I love cannabis concentrates….bho, co2, ice wax, bubble hash, crumble, oil, shatter, live resin, frosting, pressed, whatever. When made well, concentrates are a fun and transendant way to get stoned. High concentration THC has existed for hundreds of years and humans are better off for it. However, controversy around the production of concentrates threatens further progress for cannabis legalization and could even cause a backlash in public opinion.

Public fear regarding bho production is well documented as media and law enforcement repeatedly play up every “hash lab explosion” in a desperate attempt to stigmatize the growing popularity of extracts and cannabis users. Unfortunately dab culture, with it’s millennial bent, plays right into negative stereotypes highlighted by butane torches, elaborate glass rigs, and ignorant douchery at public cannabis events (seriously, don’t celebrate a convicted cocaine trafficker on your stage). This narrative has so dominated public discourse around cannabis recently that California passed a bill ammending an existing law previously targeting methamphetamine production. This bill added butane hash oil extraction making it an aggravated crime if occurring “within 300 feet of an occupied residence or any structure where another person was present.” In a new era of near rational public discussion about cannabis regulations, in one of the most politically progressive states in the nation, a law attempted to outlaw (as opposed to regulate) the production of a product accounting for as much as 45% of sales in Bay Area dispensaries (and probably the state). Clearly, the scales are tipped against extract production in the public eye.

Much has been written about the impact of dab culture on legalization, but recently Russ Belville wrote an amazing piece on marijuanapolitics.com, an Oregon-centric marijuana legalization advocacy blog, detailing the sordid history of parent backlash against national marijuana decriminalization efforts in the late 70’s. If you are unfamiliar you must read this article in order to learn. You know, those unaware of history are doomed to repeat it and all that stuff.

To summarize, marijuana was nearly decriminalized at a national level during the early years of the weed friendly Carter administration. But in 1978 Keith Stroup, head of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), leaked a story to the media that Carter’s drug policy adviser, Peter Bourne, had snorted cocaine at a NORML Christmas party the year prior. Why would he do this? Ego, pride, stupidity at it’s highest level, who knows…cocaine is a hell of a drug though…and it was used openly and enthusiastically among marijuana advocacy groups up until the early 80’s. This public embrace of cocaine by marijuana reformers is widely considered to be responsible for the subsequent public backlash against their efforts and spawned the renewal of Nixon’s war on drugs during the Reagan administration and following decades.

Ironically, Keith Stroup, the very man who fought his whole adult life for the liberalization of marijuana laws and was nearly successful yet almost single-handedly also responsible for more than two decades of international repression of marijuana users, just wrote an article published on Marijuana.com warning of the risks to the legalization movement posed by marijuana extracts. Nobody would know better than him.

I understand bho extraction probably poses less of a risk to blowing up a home than turkey fryers, but to Democratic leaning soccer moms who will be at the polls in droves in 2016, that shit won’t matter. These are the type of people we need to vote in favor of whatever pro-cannabis legislation is on ballots. So be smart, don’t be a douche, know how to articulate why regulation is better than prohibition, and whatever you do….don’t blow shit up…for all of us.