Dabbing has become a popular method of marijuana consumption. Anyone involved in the cannabis industry, whether business owners, medical patients, or recreational users, has heard the word “dabbing.” The technique is at least a decade old, and it involves smoking weed concentrates, of which there are many to choose from in statewide product catalogs.
Nowadays, creating concentrated cannabis products is easy. Extraction methods are now highly advanced. Think of oils, tinctures, edibles, infusions, and other weed products with concentrated levels of THC, cannabinoids, and even terpenes. Weed dabs in California are simply concentrated dosages. Using a hot surface, such as a nail, users heat the oil before inhaling it through a dab rig.
Although cannabis dabbing may not sound too controversial, it is a topic of division among the weed community. Reasons for this are the negative image it projects to outsiders, along with the extreme potency of it. Although safety of potency and production of concentrates requires addressing, this new trend offers some unique advantages that may actually improve legalization efforts.
How Companies Make Weed Dabs
Companies manufacturing weed dabs extract the THC and other cannabinoids to create a sticky oil. To do this, they use solvents, such as carbon dioxide, alcohol, or butane. The product becomes what people know as butane hash oil, budder, shatter, or wax. The non-psychoactive compounds of marijuana, such as cannabidiol and other CBDs, are medically beneficial, but the THC is what makes you high.
Weed dabs high in THC promise the most efficient, fastest way of getting extremely stoned. Companies can also extract the plant’s aromatic oils, or terpenes, which is what gives marijuana its flavor and smell. However, terpenes are volatile compounds, and as such, it is often very challenging to preserve their structure during the extraction process.
Potential Disadvantages of Cannabis Dabbing
There is an element of danger involved with marijuana dabbing. The technique is completely safe, but the concentrate itself can be harmful if not extracted correctly. Extraction is a tricky process. Because of online videos and forums, people are trying to create shatter, wax and other concentrates at home. Even after a job well done, the product is likely to be of poor quality.
If the process does not go well, explosions can occur and some have blown up their homes. A few ignorant DIY enthusiasts are responsible for a number of home disasters. As a result, people are talking about marijuana extraction with similar caution to meth. This creates a bad reputation for cannabis dabbing, which is why it is always best to rely on reputable manufacturers and pre-tested products.
Furthermore, dabbing itself looks terrible and scary to those seeing it for the first time. Using blowtorches to heat strange-sounding substances in glass bongs does not leave a good impression on newcomers, who call dabbing the “crack” of marijuana. Although weed dabs bear no similarities to hard drugs, the uninitiated consider the blowtorch approach rather distasteful. Crème brulee is just classier.
Another potential downside of experimenting with home extraction is the possibility of “dirty” oil. Dirty oil contains chemical contaminants, which can have an adverse effect on your health. Using too much butane or additional contaminants can be dangerous, as is using dirty equipment during the process of extraction. Unless you know what you are doing, it is wiser to leave extraction to the experts.
One fact is the most disturbing: Because butane hash oil is super-concentrated, “overdosing” on marijuana may just be possible for the first time in man’s history. Although taking too much will not kill you, exceeding your limit can be an incredibly unpleasant and uncomfortable experience. Cannabis is non-lethal, but there are reports of dabbers enduring intense symptoms of withdrawal.
Potential Advantages of Marijuana Dabbing
The biggest benefit of cannabis concentrates is the powerful dosage of medicine they provide to those who need it most. Those suffering chronic or severe nausea or pain claim that dabbing provides effective, immediate relief. For patients requiring strong medicine quickly, weed dabs are more feasible, as you will need to smoke or vape huge amounts of dried cannabis flowers to get the same effect.
Although the dangers of extracting cannabis at home are real, none of this is a problem in a professional environment. Specialist extractors do not use “open” methods typically done by DIY enthusiasts. They prefer the safety of closed extraction methods, which require complicated equipment. Other extraction methods can also be safer than “open” techniques, such as ice water and CO2 extraction.
The technology used to make concentrates has a symbiotic relationship with the eventual product. Research is underway to improve lab testing and advance the technology required for extraction, which will make it safer to do at home. The expanding industry ensures continual upgrading and improvement of extraction methods, and homemade disasters will likely become rare anomalies in the future.
Conclusion
As legal marijuana sales become more mainstream and acceptable, more outlets will be able to sell quality concentrates. Although home chemists will always be with us, the need to extract your own concentrates will become a chore of the past. You will be able to buy it safely and legally, and the future is unlikely to see an increase in marijuana dabbing anyway.
Vaporizers are safer, easier to use, and do not require a blowtorch for consumption. They also promise a similarly potent high. Furthermore, vaporizer technology is daily improving. More people will likely choose to heat cannabis oil in the most convenient, least publically alarming way possible, and until weed dabs become more user-friendly, vaping will remain more popular.
Marijuana dabbing is currently a hot trend, particularly among the youth. One of the most fascinating effects of dabbing is the increased interest among the youth in weed activism. The Cannabis Cup and similar industry events focused primarily on flowers until now. These days, concentrates and other weed extractions are gaining plenty of attention.
As with all forms of marijuana, weed dabs enjoy the same legislative hurdles. More activists are involving themselves in the lawmaking process and in the industry itself. Although dabbing is still in its early phase, weed concentrates promise patients more potency and faster medical relief. Weed dabs in are just one choice of many, and concentrated cannabis products have a bright future ahead.