As soon as they find out what it is, the tabloids are going to freak out about dabbing. This new technique for getting stoned involves young people heating a pinhead’s worth of super-concentrated cannabis oil with a blowtorch, then inhaling it through a glass pipe. For detractors, it’s known as “cannabis crack”.

“Imagine a joint is equivalent to a pint of lager,” says Sam (not his real name) from the London Cannabis Club. “Doing a dab is like downing a quarter pint of vodka.”

Even seasoned smokers are surprised by the strength. Street cannabis has around a 15% concentration of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the primary psychoactive ingredient. A dab has up to 90%. Those scare stories about skunk are going to look dated very quickly.

But like most tabloid scares, it will be misguided. Dabbing is just an extreme aspect of a complex technological and cultural change, at the heart of which is the growing popularity of cannabis oil – a substance produced by putting hash through a process of butane or CO2 extraction.

You can use oil for dabbing or, at a much lower concentration, in e-cigarette pens, allowing users to get stoned in public without the police knowing. Or you can apply it to the skin or gums for a milder high. You can even turn it into a cannabis suppository, if that’s your thing.

“Dabbing is a very extreme example of concentrated cannabis ingestion,” says Amanda Reiman, the marijuana law and policy manager at the Drug Policy Alliance. “But it’s just a small part of what can be done with cannabis oil.”

Cannabis oil being used for its medicinal effects. Photograph: Joe Amon/Denver Post via Getty Images

Oil finally offers the opportunity to deliver the medicinal effects of cannabis without the trippy ones. The same process that allows producers to create super-concentrated cannabis for dabbing also lets them cater for people who need cannabis for severe pain but don’t want to be stoned all the time.

The versatility of cannabis oil rests on the relative levels of cannabidiols, which deliver many of the medical benefits of the plant but aren’t psychoactive, and THC, which also has medical benefits but is very psychoactive indeed.

Growers used to affect the levels by breeding certain strains together, but it’s a messy process. Oil allows far greater control.

“We can now take the plant, extract the active ingredients and evenly distribute them in a standardised manner,” Reiman says. “We can turn this unreliable raw material into something that is going to be the same every time.”

In that sense, dabbing and medicinal oils are products of the commoditisation of weed after legalisation in certain US states. Producers are tailoring aspects of what the plant does for different consumers: hard psychedelics for young people, and pain relief for those who just want the medicinal benefits. And what started in the US is quickly making its way to the UK.

Watch this space: the big tabloid dabbing scare is coming.