Our question today involves Anchorage Municipal Ordinance 8.35.350, section 1, which reads as follows:
It is unlawful for any person to manufacture a marijuana concentrate, hashish, or hash oil by use of solvents containing compressed flammable gases or through use of a solvent-based extraction method using a substance other than vegetable glycerin, unless the person is validly licensed and permitted in accordance with statute, regulation, or ordinance.
A reader going by the name "Heckuva Job, Brownie" wonders, "Does that mean no cold water hash or pot butter brownies, as both water and butter are not 'vegetable glycerins'? You HAVE to use a vegetable oil? Am I misunderstanding the terminology? Margarine brownies are OK; butter brownies are not?"
The short answer is yes, you're misunderstanding the terminology, but you're forgiven. Under the Anchorage ordinance, and substantially similar ones that have been adopted by other jurisdictions, like Yakutat for one, it's OK to make cold water hash and pot butter brownies without a permit or license, when those eventually become available. Don't let the "vegetable" throw you either. Glycerin is not a vegetable oil.
Read more Highly Informed: Seeking answers to Alaska's cannabis questions
Concentration methods that involve water, dry ice, edible oils (like butter, olive, or coconut oil), mechanical separation, or any non-flammable, non-solvent-based process are not prohibited under the ordinance, according to Municipal Attorney Seneca Theno, a prosecutor who helped draft the ordinance.
She said the idea was to make certain dangerous processes off limits to amateurs. The idea wasn't to prohibit people from making water hash to economize a home garden, for instance, or to force anyone to use margarine in their pot brownies. (Side note: Eew. Butter equals love.)
The list of "whereas" clauses in the ordinance's preamble make it clear that the intent of the ordinance is to prevent the home fires and explosions that have happened elsewhere, most notably in Colorado. And those clauses must be taken into account when reading the ordinance.
So if your extraction process poses an explosion or fire hazard, you're in violation and could face penalties. The ordinance treats a violation as a Class A misdemeanor, and provides for the possibility of seizure of the cannabis, any finished concentrates, and any apparatuses or equipment that may be part of the scenario.
So, that's the quick and dirty of it. But let's look closer at that misunderstanding. Theno told me that the question Brownie asks came up during the process to create and pass this ordinance. So he's not alone. Brownie also included a reference to the city's pot-information website, "Know your Grow," part of which may be adding to the confusion.
With apologies to science teachers everywhere
As we all learned in science classes, a "solvent" broadly defined is any substance, usually a liquid, that is capable of dissolving another substance to create a solution.
By that broad definition, water is certainly a solvent. So are paint thinner, acetone, naptha and alcohol. And in the case of fat-soluable cannabinoids, butter, margarine and other oils are too. Glycerin (a sugar alcohol) also acts as a solvent when it comes to pot's active ingredients. However, the term "solvent" here is narrower than the standard chemical definition because it involves legal intent.
"The idea was to prohibit certain methods, not prohibit extraction itself," Theno said. "Lots of things can be considered a solvent. But we don't think of (water or butter) as a solvent in this context. We're really looking at the flammables and the unsafe solvent-based methods of extraction."
So the municipal ordinance isn't talking about all solvents, just the ones that figure in processes that pose a danger to individuals and public safety. Theno said that glycerin was specifically excluded from the ban because it was one method that came up during the learning process which involved something that qualified as a solvent in their minds, but whose process didn't pose a fire or explosion hazard.
To make glycerin concentrate, the process is essentially to let some dried trimmings or buds to sit around in some food-grade glycerin, then filter out the bits and pieces and refrigerate the solution. No heat, fire hazard or boom-potential. Other solvents used in concentration methods, like alcohol, butane, and so on, are more hazardous because they typically involve heat and flammable vapor. Two aspiring hash oil cooks in North Pole found that out the hard way in December. Although the dwelling sustained a good deal of damage, luckily, neither of them was injured.
According to the authorities, they were trying to make hash oil with a butane process. And scenarios like that are what the Anchorage ordinance aims to prevent, but other parts of the ordinance or the city's website may be adding to the confusion.
The means of production
The city's information site, "Know your Grow," lists substances the ordinance defines as "marijuana concentrates," but some of the substances named aren't typically created by solvent-based methods. "Marijuana concentrate means any product which, through manufacture, contains THC. Common names and types of product include "shatter," butane or CO2 hash oil, 'ring pots,' butter, hash, hashish, keif, oil, or wax."
Hash, kief and hashish are terms that encompass a variety of products, but most of them are made by amateurs with mechanical, not chemical means. Medical and commercial grade hash processes have reached a high level of sophistication lately, and the products' purity can be amazing, but home hash production is still possible using the same old methods. That may be a source of confusion for people in the know.
For folks who don't know, kief is essentially a greenish-blondish powder made mainly of the resin-containing glands (trichomes) that have been separated from the flowers, stems and leaves of the cannabis plant. There are a variety of separation methods that don't involve flammable solvents, grinders and kief boxes to name two old-school ones. People sprinkle it straight on to smokable flowers as a powder to add potency when vaporizing or smoking. It can also be compressed, pounded or kneaded into hash or hashish, sometimes, though less commonly, involving a bit of heat to assist the process. Depending on the method involved, the product can range in color from greenish blond to black.
Also depending on the hash-making process, alcohol may be involved as a solvent to ease separation of the raw material, and in that case, that process would appear to be off limits according to the ordinance. But what if the filtered alcohol-cannabis solution is evaporated over several days sitting open at room temperature in a well-ventilated place instead of rapidly on a stove top? That method would still seem a violation because alcohol is a flammable solvent even when it just sits there.
Mechanically-based hash making processes have been happening for thousands of years in some parts of the world. And they're time-consuming. Other techniques using the same mechanical action, like cold-water, bubble or dry ice hash are much faster and involve less work, but are still time-consuming. Because elbow grease isn't flammable, none of these methods pose a fire or explosion hazard.
Ring pots? Come again?
Another potential confusion created by the ordinance's definition comes from the term "ring pots" being included in the list of concentrates. Cannabis enthusiasts are likely to be familiar with every other term in the list of concentrates except that one. Ring pots? What? Like something you smash at a wedding?
But it turns out "ring pots" aren't any kind of marijuana concentrate at all. They're a kind of candy that caused a stir a while back, and they don't have any intoxicating properties at all beyond a sugar buzz. Contents: Zero marijuanas. Just a marketing gimmick.
On a web-search, I found two other references to "ring pots" in Alaska public documents, but there may be others out there. The phrase seems to have legs. One occurred in a City and Borough of Yakutat draft ordinance very similar to the Anchorage ordinance. Yakutat Borough Clerk Cathy Bremner said the proposal passed with two small language amendments that related to fines. The other instance can be found in the opposition statement included in Legislative Affairs' neutral pro-con statement presenting Ballot Measure 2.
Maybe the phrase "ring pots" (or the misspelling of kief, for that matter) will be removed from the ordinances, and maybe not. There will be a fair amount of adjustment to these ordinances as time goes on. But in my opinion, it's not in immediate need of revision. There is absolutely no danger of anyone violating the ordinance by trying to replicate ring pots at home. Candy-making does not involve flammable or pressurized solvents. Candy burns can be nasty, as many chefs can attest to, but the only explosion hazard it poses is to our waistlines.
So, the ordinance doesn't prevent Anchorage residents from making pot butter or mechanical hash without a license or permit, but they just can't do anything that could set fire to their home or blow anyone or anything up.
Have a question about marijuana news or culture in Alaska? Send it to cannabis-north@alaskadispatch.com with "Highly Informed" in the subject line.