At high noon in central Phoenix the yellow desert sun bakes the white canopy tents, a rough circle in a parking lot, bringing to mind so many covered wagons hunkered on an asphalt prairie, plumes of light gauge smoke rising from each, swirling away in the enervated breeze with the thumping bass from the sound system and the lung-rattling coughs of self-styled hash oil, or "dab" connoisseurs, a good many of whom wear expensive glass pipes around their necks, a fortune in pendy rigs on casual display.

This Phoenix edition of the Secret Cup, called the Desert Regional, is the last stop on the 2014 circuit, the sixth city in the competition, which is only in its second year. The Secret Cup Nationals will be held in December in Las Vegas. Only the top three finishers from each region will be eligible. It will not be open to the public.

Oh yeah.

And one more thing.

While it is legal in all marijuana states to buy marijuana extracts—in the form of various products, from waxes and budders to cookies and pills—it is illegal to extract hash oil in most states, including California, which is considered the forefront of extracting.

*****

Behind a folding table a guy called Captain is working the crowd with the zeal of a self-made man. He's pushing a product called proDANKazine, 1,000 mg of essential THC extract in a cherry syrup, marketed in a small red bottle with an ironically fake pharmacy label—the address on West Kush Avenue, a takeoff on Promethazine, the prescription narcotic cough syrup popular in some circles, known as Purple Drank.

For $35, Captain will sell you a bottle with four ounces of hash extract, four servings (unless you favor a heavier high). For $10, he'll l pour you up a drank in double Styrofoam cups. He's got grape, of course; also orange soda and Sprite. Unpredictably, Dr. Brown's cream would become the favorite as the weekend passed and the supplies dwindled. This sizzrup for stoners is a collaboration between Stoned Ape Extractions and the Mr. Bubble Extracts. They've also got hash oil gummy bears. (On the following Monday, a story on the front page of the local section of the Los Angeles Times would feature a similar product. Seems it's becoming popular in retirement homes—marijuana sizzrupforseniors.)

A small crowd has gathered at the Stoned Ape booth, a random convergence of patients bound together by their enthusiasm for marijuana extracts—a father and son who look like they could be at the Lions Club barbecue; an old hippy with a Bunsen burner in a custom holster; a faded flower child all in purple and wrapped with scarves; a suicide girl type with piercings; a pair of excited high school boys trying to look like they belong.

In fact, only a very few people truly belong within frame of this picture—a snapshot from the public expo that accompanies the Secret Cup, a sort of mini-version of a High Times Cannabis Cup and expo, only this one is devoted solely to artisanal hash makers. Organizers say frankly that their event doesn't make much money. "It's all about the 30 local and national extract artists who get together in each city," says co-founder Jeremy Norrie, for the purpose of smoking and judging each other's products—and advancing their art in the quickly morphing field of extracting concentrates. No mere smokefest, there are all the trappings of a bonafide trial—grading sheets, a website for tabulating scores, anonymous entries.

And a shit ton of dabs.

It will take Captain's boss, James Sandwich Johnstone, a half a day of epic tasting to judge them all.

Mike Sager

More than 17 people have been recently busted for extracting by a DEA-led task force in San Diego County. Much of the objection from officials stems from the use of highly volatile butane gas to extract the oil from the plants. There have been explosions and deaths. One news item cites a man on fire running down the street in Hollywood fashion.

Of course, until small-scale, artisanal extraction is made legal and licensable, we will continue to have this culture of back alley labs, a hodgepodge of the best and the worst which favors only the large companies, like those in Colorado, which extract concentrates in mass quantities and have somewhat less regard for the rapidly advancing science/art that the extractors at the Secret Cup speak about so passionately—guess who hates the rank amateurs even more than they hate the cops?

As more and more states pass medical or recreational cannabis laws, the role of oils and extracts has become more central. Not only have the stigmas of smoking and the skunky smell of marijuana flowers soured legislators on weed—they have also led patients to seek other ways to use marijuana more discreetly. In the newly passed New York state medical marijuana law, due to take effect in about a year, only oils and extracts will be sanctioned. Weed smoking is specifically prohibited.

At the closing awards ceremony, with pregnant black storm clouds rolling in, lightening on the horizon, much was made by Secret Cup cofounder Daniel de Sailles about safety. But the real reason for their gatherings, he said, was "to continue to raise extraction to an art."

In more practical terms, Treesap's Johnstone put this way: "I want to know what the fuck I'm smoking. Don't you?"

After a long weekend of tasting, here are the winners of the Desert Region. I can personally vouch for them all . . .

Connoisseur's Choice

#5 Glorious Extracts - Pluto's Fire Shatter

3rd Over All

#9 Arizona Cannabis Society - Grand Daddy Purple Shatter

2nd Over All

#25 Witsofire - Professor Chaos Shatter

1st Over All

#28 WaxeyGordon - White Fire OG Live Resin

Mike Sager Mike Sager is a bestselling author and award-winning reporter who's been a contributor to Esquire for thirty years.

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