The Science Behind Marijuana Concentrates

With marijuana being legalized recreationally, it’s no surprise that we’re seeing new ways to consume the herb.While images of people rolling up joints, smoking pipes or bongs and eating trays of pot brownies are the primary images of cannabis consumption in the media, concentrates for the most part have only recently started to be seen, making them the new kid on the block in terms of cultural representation.

The truth is that most new users have absolutely no idea how to consume something like the wax or shatter that is now common on store shelves. Adding to the stigma surrounding concentrates are the special pipes and other equipment sometimes used to consume concentrates, including “oil rigs” with nails for dabbing, and the extraction processes that can be volatile under certain circumstances.

“Concentrates” is an umbrella term that refers to a variety of different cannabis extracts and their monikers. The two oldest THC concentrates are Hash and Kief – both of which are made from the crystals on the leaves of the plant that normally get thrown away. One of the oldest players in the cannabis game is hash, a concentrate made by compression of the plant’s resin. Human use of hash, both recreationally and medicinally, has been dated back to 3,000 BC. Purified stalked resins glands, also known as tri-cones, are compressed with heat. Kief is an unprocessed raw material. Particles of trichomes that fall right off the plant are collected and packaged into this powerful product. It is concentrated and fluffy in consistency. Often placed on top of bowls or joints, Kief is often used to increase the potency of the inhalation.

Water Hash – This is one of the more simple to make concentrates that has come about in recent years. It is made by tossing cannabis buds (fresh or fresh-frozen) directly into ice water. As the trichromes freeze the water must be agitated to separate them from the buds.

The water is then filtered through screens designed to trap only the frozen trichromes, which test at 50-80% THC content. The consistency of the final product is grainy – like sand; but a new trend is to press it between two pieces of parchment paper which gives it an appearance more like shatter made from wax.

CO2 Oil – This concentrate is made by carbon dioxide, compressed at high PSI’s in order to extract a “superficial fluid” which is able to extract the essential oil from the plant leaves. The oil is generally an orange tinted color when extracted with CO2 and the THC content can vary from 50-75% depending on the final processing of the oil. Generally, oil like this is used in edibles rather than using finely ground buds.

Butane Hash Oil – Also known as wax, shatter, crumble, all of these are the same thing, simply perhaps in a slightly different form. These are the concentrates that are most commonly referred to as “dabs” by the millennial generation and the cannabis industry.

They are made by pressurized butane is washed over the leaves and plant material – the solution that comes from this is the collected. After that they must remove any excess solvent from the solution; this is often done by applying heat and using a vacuum to remove the solvent while retaining the wax.