Recorded Books Inc. - Beyond Buds: Marijuana Extracts - Hash, Vaping, Dabbing, Edibles And Medicines

Beyond Buds: Marijuana ExtractsHash, Vaping, Dabbing, Edibles & Medicines

by Ed Rosenthal with David Downs

Copyright 2014 Ed Rosenthal

Published by Quick American

A Division of Quick Trading Co.

Piedmont, CA, USA

eISBN: 978-1-936807-24-6

Second Printing

Editor and Project Director: Elizabeth Fitzer

Contributors: David Downs, William Dolphin

Cover Design: Jennifer Touli Voss

Photo Editors: Jennifer Touli Voss, Darcy Thompson

Cover Photography

Top: Mel Frank

Bottom left: Ed Rosenthal

Bottom right: Saucey Santos

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014909265

The material offered in this book is presented as information that should be available to the public. The Publisher does not advocate breaking the law. We urge readers to support secure passage of fair marijuana legislation.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the specific written permission of the Publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Dedicated to the Shulgins

Pioneers in mind exploration

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We would like to thank the following individuals for their contributions, help, and support: Addison DeMoura and Steep Hill Halent Lab; Rick Pfrommer and Harborside Health Center; Bubbleman; Elemental Wellness; @fobextractions; Will F.; Dave Hodges of A2C2; HopeNets Steve and Cathy; James and Holly of West Valley Tinctures; Mila Jansen; Jesse of A-Bear Concentrates; JonPaul and Scott from Bhang Chocolate; Jane Klein; Kenny M.; Marisa Lagos; Mark G.; Mel Frank; Jon Mendoza; Nikka T of Essential Extracts; John Oram, PhD, Cofounder/Senior Scientist of CW Analytical Laboratories; POP Naturals; Ramona Rubin of docGreens; Rumpelstiltskin Extracts (i.e., RumpWax); Keith Woody; Josh Wurzer, President of SC Laboratories; Jennifer Carson; Shelli Newhart, PhD; Nadim Sabella; and Jason Schulz.

Franklins Tower

Some come to laugh their past away

Some come to make it just one more day

Whichever way your pleasure tends

If you plant ice youre gonna harvest wind

Roll away the dew

Roll away the dew

Roll away the dew

Roll away the dew!!!!

Robert Hunter

Courtesy of the Grateful Dead

Contents

This book is about the world of marijuana beyond the bud.

The smoked bud can be helpful medically or a pleasant event. But it is only one way to experience the wonders that cannabis offers. This book is a guide to the many ways to prepare and use cannabis, beyond buds.

The quest for concentrates and their growing popularity is a return in part to pre-prohibition tradition, when cannabis was mostly ingested rather than smoked. Smoking is largely an artifact of prohibition. Before marijuana became illegal it was available in tinctures, pills, salves, and drinks, and one of its concentrates, hashish, was eaten. Without processed marijuana, users moved to inhalation only when other means of ingestion were unavailable. Now that prohibition is ending, aficionados and patients are returning to traditional methods of use and finding new ways of ingesting it.

For gardeners and farmers concentrates offer a solution to a conundrum they face. Parts of the plant contain THC but are not suitable for smoking. It makes sense to salvage these cannabinoids from the leaf and trim and tiny nugs, which comprise one-quarter to one-eighth the weight of the yield. To use, it just has to be collected. The collection and processing of this material is the subject of this book.

This is a great book if you are interested in alternatives to smoking bud, whether for medical or recreational use. It is a guide to both making and using these new marijuana products. It will provide you with some of the easiest and safest ways to make concentrates such as oils, waxes, budders, and shatter, as well as edibles, tinctures, and external preparations.

Leaf products used to be called trash and were given away to cannabis-poor friends for baking or smoking. The moniker was not the result of low potency. Mexican marijuana often contains similar THC levels. The problem is the taste and harshness of the smoke, which is rough and acrid, with a high level of burning vegetation that hides aroma and taste. No one has a method of converting leaf into sweet bud; instead, the techniques described in this book separate cannabinoid-bearing glands from the rest of the vegetation. Glands are the only potent part of the plant, so after they are removed, the vegetation can be discarded.

The idea for my first book on using marijuana leaf/trim/small nugs, Ask Ed: Marijuana GoldTrash to Stash, sifted through my mind for many years.

In 1979 the Tilt Pipe, a sophisticated globe-type vaporizer, a precursor to the Volcano, was released. With this device, you could use the low-quality pot generally available at the time and just inhale the essence. It made quite a difference. Unfortunately, the venture was doomed to failure because the War on Drugs was ramping up. Paraphernalia was outlawed, and since the Tilt had no other use than vaporizing pot, and because it had no redemptive value such as for use with tobacco, it became illegal.

In 1987 the late John Gallardi released his Master Sifter. This device used vibration to knock the glands from grass. It was the first commercial unit available for the purpose. He also made a rolling tray/sifter with a stainless steel mesh surface and a sliding glass gland collector. I still use one of these as a rolling tray.

About the same time John was working on his trays, Nevil Schumacher of the Seed Bank showed me a piece of water hash he had made with Rob Clarke. It was an amazingly hard ball. Nevil chipped a piece off of the brittle material. When he lit it in a pipe, it melted and bubbled. He told me they had made the amazingly potent ball from leaf and trim using a water process.

Then, in the nineties, Mila Jansen, located in Holland, invented the Pollinator, and the bags for making water hash. These two devices and their imitators changed the way quantities of leaf and trim could be processed. The other development was the ongoing legalization of medical marijuana and devices for its use in states all over the country.