The Centralia Police Department’s special anti-crime team found four plastic bins plus some garbage bags filled with marijuana they say was to be made into hash oil. / Courtesy photo by Centralia Police Department
Updated at 11:03 a.m.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
Centralia police dismantled a potentially explosive hash oil making operation in the basement of a rental home across the street from Centralia College.
The setup they found was using butane and situated next to a hot water heater, according to the Centralia Police Department.
Hash oil is a highly concentrated form of marijuana resin.
“During the production process, a highly flammable and explosive vapor is emitted which can explode on contact with an ignition source,” Sgt. Jim Shannon said in a news release.
A 52-year-old Centralia man was charged yesterday in Lewis County Superior Court with manufacturing marijuana. Dale R. Brotherton is being held in the Lewis County Jail on $10,000 bail.
The find came on Wednesday night at a home on the 800 block of West Pear Street.
Shannon said police had been investigating the situation for about a week.
Officers arrested Brotherton earlier in the day in the area, for a traffic violation. He was driving a pickup truck pulling a fifth-wheel trailer near the bus garage and police stopped him for driving without a required ignition interlock device, according to Shannon.
The sergeant said he believes Brotherton lives in the RV.
The resident of the home they searched that night is a friend of Brotherton’s who allowed him to use the space, Shannon said. She was cooperative, he said.
Shannon’s special anti-crime team confiscated more than 140 pounds of marijuana trimmings and various items used in the hash oil process, he said. They also found a jar of the substance in the kitchen freezer, he said.
He estimates the total street value in hash oil from the marijuana recovered by police would be about $156,000. Shannon used a street price of $40 per gram for the product referred to as Honey Oil, Shatter, BHO, Wax and Earwax.
The resulting product is something users would smoke with a vaporizer or e-cigarette or also could be used for so-called edibles, or marijuana-infused food products, according to Shannon.
Marijuana processing is something newly legalized under Initiative 502, with a state-issued license, but not presently allowed within Centralia city limits, Shannon said.
The sergeant said he didn’t know where Brotherton obtained the marijuana and he didn’t know if Brotherton is someone attempting to get involved in the legal market.
The police department seized the 2003 Ford F-350 pickup truck, the 35-foot RV and also a 1998 Toyota Camry belonging to Brotherton.
The investigation is ongoing, he said. Brotherton is scheduled to be back in court on June 5 for his arraignment, or to review if he’s been able to hire a lawyer, according to Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead.
Shannon said the house they searched is the same address where last Friday, a 17-year-old boy was injured when he was pinned briefly between a pickup and a fifth-wheel travel trailer during an attempt with someone else to hitch the two together. He said he didn’t know if it was Brotherton or Brotherton’s vehicles involved.
He described the hash oil making process they found as several hanging glass tubes filled with compacted marijuana, through which butane would be passed via a small hole in the bottom – sort of like a drip coffee maker.
The resulting substance would lay on a glass surface, in this case a glass door and a very large glass window, he said. The remaining liquid solvent – sometimes paint thinner like Naptha or alcohol, is evaporated off, according to Shannon.
The end product is the remaining resin, a highly concentrated form of THC.
Shannon said some people use waxed paper to keep it in, and some keep it refrigerated to retain its solidity.
And it looks like ear wax, he said.
Sometimes further processing can turn it into even harder, which is then broken up which is why it sometimes is called Shatter.
He noted the final product retains a certain amount of residue from the solvent, and that indoor growers notoriously use fungicides because of humidity and some use pesticides since aphids are a problem.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
Thanks now me and friends know how to make it. 🙂
At least it isn’t meth Lol !
The article went into much more detail about production than I did.
Can’t say that I’ve ever “cooked” a drug in my life! As far as processing BHO goes… “They got nothin’ on me…” 😉 and they won’t be getting anything soon as it’s pointless for someone to make BHO for personal use when it’s so readily available now.
What does it matter if a few grams of oil was processed near a four year college if it was done safely outside? Butane is heavier than air so that crap pools at the lowest point of the house. Processing trim in a basement near a hot water heater that has a pilot light just seems ridiculously stupid to me.
And hey! Don’t be calling me out! I get bored and post on random shit when the GF hogs the computer to play the Sims, lol!
Out of curiosity… Are you; V, J, S, M or K?
New Amsterdam here we come.
The best BHO extraction techniques require a ‘closed-loop’ system that prohibits any n-butane from escaping in the first place. In addition, the closed-loop system allows for the recovery and reuse of the n-butane, resulting an a more environmentally-friendly product.
Cannabis Oil extracted with butane can be safe with proper knowledge and experience.
But, to blast cans of butane through a tube is reckless and irresponsible.
Umm-sound like a real pro, bet you haven’t cooked any of this yourself have you. well at least not next to a college-and a 4 year one to boot?
P.S.
Only idiots use wax paper for storage. Some of the wax will come off with the oil. It’s actually stored on Parchment Paper which is BONDED with silicone.
ummmm…way to go publishing how to make it. smh.
First… Ear wax is a whipped and heated version of hash oil/bho. It turns it into a wax substance that is easier to handle… i.e. not sticky.
But more importantly Sergeant Shannon seems to be an idiot who is trying to make smoking hash oil much more dangerous than it is. After the Butane (hopefully at least triple filtered) there is no secondary solvent used as butane is all the solvent you need. No paint thinner or alcohol. Butane boils at .5 degrees Celsius… So the butane is evaporated out of the product at room temperature.
Hash that uses Alcohol (most people stopped using paint thinner for extraction in like the 80s) for extraction is called QWISO and is much lower quality (many more impurities) than BHO (Butane Honey Oil).
The parts Sergeant Shannon did get correct is that it can be a VERY dangerous operation and anyone who is processing the stuff indoors (and near a hot water heater no less) should be arrested for putting everyone in the house at risk. It’s also correct that unless you grew the original product yourself… There’s no telling what chemicals and whatnot were used in it’s upbringing (or if it was properly leached).
P.S.
Any one who is producing BHO on a scale that large definitely isn’t getting over $20 a gram for it.
It’s never been called earwax lmao!! && Its only 20-30 a gram never over 40! Very dangerous to make YES!! Very good