Recently, an access point said they would not be carrying Homegrown Oil because it didn't test high enough for concentration of THC. I explained that as an essential oil, the point of Homegrown Oil was to stay as close to the flower as possible, maintaining all its essential qualities of original terpenes in ratio to the cannibinoids, While the oil tested tested higher than most flower, and cleaner than any bho, it did not come near to the 80-90% THC concentrations found in some of the shatter and wax on their shelves. Then I pointed out that it was an apples to oranges comparison, sort of literally. In fact, some of the high THC concentrates this access point carried were so highly processed that they were forced to fake the flavor of the original terpenes that had been stripped out with terpenes derived from fruits like oranges. I then wondered if the heath of the patient was a concern, since all the super concentrated THC products relied on alcohol, butane, or other solvents to achieve those numbers and none of them are really safe to consume even though they are presented as such. 

As a result, I began to think the popularity of highly processed concentrates of THC makes me question whether that quest for perfect THC purity is actuallly a good thing. Is cannabis starting to be like the poppy is to heroin? Having seen patients not only vomit but also literally pass out from vaping such medicine, it is not so unreasonable to make that connection. I am not saying that super concentrates, like shatters and wax, cannot be effective medicine but just like the poppy that becomes opium, morphine, heroin, the stronger the effect  from the concentrate, the more patient caution and medically trained supervision are advised. But that is not the case. Because for many reasons it is pretty apparent that a patient's health falls way behind profit motive when it comes to patients medicating with such forms of THC. Otherwise, considerations like health dangers might be a higher concern than whether or not the product is pure THC. Most access points and dispensaries do not have bud tenders that know the first thing about how harmful vaping alcohol is to the lungs, why even a few parts per million of butane can be highly dangerous if inhaled. They tend not to know which products are made in whatever fashion, or if the product is even disclosing the truth about how it is processed. That cannot be a good way to run a cannabis pharmacy. You can expect the States as they start to regulate things more and more to address user safety will be taking this into account.  

If raw, well  cured, flower tests anything above 20% THC, then even someone with a very high tolerance for cannabis will probably still think "that is some grade "A" bud". Turn that Grade A Bud into the equivelent of "weed crack" as a concentrate and it will have the "pro" of being powerful medicine, but it will also carry the "con" of being more subject to abuse. Not just end user misuse issues, but there is an inherent problem with manufacturer disclosures, dispensary greed and disregard for patient safety; and then couple that with misinformation spread by unschooled budtenders about potential pitfalls of usage. Put it altogether and you definitely have problems that need to be addressed... and like everything else... if the industry does not take responsibility for addressing these concerns, then the State almost certainly will. And that almost never goes well. State Bureaucracies tend to act like people on crack... always searching for another fix, and realizing one fix will never do, addicted to solving a problem it is perpetually creating to try and endlessly solve.