Honey oil
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- For the honey bee produced fluid see honey.
Honey oil is a specific type of hash oil produced by some solvents, most commonly butane, and isopropanol. Sometimes called butane hash oil or BHO (for how it is made), or simply "oil", it is traditionally a dark viscous liquid made by solvent extraction of cannabis resin.[1] Honey oil is considerably more potent than cannabis itself, due to its extreme purity and lack of other plant matter. Authors Peter G. Stafford and Jeremy Bigwood describe hash oil this way;
Grass is to hashish or charas, as beer and wine are to hard liquor
– Psychedelics encyclopedia [2]
It is commonly consumed by scraping it onto the inner rim of a pipe bowel. It can be mixed with tobacco or cannabis.[3]
Honey oil is a psychoactive drug in the same class as cannabis, from which it is derived, and contains a similar blend of cannabinoids. The THC content of honey oil is variable based on the particular strain of cannabis from which it was derived, and is similar to that of hashish. The name honey refers to the color and consistency of the oil; there is no actual honey involved.
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[edit] Overview
Hash oil is made by separating the resins of a cannabis plant from the plant material using one of a number of solvents. Ethanol is a common solvent used in the preparation of honey oil, but other solvents may include: methanol, isopropyl alcohol, various highly volatile non-polar liquid solvents (e.g. hexane, toluene, xylene, naphtha) and butane. Solvents are selected based on their ability to dissolve cannabis resins and volatility, leaving minimal chemical residue. Oil produced from solvents other than Butane are considered to be Hash Oil or Cannabis Oil.
"Honey oil" refers specifically to the colour of the oil regardless of the process used to extract it. The extraction process, if done properly, will produce oil of golden colour, similar to honey, due to the very low temperature of liquid butane only the cannabidoids (which are fat molecules) will not freeze and will dissolve in the butane. Also the butane is extremely volatile at room temperature and will evaporate quickly leaving almost no residual traces. Other solvents like ethanol or naphtha will dissolve more than cannabidoids, they will collect a large quantity of other plant chemicals such as chlorophyll. This will produce an oil with a much darker color. Sometimes even black as tar when multiple solvent washing of the plant material is done to increase yield. Naphtha based oil notoriously contains amounts of residual naphtha enough to influence the smell, taste and effects of the product. Many users report feeling sick or having headaches when smoking honey oil extracted by naphtha, hence it is generally accepted that the product poses a greater health risk than with butane-extracted oil. Alcohol-extracted oil also contains plant sugars, which caramelize when smoked to produce a harsh taste.
Generally the whole cannabis plant can be used to produce honey oil or other types of hash oil. Some will use only the flowers of the cannabis plant to improve yield since they contain more cannabidoids. This gives an advantage only when using other solvents than butane, because it will improve the ratio of cannabidoids to other plant chemicals. With the butane extraction it will also increase the yield a little bit since there are more cannabidoids to collect, but it will not improve the quality and purity of the oil. Also cannabis flowers are much more expensive than other plant material such as leaves and stems so in the end you get more product but it costs more to produce.
[edit] Dangers
The solvent used is a flammable gas released as liquid that will have to be allowed to evaporate back into gas. This produces fumes that are highly combustible. Other dangers include, placing all the ingredients into a container that is soaked with butane for a short period after the process. Any accidental spark or flame in an unventilated space may cause severe injury or death.
[edit] Physical effects
The effects of extracted resin are comparable to smoking the same plant from which it was extracted, but often intensified due to its much higher potency. In the case of Honey Oil, several small drops can produce effects comparable to a much greater amount of plant material. This can sometimes cause overwhelming effects if the extract's high concentration of cannabinoids is not taken into account.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ King, Leslie A. (2003). The Misuse of Drugs Act. Royal Society of Chemistry. pp. 75-76. ISBN 978-0854046256.
- ^ Stafford, Bigwood, Peter, Jeremy (1993). Psychedelics encyclopedia. Ronin Publishing. pp. 215. ISBN 978-0914171515.
- ^ Kuhn, Swartzwelder, Wilson, Wilson, Foster, Cynthia, Scott, Wilkie, Leigh Heather , Jeremy (2003). Buzzed. W. W. Norton & Company; 2 Rev Upd edition. pp. 139-140. ISBN 978-0393324938.
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