Since 2011, at least 68 people were treated for burns caused by butane hash oil fires and explosions, at northern California burn centers, including Shriners Hospital for Children, Sacramento, and at the UC Davis Regional Burn Center.
Usually those making BHO suffer the most, but several times it has happened at homes with children. The most recent baby who was badly burned in a hash oil (BHO) explosion was a 19-month old boy at a student housing complex in Montana. The law has not kept up with the problem, as parents who engage in this deadly practice still have custody and visitation rights. Children are threatened by neighbors who do it, too.
Butane hash oil (BHO) production is a marijuana extraction process which has exploded in popularity over the past three years. The victim had burns covering 28% of the body, according to Dr. David Greenhalgh, reporting to the Sacramento Bee in August. A past president of the American Burn Association, he called hash oil burns an “epidemic.” Greenhalgh’s research in wound care, skin grafts and reconstruction make him a leading national figure in the burn field.
Thanks to quick emergency response and to the quality of emergency medical treatment available in the United States, it appears that all of the children have survived. However, we have raised a group of young adults who are so accustomed to hearing “marijuana is safe” that they have no notion of the need to protect children from the dangers pot involves.
Those who make BHO and cause the explosions–31 in Colorado, this year, 20 in San Diego County within a year, 6 in Riverside County, 6 in San Bernardino County, 6 near Portland, OR and 7 in the Puget Sound—have been extraordinarily lucky. Of those who died from hash oil explosions, at least one was in California, one in Oregon and one in Hawaii. Two of the deaths were neighbors who were affected by the fires. In Spokane, WA, a neighbor with respiratory problems died two months after the fire in January, while in Bellevue, WA, it was a former mayor of the city who died from a broken pelvis. (see previous articles on this topic)
Downloadable Fact Sheet
Get the Parents Opposed to Pot Hash Oil Facts! Download our new flyer, which describes the hash oil explosions in states which have permissive marijuana laws: POPPOT-Hash Oil Statistics.
Hash oil explosions increase with legal marijuana, as has happened up and down the west coast, including four explosions in late November, one each in California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington. There is a question as to how much lax enforcement of marijuana laws in parts of Washington, Oregon and California have allowed the practices to continue.
Fires while in the Care of Neglectful Parents
At least 2 children died by fire this year when neglectful parents smoked marijuana. BHO is not the only way marijuana users threaten children by fire, because pot-smoking parents can be “out of it” and consumed by addiction. Two-year-old Levi Welton of Sterling, Colorado, was left alone with his four-year-old brother with matches while his parents smoked marijuana with friends in another room. (The parents and his brother survived.) In Oregon, during the last week of October, a mother was high on marijuana as a fire consumed her four-year old son. Neighbors reported her too stoned to be aware and to show any emotion when her son died.
It also happened last year in a state without a legal marijuana program. In Pennsylvania woman pled guilty to leaving her 3-year-old twins to die in a fire while she left the house to see whether her marijuana had been stolen by her 15-year-old daughter. Police say the boys turned on a burner on a grease-covered stove, sparking flames that soon engulfed the house.
The cost of an addiction is putting the substance ahead of the loved ones. About 1 in 6 who begin using marijuana under age 18 become addicted, although marijuana promoters claim it is not addictive.
Oregon recently enacted a law forbidding daycare employees and operators from using medical marijuana. Let’s hope other states follow suit, and that, in family courts, states do not give custody and visitation rights to marijuana-using parents, especially those making BHO.
As California Gov Jerry Brown has said, the world is too dangerous a place for Americans not be alert by using pot. This concept applies to parenthood. Parenthood is too large a responsibility for us not to protect our children. We need not expose small children to the manufacture of BHO or put them in the care of parents who prioritize marijuana over their children. However, when neighbors make hash oil, parents may have no warnings.
Our tolerance for marijuana has taught a new generation of young adults that marijuana is safe. Making BHO is mainly done in western states, but the explosions have happened in Florida, Ohio, Massachusetts, Florida, Chicago, Michigan, Virginia, Houston. It will spread east if we don’t watch out. No longer should anyone say, “safer than alcohol” or “it’s just pot.” We have sent the wrong message, and need to replace it with a message that parenting and pot use do not mix.
Hash Oil Explosions Continue in California
At least five hash oil explosions have erupted in California over the past month while residents were using butane to extract “honey” oil from marijuana. The worst fire occurred in Walnut Creek 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.
On Tuesday, two men and one woman were arrested in Arroyo Grande, after detectives served a search warrant for a home with a butane honey oil conversion lab. A 10-month old baby was found sleeping on a mattress surrounded by marijuana, pipes and broken glass. There was also a 12-year old and a 15-year old in the home.
The most recent hash oil fire happened Wednesday night in Muscoy, San Bernardino County, east of Los Angeles. One man died and another man and a woman are in critical condition. It was the 6th event involving a marijuana lab in that county this year. The LA Times reported 20 hash oil explosions happened in San Diego County within one 14-month period of 2013-2014.
In truth, hash oil labs have replaced meth labs as the most dangerous drug manufacturing process in the US during this decade. The worst hash oil explosion occurred a year ago in Bellevue, WA.
Making BHO is becoming increasingly popular because VAPE PENs are now available. Tiny, potent “dabs” are put in the vape pens and go undetected because they don’t leave a smell or emit smoke. While marijuana today typical has 10-18% THC, the psychoactive element to bring the high, hash oil has up to 50-80% potency for a quicker, more lasting high.
“Honey,” “wax”, “dabs,” “budder,” “BHO,” “710,” “earwax,” and “shatter” are common terms for this trendy way to use marijuana. Makers follow online instructions, some shown on videos. Butane is the most popular way to make it, but not the only flammable product used.
Two men burned in Ukiah from a hash oil explosion on November 4. They had to be flown by helicopter to the hospital. The butane ignited when one of the men lit a cigarette, in the shed behind the house. Another hash oil explosion caused an estimated $100,000 to a home in Visalia, near Fresno, a week earlier.
Those who keep advocating for marijuana legalization need to consider the cost of public services for the explosions which mainly occur in California, Washington, Oregon and Colorado.
If we have legalization, we need to think about protecting the children, and if parents who endanger their children with drug usage should lose custody and visitation rights in divorce proceedings. If marijuana is legalized, explosions wouldn’t stop, as the pot promoters like to tell us.
Hash oil explosions happen less frequently on the east coast, and in other parts of the country. However, 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. Also in October, a 20-year old boy started a fire in his parents’ house in Jackson, Michigan. He was a medical marijuana cardholder.
We need to ask why many “medical marijuana patients” are so addicted that they ask for these quick highs. Could it be that medical marijuana providers are encouraging addiction to keep them permanently incapacitated? The man in Missoula had been burned previously, yet he continued to make hash oil, illegally. We need to recognize how addictive this marijuana extract is!
Get the Parents Opposed to Pot Hash Oil Facts! Download our new flyer, which describes the hash oil explosions in states which have permissive marijuana laws: POPPOT-Hash Oil Statistics.
Extreme Marijuana–Dabbing and Vaping Dangers
Part 2 of 2
Parents beware, the marijuana culture is promoting extreme highs that can get your kids hurt. Vaping and dabbing are new ways to get high that are extremely sudden, dangerous and eliminate the telltale odor, making marijuana use harder to detect.
Drugs like marijuana are addictive and once a teen gets swept up into the drug subculture, over-use and abuse of drugs is likely. The search for the next big ‘high’ and the impaired judgment caused by drug use is leading some teens to go too far.
Check out this TV News Story about this issue.
Marijuana Becomes Extreme ‘Sport’
Several “weed blogs” and numerous online videos promote the popularity of dabbing.
Dabbing is inhaling the potent vapors from concentrated marijuana oil which is up to 80% THC, the psychoactive element in marijuana. In comparison, a pot cigarette contains up to 18% THC. The intense high from concentrated pot oil can literally knock you unconscious. According to an account of a NORML event in California, one person nearly cracked their skull on the sidewalk and another experienced marijuana smoker broke her two front teeth when she passed out cold after ‘dabbing’.
Another grave danger lies in the process of making homemade concentrated ‘hash’ oil. Concentrated marijuana oil is also known as Butane Hash Oil (BHO). It is made by firing up the marijuana plant material with butane, a highly flammable and toxic solvent. This intense burn releases the THC and other compounds out of the plant and concentrates them. The butane then needs to be removed by further heating the concentrate. Adding heat to a highly flammable substance is dangerous business. Any remaining butane becomes a gas at room temperature and easily ignites, even with a small spark of static electricity.
Home Chemistry is Explosive
There have been 31 butane hash oil home explosions in Colorado just during the first 9 months of 2014. California has had an even higher number; numerous have happened on Oregon and Washington, too. Amateur oil makers are now burn victims and properties were destroyed and neighbors put at risk of harm. See PopPot’s recent article, Hash Oil Explosions Rise this Year.
This more potent form of marijuana, BHO, can be added to food. Or it is smoked in a variety of ways. Hash oil bong (called an oil rig) or e-cigarette vaporizer (a technique called vaping) are among the two most popular devices used to smoke BHO.
The Hidden High
Unlike smoking marijuana, which gives off a noticeable, pungent odor, vaping hash oil is odorless and discrete and can go unnoticed. This means that like an e-cigarette smoker, a marijuana smoker can ‘vape’ in public places, work or even school without fear of consequences or reprisal. This makes vaping marijuana concentrate very appealing to addicts. It means those most likely to abuse the drug and become dependent on it can become more reckless about the use of the drug, thereby risking an overdose, and posing a danger to others.
Even pot culture observers are warning about the risks of vaping and dabbing. Vaping is growing in popularity, because it allows legal marijuana to be smoked in illegal places, such as ball games, malls, theatres, schools. There is also the risk of not getting all the butane out of the finished product. According to Mother Jones magazine, “When BHO is improperly made, it can be tainted with toxins.”
The two main arguments in favor of legalizing marijuana are: 1) that it is not harmful and 2) that it is impossible to overdose. With dabbing and vaping, we know differently.
For more on this topic read the San Francisco Weekly article, Thanks to “Dabbing,” It Is Possible to Overdose on Marijuana.
See Part 1 What is Dabbing, and Why Should Parents Worry
Downloadable Fact Sheet
Get the Parents Opposed to Pot Hash Oil Facts! Download our new flyer, which describes the hash oil explosions in states which have permissive marijuana laws: POPPOT-Hash Oil Statistics.
Marijuana, GMO Lobbyists Pour Money into Oregon
(Second in a series on Oregon) Measure 91 to tax and regulate marijuana is not so much a vote about legalizing marijuana as it is a vote to commercialize it. Oregon decriminalized marijuana in 1973!
“Commercialization’s goal is to privatize profit and socialize the costs,” explained one of our members in Colorado.
“Marijuana legalization rakes in another $800,000 from big out-of-state donors” was the headline in today’s Oregonian. The money will fund a $2.3 million advertising campaign.
As of October 17, the out-of-state PACs and donors have given over $4 million — 24 x the amount Vote No on 91 has raised. Yes on 91 asks Oregonians to expand its pot industry and allow recreational pot shops. — quite a stretch for the only coastal state that doesn’t commercialize its beaches. (Medical marijuana sellers who recruit so-called patients along Venice beach in California wouldn’t find it as easy in Oregon.)
No on 91 is led by conviction, not money. As the Register-Guard reports, almost all of its money is from in-state, and there’s a large group of volunteers. Oregon residents and voters tend to be independent and less corporate, so they may not follow the pack.
Big Money Pushes Legalization Ballot; Monsanto Gives to GMO Opposition
Vote No on 91 has received most of its $168,200 from in-state sources. (Oregon has another ballot issue that is also being watched nationwide, Measure 92, which would require labels on genetically-modified (GMO) foods. Wealthy donors and corporate interests from both sides of that issue have donated millions. Most recently, Monsanto gave 2.5 million in opposition to Measure 92. Oregon Right to Know, in favor of Measure 92, has raised over $5.4 million, while the opposition has raised $15 million. Dr. Mercola, Ben & Gerry’s Ice Cream are amongst the supporters. )
Unlike the GMO issue, the forces against marijuana legalization have no corporate donors. Marijuana legalization advocates often claim that pharmaceutical companies fuel the opposition to legalization. It’s a false notion, because the opposition comes from the public, the prevention community and parents.
Most of the money to fund marijuana originates in the deep pockets of hedge fund billionaire George Soros, donor of Drug Policy Action, and the family of Progressive Insurance founder, Peter Lewis. Mr. Lewis died in November, but his children have continued the donations. They aren’t Oregon residents.
From Ballotpedia the Top 5 contributors:
| Donor | Amount |
|---|---|
| Drug Policy Action | $1,350,000 |
| New Approach PAC | $950,000 |
| New Approach Oregon | $700,000 |
| Drug Policy Action Fund for Oregon | $240,000 |
| Philip Harvey | $150,000 |
While Oregon’s 2 gubernatorial candidates, Gov. John Kitzenhaber and Dennis Richardson , support GMO labels, they adamantly oppose Measure 91. Gov. Kitzenhaber is a physician.
Thinking people of Oregon, please think deeply about this issue.