710 WITHOUT THE 9-1-1: DO NOT Extract at Home with Butane!

In collectives
throughout California, butane-extracted products such as wax, dabs, shatter and
butane honey oil (BHO) are best-sellers, and the demand continues to skyrocket.
Oddly enough, even though possession and sales of BHO can be legal, the
production of BHO remains illegal.

California Health and Safety Code 11379.6, also known
as the “drug lab statue,” prohibits illegal production of drugs, narcotics or
controlled substances. As written, the code does not specifically state
producing BHO is illegal. Rather, it prohibits engaging in manufacturing
illegal substances and punishes those who endanger the public using
toxic chemicals in production. Then in 2008, the California Court of
Appeals in People v. Bergen ruled
that, because butane is highly combustible and dangerous, Health and Safety Code 11379.6, applies to make the
production of medical cannabis concentrates illegal.

Currently, using
butane to extract cannabis concentrates
is a felony, punishable by three, five or seven years in county jail and a
$50,000 maximum fine. In addition, if children live, are present or are harmed
where BHO is manufactured, an additional term of up to five years may be
added.

SB-212 Raises the Stakes

 A new bill,
proposed by California Senator Tony Mendoza of Southeast L.A., would make
producing concentrates at home very risky. His bill, SB-212, unanimously
approved by the Senate on June 3, 2015, proposes to add an “aggravating factor”
to cases of those convicted of making concentrates in their homes.

Mendoza’s bill was drafted after multiple instances where drug
laboratories were found in residential neighborhoods throughout California.
Mendoza said state and federal law-enforcement officers located more than 800
illicit drug labs on private and public property and in close proximity to
schools. For example, recently the media exploded with reports of a daycare in
San Bernardino County with a hash lab in the back.

 To combat this unregulated BHO production, Mendoza’s
bill would press judges to lean toward seven years when sentencing defendants
convicted of at-home production. Additionally, the bill gives judges the power
to impose an additional prison sentence for persons convicted of manufacturing
BHO within 300 feet of an occupied residence.

The bill still
needs approval by the full legislature and by Governor Jerry Brown to become
law.

Industrial Production Should
be Legalized and Regulated

Currently, we see
two types of facilities where BHO is produced. There are regulated, safe and
highly controlled labs in industrial warehouses that employ state certified
extraction machines, and take every precautionary measure possible. These
machines are completely legal in the state of California to extract anything
from a legal substance, i.e. making rose water from rose petals! Conversely,
due to the ease of access to online videos and inexpensive supplies, a highly
dangerous, unregulated production of BHO in homes has become a new trend.

In the face of
this new dichotomy, the “drug lab statute” seems to be overbroad, failing to
differentiate between the two production conditions. The extraction-lab
explosions that make a spectacle in news headlines, more often than not, are
productions of BHO in homes under less than safe conditions. In an
overgeneralization, the extraction-lab explosions are now named the new
“meth-lab explosion” in the Golden State, further blurring any distinction
between two facility types that produce BHO.

The real problem
here stems from the vague and ambiguous set of laws that govern medical
cannanbis in California. The unclear regulations not only prohibit the unsafe
and hazardous conditions in which BHO is produced at home, but also prohibit
professional labs that employ the utmost safety precautions and regulations.

Use Cold Water

For those who do
want to extract at home, there are alternative ways to make hash oil that are
not only legal but safe. The use of C02, while not specifically addressed by
lawmakers as illegal, is probably defensible in court because C02, a safe,
non-flammable substance, poses no public threat. Further, the cold water method
of making hash oils is addressed and held to be 100 percent legal.