In the current decade, BHO labs have replaced meth labs as the most dangerous drug manufacturing process in the US.  A slew of explosions are the consequence of changing public policies to benefit the 7 or 8 % of adults who use pot.

Marijuana users — a very small minority of adults — are fighting to become a larger part of the population.  “It’s about freedom,” they cry.   What about the freedom of non-users who don’t want their apartment to blow up and don’t want their fire department budget wasted on unnecessary explosions?   FEMA issued a bulletin.  In Rancho Cordova, an explosion last year left 140 people homeless!

California averages one butane hash oil fire every week.  These fires happen when pot users make a marijuana extraction called BHO for short.   The highly flammable butane can cause a quick explosive shatter if it hits a spark.  “Shatter” is one of the nicknames for this  golden substance.  Other nicknames are “710,” “dabs”, “wax,” “honey oil,” “earwax,” “budder,” or simply, hash oil.

It’s more  expensive to of buy the marijuana concentrate sat a dispensary or pot shop.  To save money, amateurs are using homemade recipes and manufacture hash oil at home (remember meth labs?).   The BHO can then be used for dabbing and vaping.  

Teens are smoking highly potent dabs with ecigarettes.  Law enforcement tried in vain to get marijuana concentrates banned in California.

People will use apartments, hotels, homes and cars to make the BHO. It’s smoked in tiny dabs that can be either hard or waxy.  All that’s needed is one “dab” can to give a high that lasts all day.   As users get more and more addicted, they crave a stronger high and a quicker fix.

Promoted in weed circles and in the International Cannabis Cup, dabs are cheaper to make than to buy,  about half the price.  Video instructions can be found all over the Internet.

The potent “dabs” can placed in vape pens and go undetected. Parents may not notice,  because vape pens don’t leave a smell or emit smoke.  Vape pens have added to the popularity of dabbing.  Dabs also can be smoked in bongs made just for dabbing.

Walnut Creek had a massive BHO fire on Halloween, when a 4-unit apartment building went up in flames.  The entire street was affected, and a total of 12 apartment units were uninhabitable after the fire was put out.    

The LA Times reported 20 hash oil explosions in San Diego County within one 14-month period of 2013-2014.  A motel fire in San Diego caused $1.5 million in damage in 2013.  (see photo above)

A fire near Sacramento in June, 2014, left 140 people homeless. Doctors at Northern California burn centers, including Shriners Children’s Hospital and UC Davis Medical Center, reported having  treated 68 people for burns since 2010.  The average patient had 28% of the body burned.

Sometimes children are hurt, or they need to be rescued from upper floors of the apartments, houses, condos.  A hash oil blast in Missoula, Montana, happened in a university housing complex, where a student’s boyfriend was making BHO and endangering her toddler.  The man, woman and child had to be treated for injuries. The 25-year old amateur had been burned previously, yet he continued to make hash oil, illegally.  We need to recognize how addictive this marijuana extract is!

We need to ask why many “medical marijuana patients” are so addicted that they ask for these quick highs.  In October, a 20-year old boy started a BHO fire in his parents’ house in Jackson, Michigan.  He was a medical marijuana cardholder.