THC Extraction

by Matt Thomas

Tired of hacking and coughing on hot, harsh pot smoke? Forced to blow the smoke out a window and pray you don't reek of weed? Sneaking around at night and can't enjoy a good buzz? You may want to consider following this project and get the good stuff, PURE THC!

Advantages of THC oil:

- No smoke to irritate your lungs
- No carcinogens to give you cancer
- No tar to stain your teeth and fingers
- No loss of THC to flame
- Easy to "smoke"
- No smell
- No wasting bowl after bowl of weed to get a buzz
- Up to 5 times as much THC in bloodstream, no smoke to clog alveoli in lungs

I have to say the list goes on and on, but let's get down to business!

Materials you'll need:

2 medium sized glass containers (mason jars will work) (mark each of the jars as "A" and "B")

acetone (or even rubbing alcohol will work, but not as well) (you need pure acetone, get it from a hardware store)

a quantity of marijuana (from a gram to pounds, 1/2 ounce used here)

a 1' by 1' piece of strong cloth with no holes

decent ventilation in the work area

small eye-dropper bottle (ones used for contact lenses work GREAT!)

low heat source (electric eye of stove on LOW setting)

-= Step 1 =-

Chop up your weed very finely, scissors or a razor blade work fine. Once it's almost a powder, dump it into the mason jar marked "A". Now pour enough acetone into jar "A" to cover the weed and allow it to float freely. Put the cap on jar "A" and shake vigorously for a few minutes. Let sit for 5 minutes then open the jar slightly to release the slight air pressure. Repeat the last 2 steps 5 times. The acetone should have turned a medium green/brown color. Open the jar and examine the weed, if any of the leaves have tiny glistening "beads", repeat the shaking process a few more times.

-= Step 2 =-

Get the jar labeled "B" and place the cloth over the mouth and press into the jar making a funnel. Hold the cloth on the jar so it doesn't move and pour the contents of jar "A" onto the funnel. A light green fluid will collect in jar "B". There should be NO solid matter in jar "B", but a small amount of very fine weed is ok. Gather the edges of the cloth, careful not to spill any solid matter in jar "B". Squeeze and twist the lump of wet weed until most of the liquid has drained into jar "B". Dump the weed back into jar "A" and pour the same amount of acetone on the weed as in step 1. Repeat the same steps (cap, shake, wait, vent gas) the same number of times. There should be absolutely no tiny glistening beads on the leaves this time.

Repeat step 2 (this one: cover jar with cloth, make funnel, pour, NO solid matter in jar "B", squeeze lump of wet weed). This time just store the weed wherever, we won't need it any more. You should have twice as much liquid in jar "B" as before. It should smell slightly of pot and if you shake it, it should form colorful oily bubbles on top. Don't worry if there is a small amount of of dark powder on the bottom of the jar.

-= Step 3 =-

Now we have to reduce this liquid in jar "B" to a manageable consistency. Acetone evaporates very quickly but if you're in a hurry you can "cook" it down. I suggest using a metal container since glass may shatter over heat, losing all your work. If you decide to cook it down, read step 3a below. For now I assume you want to wait. Place jar "B" in a ventilated place that's about room temperature or slightly warmer. NO extreme temperatures. Give it until it reduces to a greenish/brown slightly thick liquid, or till you can't smell acetone anymore. Now you have your final product! Put the resulting liquid into your eye dropper bottle. Read "Smoking Instruction" below.

-= Step 3a =-

So you have very little patience and want to get a buzz NOW eh? I don't blame you :) Get a metal measuring cup and pour the liquid into it. Set your ELECTRIC stove on LOW to MEDIUM LOW setting. Never use gas stove with acetone, it'll explode! If you have a fan over the stove, now's a good time to use it. Place the metal container on the eye of the stove. The liquid should get hot but NEVER boil. Swirl the liquid around to keep it from sticking or burning. When it gets to a consistency of blood or hot Karo Syrup, turn off the heat and remove the metal container. Don't let it get too thick or you'll have to add a little acetone and start over. Let it cool down, it should get slightly thicker, if not then don't reheat it. A good rule is: it should be about as thick as cooking oil in its cool form. Carefully pour the liquid into your eye dropper bottle. THAT'S IT!

-= Smoking Instruction =-

(NOTE: when smoking this oil in any form, never let flame come in contact with the oil, this destroys much of the THC. Just get it nice and hot)

Clean up your mess before smoking, you may have to explain why a rag of wet marijuana is on your kitchen table ;) Wash out all the jars with water diluted acetone mixture. Clean out the metal container (if used) the same way. Throw away the cloth. etc etc.

Materials I recommend:

- piece of aluminum foil molded into the shape of a small spoon (should be about 3" long with a "bowl" about 1" wide)

- a disassembled Bic pen, use the white tube piece

- a stationary flame (small butane torch, or even a candle, or lighter)

- your eye dropper bottle with liquid inside

Now you can do many things with the resulting stuff in your eye dropper bottle :) The recommended method is to place 4-8 drops of the THC liquid into the aluminum foil spoon. Hold the spoon a few inches above the flame source, it'll boil for a minute. Once you see the liquid in the aluminum foil spoon turn dark brown, it's a few seconds from vaporizing. You should also hear a slight crackling sound. Get the white tube about 1" over the spoon and begin to inhale slowly. You should see the fine white mist coming up from the black area where the liquid was. When you have just about a lungfull of mist, remove the spoon from the heat but continue to inhale (no sense losing any THC). You'll immediately feel the effects of the mist. Be warned, THC smoked in this manner delivers about 5 times as much THC to the blood as compared to smoking a joint. Notice there is little or no smell of pot immediately after doing this. You should notice, when smoking it, that you can taste sweetness on your tongue; it just so happens that THC isn't an icky tasting drug. Repeat the steps above as many times as you like, and depending on how many drops you used, you may still have some THC left in the spoon after the FIRST time! Heat it up good and hot and see :) I found absolutely NO harmful side-effects from smoking THC in this manner. i.e. no red-eye, no coughing up sticky tar, etc. I did notice a more severe "cotton mouth" feeling, though I attribute this to simply getting "more fucked up".

Additional ideas for the THC oil:

- A few drops on a cigarette make a nice way to get a buzz in public - Get a nice potent bud and soak it in the oil, KILLER HIT

- roll up a cigarette rolling paper by itself, soak half of it in oil (easy carry-around "joint" of sorts)

- A few drops on buttered toast in the morning as a great treat, eat it of course.

©1995 Axis Innovations [Who needs stinkin' copyrights, spread this around any way you like!]