Recordnet.com: Lodi man severely burned while extracting oil from marijuana (4 p.m.)
LODI – A 35-year-old man set himself ablaze, both externally and internally, while attempting to extrapolate oil form a marijuana plant in a Lodi apartment Monday night , Lodi police said.George Elhard is in critical condition at the University of California, Davis, Medical Center in Sacramento after his body was set ablaze at 9 p.m. Monday, Lodi Police reported.
Officer Dale Eubanks said Elhard put marijuana in a sock, and pushed it into a piece of PVC pipe. He then poured butane into the pipe and let it filter through the sock in order to extrapolate Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) from the cannabis. THC is marijuana’s active chemical.
The butane fumes were so heavy, a nearby water heater ignited, Eubanks said. A flash fire quickly set Elhard ablaze. He also breathed in the butane’s fumes, allowing the flames to encompass his lungs.
“There are lots of ways to extrapolate the oil from marijuana. This happened in a contained space, and the butane fumes just filled the bathroom,” Eubanks said.
The top three Google results I received for “hash oil extraction” brought me to similar pages with instructions written in 1999. At the top of each was a very prominent warning that the technique should be done outdoors, or at minimum with strong airflow from fans and lots of open doors and windows. They even caution against having your cell phone one, since it can cause enough of a spark to set a pool of butane ablaze.
It’s really a shame that this happened and I hope Elhard recovers. While he didn’t exercise the greatest caution in extracting hash, he wouldn’t have done it if he could have bought a little vial of it at his local liquor store. You don’t read too many stories these days about guys getting third-degree burns from exploding moonshine stills.
Personally, I’m more a natural kind of guy. I left behind drugs that had anything to do with solvents back in the ’90s. That’s why I prefer bubble hash. Water, ice, bucket, drill with paint-stirring attachment, a set of bags, and a couple of friends can turn any night into Bubble Hash Night!
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Yeah making hash oil with butane is very dangerous if you can’t do it in a well ventilated area with out any chance of spark coming up.
I always make sure all sources of ignition are powered down and I’m in a well ventilated area when making hash oil. Every time I have made hash oil I use the 99.9% pure butane that costs about $50 a box so the finished product is as pure as possible. It really makes some good stuff and I feel like nothing can compare to a drop of hash oil hitting a charcoal.
Thank you for the quality post, I actually have some how to instructions for butane hash oil on my blog that I am going to revise now! People definitely shouldn’t take making hash oil so lightly it can be a very dangerous process without the proper preparation.