "dabbing," because a little dab'll do ya—is giving an intense high miles beyond the mellow effects of a joint.
Hash oil concentrate isn't new, but the current version is. The recent incarnation appeared on the scene only about four years ago, according to marijuana.com.
Concentrate is an extremely potent form of THC, the psychoactive element in marijuana. According to Brian Ruden, owner of Starbuds, a marijuana dispensary in Denver, while regular marijuana might contain 15 or 18 percent THC, hash oil concentrate gets closer to 80 or even 90 percent.
The high that a user gets from concentrates is far from natural, and the method by which hash oil is made sounds anything but healthy. Marijuana trim (or sometimes bud) is infused with a hydrocarbon, usually butane gas. The butane strips the THC and some other cannabinoids out of the plant when the mix is put under intense pressure. In addition to marijuana concentrate, the goopy stuff that emerges is laced with butane. This has to be cooked down to remove the residual chemical. The result (if the cook doesn't blow up; butane is explosive) is a glassy substance called "shatter" or "wax."
In part, the bad press for concentrates may be a little unfair. People blowing up their kitchens trying to make butane hash oil at home doesn't mean hash oil itself is bad. Fires and explosions all over Colorado have alarmed lawmakers and the media alike. In Aurora, where marijuana sales are still illegal, there have been four butane hash oil explosions in the past four months, the most recent landing two young men in the hospital with burns after they blew out the windows of their apartment.
According to Julie Postlethwait, spokeswoman for Colorado's Marijuana Enforcement Division, new safety rules for the manufacture of concentrates are slated to go into effect on March 2. They include ensuring an industrial hygienist or professional engineer approves manufacturing equipment, and having eyewash available on site. But, she said, they apply only to Colorado's commercial marijuana industry. "Individuals have the right to grow their own plants."
Can they make their own concentrate? "Yes, legally," Postlethwait said. "It's up to local authorities, cities and towns and counties. They can prohibit the manufacture of concentrates. I don't know if they are."
Local authorities may not know if they are, either. Many officials seem confused about the details of current marijuana law. According to Colorado's Municipal League's "Election Results Retail Marijuana," only one town, Gunnison, specifically establishes "standards for home cultivation" and "personal processing." Other municipalities prohibit "marijuana product manufacturing facilities," but that could be interpreted as commercial production, leaving the door open for making concentrate privately.
Localities can forbid as many of Amendment 64's rights as they want, and many have, at least for now. Aurora's moratorium on all cannabis enterprise will be in effect until May 5. "Manufacturing of hash oil," City Attorney George Zierk said, "is illegal in Aurora." According to Aurora police officer Frank Fania, at least one of the young men involved in Aurora's most recent hash oil explosion has been charged with a crime: reckless endangerment, but not hash oil manufacturing.
Having gotten past the bad press created by stupendously unsophisticated people cooking dangerous concentrates in the kitchen, there's still the unhealthy, Breaking-Bad image of actually smoking the concentrates, called "dabbing."
The whole problem may have something to do with blowtorches.
To smoke dabs, you need concentrate ("shatter" or its softer cousin, "earwax"), a small, sturdy pick, a specially crafted bong and a blowtorch.

AP
Three people suffered minor burns in an August explosion at a Mount Vernon, Wash., apartment, where authorities said they were trying to extract hash oil from marijuana by using butane.
You twirl a dab of the concentrate onto the pick, apply a blowtorch that looks like it belongs in an auto mechanic's shop to the bowl of the bong until it's glowing hot, then touch the dab to a nailhead inside the bowl. The dab vaporizes instantaneously and the user sucks up the smoke—almost pure THC.
"Dabs have become a culture unto themselves," said Harrison Garcia, a salesman at Denver's Green Solution dispensary and blogger for Weedist.com. "There are serious 'dab people' who only dab and do not even smoke flower because it's just not strong enough for them."
Despite the media interest and hype, dabbers still seem to be a small minority of users. Elan Nelson, head of business strategy and development for Medicine Man, a large Denver dispensary, says about only 10 percent of their sales goes to dabbing concentrates.
"You have to have a very high THC tolerance," Nelson said. "We're not really recommending it."
Starbuds' Ruden concurs. Dabbing concentrates aren't a big portion of his sales. "Although we sell a lot of concentrate, we sell much more flower and edibles," Ruden said via email. "One limiting factor is the concentrate supply, we keep running out."
A more enthusiastic Austin Gilliam, general manager of Kine Mine, an Idaho Springs, Color., dispensary, puts it this way: "It's flying off the shelves. We have it back-ordered from the manufacturer now. It's a trend. It seems to be very popular with the young people."
Popularity with the young people is just what Steve Millette, executive director of CeDAR, the University of Colorado Hospital's residential rehab, worries about. The younger a person begins to indulge, the more likely he or she will become addicted, Millette said, adding that concentrates are "like going from a glass of beer to a glass of whisky."
"Addiction isn't the only problem. There's also mental illness," he said.
Millette, who thinks legalization was a mistake, sees marijuana leading to "a motivational syndrome," a condition in which a person becomes apathetic and loses the interest and the will to do much of anything. And since young adults are at a particularly vulnerable age when it comes to psychosis, Millette feels the popularity of marijuana concentrates poses a particular danger to them.
"If there's already a predisposition [to mental illness], putting a concentrated toxic substance into the brain can be dangerous."
"Marijuana," he said, "is not harmless. It is not safe."
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration recently moved to create a new drug code for marijuana extracts. They want to track it as a separate entity.
"It's not for beginners," Medicine Man's Nelson said.
—By Celia Watson Seupel, special to CNBC

http://www.kktv.com/news/headlines/...ave-Caused-Apartment-Explosion-248086571.html


Police: Man Making Hash Oil Believed To Have Caused Apartment Explosion
Posted: Sun 6:49 AM, Mar 02, 2014
By: KKTV


Dozens were evacuated on an icy Saturday night after police say a small explosion rattled a Springs apartment complex.
The incident happened just before 10 p.m. at a complex on the 300 block of University Drive, near Airport.
Responding officers say that after arriving on scene, they found a 51-year-old man who admitted to living inside the unit where the explosion occurred.
After investigating further, police say they believe 51-year-old Lee Brown was making hash oil inside the apartment, using butane fuel. They say at some point the butane fuel ignited, causing the explosion.
Hash oil is a high-potency form of marijuana.
Brown was arrested for suspicion of unlawful possession, and manufacturing of a controlled substance; offenses relating to marijuana and marijuana concentrate; keeping, maintaining, controlling, renting, or making available property for unlawful distribution or manufacture of controlled substances; and reckless endangerment.
A 29-year-old man was also in the apartment at the time of the explosion, but was not arrested.