Copped some co2 wax with dangerous levels of added terps

OldOyler

Fire it again. I can still find the ground.
Peace all!

I just obtained some grey market co2 wax (in Maryland) that clearly had too high levels of added terps, in this case pine.

I stopped during my 3rd pull from my Yocan Torch when the pine scent, smell, and flavor began what felt like a drill burning a hole through my sinus directly under my right eye. This was at 9:00pm yesterday evening or so.

Several times during the night, I almost went to the hospital. The pain was so intense I thought I would blow my nose and see blood. When I didn't, I decided I was having an allergic reaction of some sort to that level of pine. (I have mild seasonal allergies, never take anything. Tree pollen is usually one of the culprits. But I've had both concentrates and flower whose strains expressed a strong pine pheno with no problem many times.)

I posted real quick last night on another thread, so I hoped to get some folks who initially helped me out and said "No, someone added too many added terps. STOP!" to join in a quick FC huddle on this if possible. (My thanks as always to @herbivore21 for his help last night - knowledge of what was going on really helped during the wee hours, thanks bud.)

It subsided to tolerable around 6:00am this morning, still hurts but fading as of noon.

I thought maybe a thread just about terps getting added in a dangerous way to various concentrates could be useful - and if not, well it will just fade away. :)

And I didn't want to muck up our existing terp threads, I was thinking straight safety on the grey market here.

Because it hadn't occurred to me that someone would be doing that - adding lots of terps, except maybe as a cover - grey market or no, but then I realized from our own (absolutely fantastic) "Terpy Tuesday" thread that this stuff *can* simply be bought. And this happened last time I copped from this source - unnaturally strong grape (in that case) flavor.

I don't understand how they get it into the co2 wax without it looking odd. It's got me nervous now. (And really, really grateful for this morning's scraping of my homemade shatter run!)

And so, for the purpose of this thread, I am curious if someone could / would / has added it to other concentrates as well, like shatter or rosin. And how close are those margins of safety?

That's enough out of me.

Peace and safe vaping to everybody.

:peace:
 
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Tranquility

Well-Known Member
Terpines are chemicals that can help or harm. I think it reasonable to research what is added on purpose or on accident to any oil.

In the past I have bought two syringes of CO2 oil manufactured by Alpine. The first was a "live resin" and, while I didn't have the ability to easily vape the oil, it was good. The second was their more general product and, even to me, there was a chemical taste. I think they added limolene to their juice and it was not pure extraction. The taste was overwhelming and I tossed out that syringe quickly. Not because I thought it was going to kill me, but because it was unpleasant to use.

The point being, even in a licensed medical dispensary with large-scale extractor product being sold, there is a chance of something being added. I think this is one area the money coming into the market will look towards a bit, testing of the product and elimination of known problems.
 
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Baron23

Well-Known Member
Peace all!

I just obtained some grey market co2 wax (in Maryland) that clearly had too high levels of added terps, in this case pine.

I stopped during my 3rd pull from my Yocan Torch when the pine scent, smell, and flavor began what felt like a drill burning a hole through my sinus directly under my right eye. This was at 9:00pm yesterday evening or so.

Several times during the night, I almost went to the hospital. The pain was so intense I thought I would blow my nose and see blood. When I didn't, I decided I was having an allergic reaction of some sort to that level of pine. (I have mild seasonal allergies, never take anything. Tree pollen is usually one of the culprits. But I've had both concentrates and flower whose strains expressed a strong pine pheno with no problem many times.)

I posted real quick last night on another thread, so I hoped to get some folks who initially helped me out and said "No, someone added too many added terps. STOP!" to join in a quick FC huddle on this if possible. (My thanks as always to @herbivore21 for his help last night - knowledge of what was going on really helped during the wee hours, thanks bud.)

It subsided to tolerable around 6:00am this morning, still hurts but fading as of noon.

I thought maybe a thread just about terps getting added in a dangerous way to various concentrates could be useful - and if not, well it will just fade away. :)

And I didn't want to muck up our existing terp threads, I was thinking straight safety on the grey market here.

Because it hadn't occurred to me that someone would be doing that - adding lots of terps, except maybe as a cover - grey market or no, but then I realized from our own (absolutely fantastic) "Terpy Tuesday" thread that this stuff *can* simply be bought. And this happened last time I copped from this source - unnaturally strong grape (in that case) flavor.

I don't understand how they get it into the co2 wax without it looking odd. It's got me nervous now. (And really, really grateful for this morning's scraping of my homemade shatter run!)

And so, for the purpose of this thread, I am curious if someone could / would / has added it to other concentrates as well, like shatter or rosin. And how close are those margins of safety?

That's enough out of me.

Peace and safe vaping to everybody.

:peace:

Wow, sorry to hear that. Someone on the board, in a act of kindness, gave me a link to a DC donation/gift type deal but I have just not found it in myself to buy much concentrate off of the street as I simply don't trust it. I have bought some concentrate in MD in the past, I'm pretty dang sure its locally made, and while it was ok in the past, the last batch tasted like grass, was filthy in my banger, and I decided to decarb it in the oven and make edibles out of it.

Not sure how much of it you got, but you might want to try to put it in a larger silicone container, pop it in the oven at 250 for 15-20 minutes, then use to make cookies or brownies. I'm not much of a edible fan due to variance in onset/effect and the nature of the effect when eaten. But for those nights when I want a knock out pill, I have a half dozen or so brownies left in the fridge. I say decarb but if making brownies it should decarb when cooking. Perhaps just a shorter time in the oven to boil off the terps....or, based on how bad you experience was you might just want to use it as rodent poison.

Sorry you had this experience, but glad you have recovered and are alright.

MD need to get its dispensaries opened NOW. They were meeting today at 10 am to vote on dispensary licenses. They also need to open the patient registry immediately so MD patients can go to DC dispensaries. Ok, I'm done ranting.
 
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herbivore21

Well-Known Member
@OldOyler Always happy to help my friend! I'm really sorry to hear you had this experience. Some folks should have nothing to do with extract making.

We need to each understand that terpenes are very common food additives. So many in the cannabis industry have this idea that 'safe for food means safe for inhaling' which is bogus to say the least. Many terpenes (especially pinene!) are respiratory irritants and should not be inhaled in much quantity. This means they might work as food items mixed with a bunch of other ingredients, but if you think this can be mixed into oil without great care, you shouldn't be making oil.

BTW to all curious, terpenes are solvents that act to rapidly mix into cannabis resin very readily with basic agitation. They are often clear liquids that mix readily with cannabis extracts and so added terps are not visible to the naked eye.
 

herbivore21

Well-Known Member
The above is very relevant, thankfully our friend @OldOyler has his own QWET to use in the meantime but rosin is an excellent short-cut to peace of mind with a few simple steps and precautions :)

It is important to either know and trust your extract artist and their methods (preferably solventless, and ideally with test results for their products) or to make your own meds to avoid these kinds of scenarios.
 

OldOyler

Fire it again. I can still find the ground.
The above is very relevant, thankfully our friend @OldOyler has his own QWET to use in the meantime but rosin is an excellent short-cut to peace of mind with a few simple steps and precautions :)

It is important to either know and trust your extract artist and their methods (preferably solventless, and ideally with test results for their products) or to make your own meds to avoid these kinds of scenarios.
Yup, and a quick update.

Got a moderate ($500) rosin press budget allowed by the CFO (my awesome wife) for right after xmas.

I'm not going through any of that again if at all possible.

I knew that stuff happened (somebody does something to the product, like in high school we were all afraid to get pcp in our weed from an unknown source), just thought it happened to folks buying co2 wax from jojo at the metro stop that it happened to. (That was my girls name at the metro years ago, at least...)

Peace!
 
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