the kid: i'm the kid. i write vice's sundayweed column. i love weed so much thati decided to make a whole show about it. when i started it last fall,i had no idea that weed was about to be legalizedin two states. all kinds of subcultures cameto light, but the most fascinating one was alsothe fastest growing-- butane hash oil, an extractthat's pure thc.
welcome to weediquette. the oil guy: i first startedsmoking weed in 1988 when my big brother took me out in hisvolkswagen bus into a big oil field, handed me a bong full ofschwag, and said here, hit this until you throw up. so i did. and i threw the fuckup in the field. i definitely smoked oil in the'94 for the first time. i was at a fucking rainbowgathering.
this dude passed me a bongand said here, light it. and then i hit that. at least a minute or two lateri was definitely-- it was the most psychedelicexperience i'd ever had on weed at that point. i asked him, what is going on? he said there's honeyoil on it. that was my introductionto hash oil. dabbing is basically having adabber, which is something
needle-like to grab theoil and apply it whatever you're using. generally titanium, but you canalso use quartz, and you can use glass. take my blow torch. heat up my titanium. inhale. done. the oil guy: that'sa tough question.
it really depends on whatyou're looking for. where flowers were for me, theyaren't for me anymore. i like the way oil'sintensity works. i like the way, when youfirst hit it, you get kind of a rush. every single time i hitoil, i get high. i can hit it 30, 40 timesin a day, and i'm still getting higher. -there has been an explosion--
-a massive explosion-- -an explosion leads policeto a drug lab. what was being made in thisgarage drug lab behind me? something called butane honeyoil, a very toxic and highly concentrated-- -inside this garage behind ahome, investigators believe a man has been cooking marijuana,a highly dangerous procedure similarto cooking meth. the oil guy: you can see thatit's become more popular
because when you look in thenews every other day, people blowing each other up. it was basically just idiotsnot knowing what they're playing with. they would take a bunch of weed,and they would take a bunch of butane, put it into abig fat dish, and throw it on the stove and think it'sgoing to purge it. and then, yeah, you blow up yourfucking house real fast. there's great videos on youtubeof people doing that.
-it just goes in like that. -see that? -you squishit down. make sure-- [explosion] -fuck! -the house is on fire! the house is on fire! -oh my g-- the oil guy: oh that's great.
little kids doing it. that's one of the bestvideos ever. the way to do it is youget a tube packed with a bunch of weed. you want glass. generally, people usethe turkey basters. and make sure it's the right onewith the needle attachment that your can of butaneperfectly fits into. and blast.
it basically just sends butaneright through the tube. on the bottom, you wanta coffee filter. and i put a mesh screenaround that with a metal band tightener. boom. into a pyrex dish. and it all comes outinto a nice puddle. so you use your butaneto extract your thc. and you want to remove thebutane because you don't want
to smoke butane. so you purge. you want to basically putyour bowl that you blasted into in hot water. it's going to have an initialreally violent reaction. when that's done, it's goingto be still reacting but really, really slowly. now, some people throwit in the oven. some people go right tovac at that point.
in this one, we wentright to vac. what that does is it keeps theoil in a really viscous state and then it helps the purge. the kid: so we're about to havea little taste of the yield of the processwe just witnessed. the oil guy: it cameout to shatter. this is something youtry to attain the kid: and that looks likekind of a really big fucking dab right there, too.
[bong bubbling] the oil guy: come on. the oil guy: keep going. the oil guy: there you go. you got it. see? when you purge correctly,it's nice and smooth, no matter how big it is. the kid: yeah.
it tastes really good. the oil guy: yeah. the kid: no chemicallytaste at all. tastes like pure,pure hash oil. the kid: cheers. the oil guy: word. the kid: wow. this guy opened my eyes to atotally new way to get high off of weed.
one that gets you just so muchgod damn higher than smoking it normally. for such an awesome substance,bho has a pretty serious dark side. i wanted to find out how theauthorities were looking at this explosive new formof hash extraction. [phone ringing] [coughing] the kid: so what are some of theexperiences you've had as
a cop regarding bhoin your area? lt. rick ko: we first saw one of thelarge explosions in 2009 from a bho lab. and then we've also seen anexpansion of finding evidence related to bho labs, and it'sgrowing in popularity. the kid: yeah, i get you man. and what are the differencesbetween bho and other drug epidemics, like meth labs?
rick ko: having a bho lab anda meth lab are the same. if you're using a volatilechemical that's highly explosive and highly flammableby people that are often using marijuana or bho, makes for avery dangerous combination. the kid: what are some ofthe dangers of bho? can you give us-- the kid: can you giveus an example of a particularly bad explosion? rick ko: one was so violentthat it blew the house
partially off it's foundationand created a huge fire. the kid: all right. all right. and what do you thinkabout colorado? rick ko: i think colorado'sgoing to be very sorry that they passed that law withina year or two. we've seen people smoking andhaving a good time at a party atmosphere, but when you starthaving people producing it next door to you, you're goingto have people that are going
to try to take thatmarijuana or the profits from that marijuana. -yeah, of course. you guys want some dabs? i'll take a dab. so we're here in denverat the cannabis cup. and man, if we thought thatdabbing was a growing trend, then we didn't seeshit before this. because there are seriouslydozens of bars everywhere
with, like, the most elaboratedabbing glass. and they're just dolingout dabs. and we're about to go checkout a couple of the places that are doing this andtake a few dabs. i went down to denver for thefirst ever cannabis cup held on us soil in a state thatlegalized weed just last year and has quickly becomeamerica's weed mecca. here bho is big business, andwe checked out totally legal operations dedicated to makingshit tons of it, which they
distribute to localdispensaries. we're here with daniel desaillesat the top shelf extracts in denver, colorado. how long have you guys beenin business over here? daniel desailles: we've beenin business about two and a half years now. what usually happens is adispensary will contract us to process their trimfrom their grows. the kid: ok.
so you're using-- daniel desailles: most of themcan't process in-house. the kid: and how muchbho do you guys pump out in a given week? daniel desailles: approximatelythree to four pounds of it. derek: it's great to be able tomake this at home, but it's also awesome to be able to comeinto a laboratory and take those extra stepsin getting
professional equipment. and we have a $15,000 turbomolecular vacuum pump here-- the kid: right. derek: --that's usedfor laboratory-- the kid: that's obviouslybetter. derek: --research. we're at a forefront of amovement that allows us to work like this.
everything is all under thesupervision of the colorado medical marijuana enforcementagency. derek: every gram of thisis accounted for. i would expect nothing less. we're in the middle of-- derek: --legalizing a productthat has been illicit for 60, 70 years. the kid: yeah, there's gotto be a lot of control. derek: there's growing pains.
david bienenstock: a lot ofpeople have worked a really long time to make peoplecomfortable with a natural plant that grows outof the ground. i think the largest danger ispeople looking for a way to discredit marijuana gravitatingtowards this. all of these dangers that youperceive are just another argument for legalization. whether you want to use bho orif you don't want to use it, you still want to live in asociety that regulates it
reasonably. the kid: i'm about five dabs inright now, and they're all that fucking big. just like that last one. is that five right there? yeah. so definitely gettinga little bleary. definitely starts hurting yourlungs for a little, but i'm smoking cigarettes, too,like an asshole.
but so far so good. i think my memory's intact. i guess we should probablygo do a couple more dabs. let's do that. i need maybe likefive minutes. at the cannabis cup itself,where thousands of potheads from all over the world convene,butane hash oil was flowing like wine. i managed to consume bucketsof it during my time there
along with everyone else, and itwas good vibes all around. all this tells us that bho andextracts like it are exploding with popularity. more people are learningabout it. more people want it. and more people are willing torisk their lives by making it where it's not available. all for a cleaner,stronger high. the oil guy: you're going tosee, like, people's moms
asking about it andstuff like that. it's already in all the medicalplaces, and people through your grandparents age,through younger than you, are definitely getting this. there's just no stopping this. we've got the internet. we've got everything. it's just, it's game on. it's not going anywhere.
it's only getting bigger.
