Colorado AG: Home hash oil production is illegal
Source: AP
By SADIE GURMAN
Dec. 30, 2014 8:29 PM EST
DENVER (AP) — Marijuana may be legal in Colorado, but extracting the drug's high-potency oil at home is not, the state's attorney general said Tuesday, fueling a debate about how to punish hash-oil producers who have caused a rise in fiery explosions this year. John Suthers said the dangerous process of creating marijuana's intoxicating oil in crude, home-based laboratories is not covered under the measure known as Amendment 64, which was approved by voters in 2012 and allows recreational marijuana for adults over 21.
"Colorado is experiencing a real public safety issue as a result of unsafe and unlicensed manufacturing and production," Suthers said in a statement. Hash oil is typically made by packing the castoff leaves and stems of pot plants into a pipe and pouring highly flammable butane through it. The concoction is heated to make the potent oil for far cheaper than it can be bought in stores.
Devotees say one or two drops of the golden mixture can produce a more euphoric high than an entire joint, and it can be baked into food or vaporized. But without proper ventilation, butane fumes can linger. Just a spark of static electricity can ignite a room.
Suthers said the state's pot law allows for "reasonable and safe use of marijuana, so to decriminalize dangerous and unreasonable behavior in which people are getting hurt and houses are blowing up defies the intent of the voters."
He filed a court brief in response to a western Colorado man's contention that Mesa County prosecutors improperly charged him with crimes for manufacturing hash oil after an explosion injured him and damaged his home. An attorney for Eugene Christenson argued in a court filing that hash oil production is legal under a portion of the new law allowing the processing of marijuana plants. Court records show Christenson was also charged with arson and reckless endangerment.
Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/09e197b4afbc493cab7ab14f5da289eb/colorado-ag-home-hash-oil-production-illegal
Edit: It appears that I was insufficiently clear in my original comment; the "bummer" is catching your ass on fire, man!
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Response to 1step (Original post)
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pipoman
(16,038 posts)And houses blowing up is indeed a public health risk. Would you want your downstairs neighbor cooking?
Response to pipoman (Reply #6)
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pipoman
(16,038 posts)Ice water extraction, butter making, traditional hash, tinctures. ...
freshwest
(53,661 posts)
joshcryer
(62,270 posts)He called for "reasonable and safe use of marijuana." The whole butane process is clearly not safe and probably illegal under many other laws. He may be ignorant in other safer processes, but he used the correct language here.
joshcryer
(62,270 posts)Butane extraction can be done safely, with hot water outdoors (boiled on the stove and transferred outside). Sounds like this moron was boiling water on his stove and shooting butane through an implement holding buds, over the stove.
You don't even need the hot water, if you're patient, the butane will evaporate eventually.
Not saying it shouldn't be banned, but they should leave open the possibility for someone to make a machine that can do it for you safely. You can have a machine either produce a vacuum to force the butane to evaporate (closed system) or burn it off. I don't think you should require licensing to have such a machine.
pipoman
(16,038 posts)A guy last week blew his refrigerator up and destroyed his kitchen. ..
jmowreader
(50,557 posts)That you're not allowed to make your own oil...
or...
that you're not allowed to blow your neighborhood the fuck up by doing it like an idiot?
1step
(380 posts)Relax, I don't snitch!
jmowreader
(50,557 posts)If the federal government came in and said, "pot is less harmful than alcohol, we're removing it from the schedules and declaring it legal effective immediately, sorry for the fifty years of oppression," my state would outlaw it all by its lonesome. So...take this for what it's worth.
Making oil is dangerous as hell if you're not set up for it. Think "meth lab dangerous" except you don't have to smoke meth when you're done. You save up a pound of shake and trash weed, put it in solvent and let it sit until the resin extracts out of it, then extract the solvent from the resin and you're...well, golden. Since most people haven't handled really energetic solvents, they look on the internet, see how easy it is to do (and that's one of the paradoxes of the drug trade: some very simple processes, like oil extraction, are very dangerous) and wind up building a thermobaric weapon in their bedrooms. (A "thermobaric" weapon works by spraying a cloud of flammable liquid into the air then igniting it. The Marines have one called the "novel explosive" that's the size of a baseball and capable of leveling a small warehouse.)
Try this: allow small business owners who know how to, and are equipped to, make oil safely set up "do it yourself" oil extraction storefronts...you take your weed there, extract it with the proper ventilation and safety gear for a reasonable fee, and go get baked safely.
Chakab
(1,727 posts)their stovetops in an attempt to make hash.
It's amazing how stupid some people are.
pipoman
(16,038 posts)They can do ice water extraction, make hash, and grow pot...
joshcryer
(62,270 posts)Didn't know you could do that. In the long run I think it'd be cheaper (once you have the setup), and a hell of a lot safer, but there's a time investment there to be considered, and probably some trial and error. Butane looks damn easy and quick, just dangerous as hell if you're indoors.
pipoman
(16,038 posts)done by the masses without accidents affecting others...
BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)
William Seger
(10,778 posts)My son's apartment was destroyed by fire and then water damage from the fire-fighting when kids blew up the apartment above his, trying to make hash oil. Fortunately, he wasn't home, but the insurance didn't really cover everything he lost, and an emergency move is a huge pain in the ass. Dumb kids are reading a little on the internet and giving this a try, endangering not just themselves but others. I'm all in favor of Colorado's law to allow people to consume if they want, and even grow their own, but nobody has the right to endanger others like this.
earthside
(6,960 posts)As a pro-legalization Colorado resident I've got no problem with not being legally allowed to make hash oil at home.
The reason we legalized marijuana was so that it could be bought and consumed legally and safely.
Response to 1step (Original post)
otohara This message was self-deleted by its author.
pipoman
(16,038 posts)To do a heat extraction, strain it, cool it down, whip it up...
librechik
(30,674 posts)However, extracting essential oils with pressurized benzene is nothing you should do in a home environment, especially since there are so many safe alternatives.
librechik
(30,674 posts)hash oil produced in safe and inspected local factories is available legally everywhere in Colorado for $10 a gram or less.
It should be illegal to make at home and the brainless hippies trying to make a buck on the dwindling "black market" need to take it outside the neighborhoods since they're determined to blow themselves up. Get a job! The industry is hiring...
Johnny Rash
(227 posts)
Don't let this happen to you, and your loved ones.
PS: Lets not judge this Industry, by the actions of a few bad apples.
