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Medical marijuana patients, including Mason, who wouldn't give his last name, gathered one recent afternoon at a social club at the Alternative Wellness Club House, located at Southeast 72nd Avenue and Mitchell Street, to dab butane hash oil. Mason was at the club with his mother, Melanie, who referred to him as a "master dabber." "He can do one gram in one inhale," she said. "That's what's known as a master dabber." Dabbing is a popular method of consuming hash. A metal or glass compartment, called a nail, is attached to a specially designed bong, known as an oil rig. Typically, the nail is heated with a torch. A small amount of hash oil is placed on the nail, causing it to vaporize. The consumer then inhales the vapor through the pipe.

(Beth Nakamura/ The Oregonian)

The Oregonian this week published a series examining the butane hash oil phenomenon in Oregon. The extremely popular product, which delivers a fast and powerful high, is made with an explosive solvent, a process that's landed 17 people in a Portland burn unit in the past 16 months.

Oregonian staff writer Noelle Crombie and staff photographer Beth Nakamura will take part in a live chat on BHO in Oregon at 11 a.m. Wednesday. Feel free to leave questions in advance of the chat or join in at 11 a.m.

Meanwhile, here's a look at the series:

-- Growing demand for BHO -- which, according to one marijuana industry survey, accounts for about 17 percent of sales in Oregon medical marijuana dispensaries -- is met by an unregulated and largely underground industry that plays out in garages, basements and kitchens. A spark from something as ordinary as a refrigerator compressor can set off a fiery explosion.

-- BHO is often consumed in a process called "dabbing," which involves a specially equipped bong and a torch. A tiny piece of hash oil is placed in a super hot compartment of the bong, where it vaporizes. The consumer then inhales the vapor, which offers a powerful high.

-- Hash is as old as marijuana cultivation itself and BHO, too, has been around for a few years. But newer production methods that do a better job of stripping hash oil of residual solvent have made the product more popular, say BHO consumers. Home producers often misunderstand the risks associated with using butane. The gas can quickly fill an enclosed space, where something as ordinary as a pilot light can ignite a fireball.

-- Kevin Tveisme, 28, was in his Gresham garage with a buddy last spring making a popular form of hash oil, something he'd learned to do from watching YouTube clips and talking with friends. It wasn't his first time using butane, a cheap and flammable solvent used in lighters, to extract tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, from marijuana flowers and leaves. But this time it went horribly wrong.

-- The Oregonian documented nine major BHO-related blasts in Oregon since 2011, four of them in homes or hotel rooms where children, including a newborn, were present. In one case last year, a 12-year-old girl suffered multiple broken bones after leaping from the second floor of a Medford apartment building rocked by a butane explosion.

-- Some commercial BHO producers and marijuana consumers are pushing for state regulation of BHO in Oregon.

-- What's hash? How is "shatter" different from "wax?" Check out this glossary of hash oil terms.

-- Noelle Crombie