Pubdate: Mon, 15 Jul 2013
Source: Morning Sun (Mt. Pleasant, MI)
Copyright: 2013 Associated Press
Contact:   http://www.themorningsun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3938

LEGAL POT PROMPTS A QUESTION: WHAT ABOUT HASH?

SEATTLE (AP) - Jim Andersen has a 40-year history with hashish, the 
concentrated cannabis sometimes referred to as the cognac of the 
marijuana world.

When he served in the Air Force in Southeast Asia, he said he 
smuggled it home in his boots. When he was in grad school in 
California, he made it with a centrifuge in a lab after hours.

So when Washington was on the verge of legalizing the sale of taxed 
pot last fall, Andersen decided to move back to his home state and 
turn his hobby into a full-time, legitimate paycheck - a business 
that would supply state-licensed, recreational marijuana stores with 
high-quality hash oil.

"Every major culture that has marijuana associated with it has hash 
associated with it as well," said Andersen, whose company, XTracted, 
already has two Seattle locations serving medical marijuana 
dispensaries. He said his business would help prevent such pot 
extracts from ending up on the black market.

Substance abuse experts are concerned that such increasingly popular, 
extremely potent and potentially dangerous pot extracts will be sold 
and that state regulators' interpretation of the recreational 
marijuana law will allow people to buy vastly more hash than they 
need for personal use.

That, they fear, will increase the chances that some of it will end 
up in the black market out of state.

"It's a concern not just for our kids, but for kids in neighboring 
states as well," said Derek Franklin, president of Washington 
Association for Substance Abuse and Violence Prevention.

The legal-weed law, passed by voters last fall, allows adults over 21 
to possess up to an ounce of dried pot, 16 ounces of pot-infused 
solids such as brownies, or 72 ounces of infused liquids such as 
soda. When the state-licensed stores open sometime early next year, 
that's how much people will be allowed to buy.

The law precluded the sale of pure hash and hash oil, but didn't 
specifically address concentrated marijuana sales. That's led to a 
conversation about hash's place in the new legal-pot world.

The regulators at Washington's Liquor Control Board, who are charged 
with overseeing the creation of the new legal pot industry, issued 
draft rules this month saying hash and hash oil can be used in 
"marijuana-infused products" - even if the product that's being 
infused is just a drop of olive oil or glycerin, for example.

In effect, the stores can get around the ban on hash-or hash-oil 
sales by simply adding a minuscule amount of some other substance to 
what is otherwise nearly pure THC, the primary high-inducing compound 
in cannabis.

Hash oils can sell for $40, $60 or more per gram, depending on 
quality - meaning more tax revenue for the state. If such extracts 
are considered a "marijuana-infused product," people would be allowed 
to buy up to 16 ounces of oils in solid form, or 72 ounces in liquid 
form. Such transactions could run tens of thousands of dollars.

"When we set the 72-ounce limit, we were thinking about marijuana 
juice or tea, not a high-potency extract like that," said Alison 
Holcomb, the Seattle lawyer who primarily drafted Washington's law."

Holcomb said it will be up to state lawmakers to adopt new ceilings 
on marijuana concentrate sales early next year - before the 
state-licensed stores open for business. The Legislature could also 
tweak the law to allow for sales of pure hash and hash oil - 
something hash makers would like to see.

They say if they have to adulterate their product with even a drop of 
olive oil or glycerin, customers might instead turn to medical 
dispensaries or the black market.

In Colorado, which also legalized recreational pot last fall, stores 
will be allowed to sell hash and hash oils.

"Our goal is to replace marijuana prohibition with a system in which 
marijuana is regulated and taxed similarly to alcohol," said Mason 
Tvert, who led Colorado's legalization campaign. "Some marijuana 
consumers choose to use more potent forms of marijuana, just as some 
alcohol consumers prefer a martini or glass of scotch over a beer."

The term "hash" covers a variety of marijuana preparations, but is 
generally the compression or concentration of cannabis resin rich in THC.

The preparations can involve anything from the simple shaking of the 
resin off the plant and pressing it into bricks to the use of 
stainless steel, closed-loop extraction systems that cost tens of 
thousands of dollars, use butane or carbon dioxide as a solvent and 
turn out oil that is more than 90 percent THC.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom