Quit fuckin with the weed

I clicked on the article to find out more:

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The cause for attraction is due to the higher potency of their therapeutic and psychoactive properties. The consequence of this is that sales of extracts are snowballing, which is why the unnatural, synthetic cannabinoid known as THC-O acetate is one of the substances gaining attention. The continuation of prohibition has been a catalyst to this kind of development of products that people would like to think are legal but are not. Not only are people being drawn to the higher potency, but there is a misbelief that higher potency substances bear higher benefits.  However, in this study, you can see that higher potency does NOT equal higher efficacy or improved benefits.

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THC-O-acetate was first investigated between 1949 and 1975. It was being tested as a non-lethal incapacitating agent on dogs but was soon after found to be almost twice as strong as regular THC. 

THC-O-acetate’s first encounter with the U.S. DEA was in 1978; the DEA expressed concerns that THC-O-acetate was being made analogously, similar to how heroin is made from morphine, but that was classified as an isolated incident, so the suggestion of making it a controlled substance was dropped. Similarly, in 1995, the United Kingdom ruled THC-O-acetate as a class A drug. It has only been until recently, around 2018 when the USA’s legal changes erased restrictions on the cultivation of industrial hemp. 

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“Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in cannabis oil reacts with acetic anhydride under reflux to produce THC-O-acetate and acetic acid.”

The process requires material high in THC (typically includes 75-90% THC and 5% other cannabinoids). Specifically, the material that is needed to produce THC-O is THC Delta-9 Distillate. The method of making THC-O acetate is inherently dangerous. The acetic anhydride that's part of the process is highly flammable and potentially explosive. This has to be done in a technical lab, which adds additional layers of complication to an already toxic outcome. 

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The main problem is that hemp companies do not have the licensing to possess Delta-9 distillate as this is a marijuana extract. Furthermore, if they attempt to create THC-O with a different base, such as THC-Delta 8, the result is CBD-O and not THC-O. Thus some may be using a "hemp-derived product," but in using the incorrect source material, They're mislabeling the product as THC-O when in-fact, it’s not.

There must be a very lucrative black market selling all these almost legal chemical concoctions thru a large network of shady convenience stores. I wish they'd stick to bath salts and not muck up the weed world.

Come and get your all new THC-O (3 times the high!) and go with a jet-powered military-grade blowtorch AND a free single-stem flower vase that doubles as a dab pipe (plastic rose and little metal screen sold separately).

Side effects may include but are not limited to: heavy rancid perspiration, swelling of the teeth, gastric distress, burning loins, covid toes, morbid viscosity, extreme paranoia, elongated tonsils, hacking cough, and permanent hair loss.

Benway, I was hopin you'd weigh in... have you done this THC -O? "They" are claiming it is very psychedelic.

Dangers? Maybe, as hemp growers, the danger is that they are not getting a piece of the pie for these newfangled drugs. I guess they are in the naturally-based CBD biz and not manufacturing adulterated gas station highs."

"In March of 2019, we entered our hemp flowers into the High Times DOPE Cup: High Desert, a cannabis competition hosted by High Times Magazine. Our federally compliant hemp flowers, containing less than 0.3 percent THC, competed alongside numerous marijuana based CBD flowers. We came in 2nd place in the “Best CBD Flower” category, making history, as it was the first time that industrial hemp was used vs marijuana in a High Times cannabis competition. Later in 2019, Black Tie CBD won a second accolade, this time at the Oregon Grower’s Cup. We entered our Lemon Cream Diesel flowers with genetics provided by Oregon CBD, The Lemon Cream Diesel has a CBG content of over 20 percent. To top it all off, we won first place for “Best CBD Product” at the Oregon Grower’s Cup for our solventless, dry-ice kief."

^ "Compared to THC, this substance is considered to exhibit a higher potency of psychoactive power after being metabolized into THC. Also, there is a longer onset and a longer duration of its effect."

Benway, here's a link to the patent. I used to be able to make sense of this stuff, but now I gloss over. Maybe you can gather some info from the manufacturing process.

Acetylation of cannabidiol
Abstract

A process for producing THC-O-acetate using a succession of distillation, salting-out assisted liquid-liquid extractions (SALLEs), and solvent recovery techniques. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in cannabis oil reacts with acetic anhydride under reflux to produce THC-O-acetate and acetic acid. The resulting crude product is distilled and subjected to a SALLE with hexane followed by a SALLE with petroleum ether, before being distilled again in order to obtain a refined, THC-O-acetate product.

https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u...

I figured if i got a warning email from a west coast hippie hemp company with a picture of a test tube (oh no!) about a "dangerous new THC-based psychedelic", i should share it with the Zone.

Community service and all.

I would be eager to try this (from the same company that sent the warning email) just for nostalgia / curiosity if it were cheaper: Maybe it would be a tasty sleep aid.

Mark I found a fairly informative and easy-to-digest article to post because I didn't want to put my foot in my mouth. Here are the highlights:

• CBG is found in smaller quantities than other cannabinoids in cannabis plants. In most strains of the plant, only 1% of CBG can be found compared to 20 to 25% of CBD or 25 to 30% of THC. 
• CBG is derived from young cannabis plants because they contain higher amounts of CBG than fully developed plants.
• Both CBD and THC start as CBGA, an acidic form of CBG. This is why younger cannabis plants contain higher concentrations of CBG.
• In fully developed plants with high concentrations of THC and CBD, you’ll find very low concentrations of CBG. This happens because most of the CBG has already been converted to CBD and THC as the plant developed.

Our body contains two types of cannabinoid receptors—CB1 and CB2. CB1 receptors are found in the nervous system and brain, while CB2 receptors are located in the immune system and other areas of the body. CBG works by binding to both receptors where it’s thought to strengthen the function of anandamide, a neurotransmitter that plays a role in enhancing pleasure and motivation, regulating appetite and sleep, and alleviating pain. Unlike THC, CBG has no psychotropic effects, so it will not give you a high. 

Research shows that CBG can also have therapeutic effects. However, human studies on this are sparse and more research needs to be done in this area.

https://www.verywellmind.com/cannabigerol-cbg-uses-and-benefits-5085266