Did you know that when cannabis is extracted using super critical CO2, the extract is a gold color. It is NOT green. It is NOT black.
As we are not plants, we have few benefits from chlorophyl. Yet, many extracts, tinctures, oils contain green colors and some think this to be a benefit. I say, we are not plants; we convert oxygen to CO2, not the other way.
So, why are so many oils black? They are black because they have non medicinal components in them. This is just being polite as they can at times have bug fragments in them. This was an acceptable way, perhaps, of making smokable hash? The bar is set pretty low other than getting you very high; not an entirely undesirable outcome for some at certain times, but NOT the basis for the future of cannabis medicine.
I just heard a patient/businessman, brag about how clever he was to make a deal “salvaging” the lowest level of outdoor trim/garbage to use for alcohol extraction. He said that the alcohol will “kill anything left in there”. Really?? I nearly got sick.
Can you imagine taking serious medicine for a serious problem from this guy? Well, there are plenty more out there. By the way, I am not saying the medicine they make is useless; it can help a lot of people for certain conditions despite the below par methods. This still does not mean that this is what we strive for.
Do YOU want to be told that your medicine comes from trash weed?
Then, what about butane, hexane, etc? They are all illegal and there was a recent “Darwin Award” to a group in a hotel room who lit a smoke while performing butane extraction. Didn’t I see this in a movie with gasoline??? It was a comedy? Nothing is all bad, but again, using carbon igniters to create clean medicine is an oxymoron.
So, what is the best and most practical method of extraction? CO2 extraction, at least for now. This assumes that the medicine you want to make is whole plant. If you are interested in separating out the various molecules, you need a form of High Pressure Liquid Chromatography. I think separating out the CBD or whatever molecule is tricky and makes VERY different medicine that I believe under most circumstances, at least for now, that is not as effective as whole plant.
How does someone then create top end medicine without spending a fortune?
Grow your own cannabis and make an arrangement through your collective to barter the properly tested fully grown plants for extract. Usually, it is a 50-50 share, without any exchange of money. It is just like the old windmill days where they kept part of the wheat. This is how this whole collective thing is SUPPOSED TO WORK.
You are the consumer. You are the patients. Insist upon the best you can obtain.
