Tag Archives: BHO

Explosions last weekend highlight Michigan’s problem controlling BHO

Two explosions in one weekend

Two Butane Hash Oil (BHO) explosions ignited in Michigan last weekend, when amateurs were attempting to extract THC from marijuana to make “dabs.”  Michigan’s BHO problem will grow into a bigger problem, because legalizers succeeded in getting marijuana on the ballot in November.  (Read this article to understand the difference between decriminalization and legalization.)

On Saturday, January 20 in Orion Township, a tenant was making BHO  when he suddenly tried to light a cigarette, and everything exploded. The “victim”/maker of the substance was badly burned on his arms and face.   He’s been hospitalized, but the other four roommates made  it out of the house unharmed. Continue reading Explosions last weekend highlight Michigan’s problem controlling BHO

Butane Hash Oil Fires Don’t End with Legalized Marijuana

Butane Hash Oil  Labs are a Byproduct of Marijuana Commercialization

On the first day pot was 100% legal in California, three men in Humboldt County celebrated their marijuana freedom by extracting butane hash oil (BHO) from marijuana.  Their actions sparked a fire.  Helicopters airlifted the injured men to UC Davis Hospital because their burns were so extensive.   It is rumored that two of the men died.

Car fire in Arcata, on November 2, 2016. There have been 5 BHO fires in the same county, Humboldt, since the vote to legalize on November 8

Wasn’t legalization going to solve these problems?  No, because “wax,” “shatter,” “budder” — the products made from BHO and sold in dispensaries — are more expensive than homemade stuff.

On November 2, seven days before pot became legal, a BHO fire exploded a car in Arcata, CA.  A similar fire on January 14, 2017, totaled a home near Arcata in Humboldt County, injuring two people. It was the fourth BHO lab discovered in Humboldt County  since legalization.   (The photo above is from a car fire in Arcata on November 2, 2016.)   

Overhead Video of Last Night’s Fire Before Fire Crews Arrive on Scene

BHO or butane hash oil, which Californians call “honey oil” is a highly potent extract of the marijuana plant. Continue reading Butane Hash Oil Fires Don’t End with Legalized Marijuana

On Marijuana Oils and Misleading Promises

Is the Marijuana Lobby Trying to Buy Your Legislature and Your Votes?

If marijuana has a medical application that can be proven, Merck and Pfizer will probably see the benefit of getting into the 4.2 billion dollar business.   Marijuana companies, like pharmaceutical companies,  contribute heavily to politicians and lobbying efforts.  Unlike the pharmaceutical industry, they don’t go through a rigorous testing and approval process.  The marijuana industry uses pesticides, even banned pesticides, but it promotes itself as organic and natural.

Medical marijuana “caregivers” have no accountability and liability, and their lobbyists know it.  We think it is wrong when the marijuana industry lobbyists give parents with very sick children false hope.

Marijuana lobbyists should not be seen as having pure and “compassionate” motives, as they pretend.*   The public has a right to know that CBD for epilepsy does not always work.

The Press should investigate how much the marijuana lobby spends to advertise and go on TV on behalf of passing “medical” marijuana laws.

Treating Cancer with Marijuana Oils?

A few of the children treated with an artisanal CBD (cannabidiol, the derivative of marijuana used for epilepsy) have died,  and some of the children treated with cannabis oil for cancer also died.

In Montana a few years ago, Cashy Hyde’s father was featured on TV, saying his son had been cured of cancer using cannabis oil.  Sadly,  the boy eventually died, sometime after the startling announcement that he had been cured.  The constant nurture and love from his parents probably helped to extend his life.

A man in Iowa who advocated for marijuana also died of cancer.   In Australia, a little girl whose father had been treating her neuroblastoma with cannabis oil died in May.   Receiving constant love, attention and kind wishes from others sent good vibes into the world, but no medical professional thought it had an effect on the cancer.

It is understandable why some parents with little hope for their child would prefer such oils over harsh chemotherapy.

We do not criticize the parents for trying alternative treatments. However, advocacy for these parents should not be used to further the agenda of legalization.

When reading about the remarkable claims advocates of medical marijuana propose, please remember the placebo effect.  We don’t know why placebos cure some people and not others.   It could be the power of belief, or the result of a person’s own immune system having the ability to fight the disease.

Parents Opposed to Pot objects to the tactics of marijuana lobbyists because:

  • They give partial truths, attempt to sway public opinion while hiding essential facts.
  • They engage in unfair defamation of character and advertising. Two years ago Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Rep. Andy Harris were targeted with cruel and slanderous attacks because of their votes regarding medical marijuana.  Rep. Wasserman Schultz recently voted to allow veterans to be allowed marijuana — although it makes PTSD worse.
  • They outpsend the opposition to marijuana legalization and target youth with their advocacy, while pretending to be grass roots.  Smart Approaches to Marijuana was founded after the vote to legalize in Washington and Colorado.
  • They intentionally use the term “medical marijuana” when they mean cannabidiol (CBD), which lacks the psychoactive qualities of regular marijuana.  The confusion justifies teens who “dab” with highly potent Butane Hash Oil BHO) because they believe it’s harmless and even medicinal.

(Read Part 1)

*The 1996 ballot in legalizing marijuana in California was called the Compassionate Use Act and people were led to believe it was only for terminally ill people with cancer and AIDS.   In reality, only 3-5% of the marijuana has been used for these conditions.

Adult Pot Use Affects Grade, Middle and High School Students

(Part 1  in series on older children of pot-using parents, Custody issues,  Part 2, children in BHO explosions and Part 3, children who fall.)

When Colorado fourth-graders were caught buying and selling their grandparents’ pot at a school in 2014, it became clear that the age level for first-time drug use in America has changed.   A year ago, there was also an incident when a three-year old girl brought marijuana in a backpack to a Head Start Center near Pittsburgh.

A survey released in December showed that 6 percent of high school seniors are daily pot users, a very bad omen for our children’s future. The statistics are worse in marijuana states such as Colorado and Washington.  In Vancouver, Washington, 8 percent of 8th grader, 19% of 10th graders and 27% of 12th graders report recent pot use.

Each drug has at least one quality that makes worse than all other drugs, and for marijuana it is what it does to the teen-aged brain and motivation, according to Ed Gogek, author of Marijuana Debunked.

Problems on the San Juan Islands

Kathleen Bartholomew, a nurse and a grandmother in the San Juan Islands of Washington, explains what it’s like living in an area with long-time marijuana users: “Of the 7th grade pot users, 80% received the pot from their stoner parents.”

“My own granddaughter went from being a straight-A student skipping her sophomore year in a private school to a pot-smoking 15-year-old in the public school system.  Her story started in 7th grade when a few seniors taught her how to smoke marijuana at lunch,” Bartholomew explained.

San Juan Islands
Washington’s San Juan Islands are in the Puget Sound, near Seattle and British Columbia

“After having a drug coalition for 10 years, we have made zero progress in convincing teens that pot is harmful – because so many parents smoke it in the home. Of 12th graders, there was no change in their belief system after a decade of education.” Here’s a link to the drug coalition’s marijuana education page.

Also in the San Juan Islands, a young man with mental illness issues died tragically from dehydration in jail last year.  Keaton Farris suffered from bipolar disorder; a history of marijuana use would be consistent with the tragic ending.  The risks for mental illness from early marijuana use cannot be adequately addressed in an environment that glorifies pot use.  (His mom sold t-shirts in his honor at Seattle Hemp Fest,  which doesn’t prove that Keaton used  marijuana, but suggests his family had a peculiar fondness for the weed. The family has reached a settlement in the case.)

Multi-Generational Pot use in California

California has a large medical marijuana program — full of problems.  One mother was shocked to find her son first received medical marijuana at age 11 —  three years before she knew about it.  A doctor didn’t prescribe it; he got it from someone in school whose mother had a medical marijuana card. So clearly parents pass it to children, with or without their knowledge.

Another grandmother in California described how her grandson’s father went about getting him a medical marijuana card.

Parents who use marijuana go to lengths to rationalize their use of pot.  Some say they have more patience and can play better with their children while stoned.  These parents are at risk for addiction and building so much tolerance that they will have more anxiety and anger when not using.

With many parents and grandparents using pot, we seem to be creating a multi-generational society of drug addiction.  Drug addiction today is  multi-substance addiction, making the treatment more complicated and the prognosis  worse than it was in the past.

One member of AA and Narcotics Anonymous in Chico, California, explained what happens to multi-generational drug users when they try to get clean.  “I need to teach them to dress, bathe and feed the baby, brush their teeth and floss, all skills they did not learn growing up.  They must start life anew.”   Sobriety gives them hope.

Medical Marijuana,Colorado Springs
A medical pot shop in Colorado advertised using Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster.  Parents and Sesame Street objected and it was removed.

People laud the success of anti-smoking campaigns but what has changed youth smoking rates is the lack of adults who still smoke cigarettes.  It has become socially unacceptable.  How can an anti-pot campaign for kids can’t work when more adults are eating pot candy, or smoking it, and it’s advertised everywhere?

Recently a father from Washington who drove recklessly and was stoned forced his 12-year-old daughter to walk home.  Some of these parents don’t seem to be aware of the trauma they may be forcing their children to experience.  Traumatized children will be more inclined to abuse marijuana, alcohol and other drugs.

We need to break cycles of addiction if we are to have healthier adults who don’t follow their parents’ dysfunctional cycles.   Compared to 40 or 50 years ago when alcohol was the primary problem, we now have multi-substance addiction.  If we stopped substance abuse we could end about 70% of child abuse.  We will have more success in rooting out problems by getting to their roots in substance abuse, not possible when we are normalizing drug use.

Finally, we need to comply with international treaties, especially The Rights of the Child Treaty, and as long as we allow marijuana legalization, we are out of compliance with the treaties. For more information, read On Marijuana, edited by Pamela McColl, and Marijuana Debunked, by Ed Gogek, MD.

Although many very young children die from the abuse and neglect by parents who get stoned, this series concludes that the older children won’t die because of parent’s pot use.  The risks are for their long-term psychological well-being. (Read Part 1: custody problems, Part 2: treating burns from hash oil explosions. Part 3 explains the widespread problem of parents who give marijuana to their children. See our chart of the 53 deaths related to parents’ and caregivers’ pot use. )