Police Conduct Marijuana Eradication Program

[bobandtorey]

The annual marijuana eradication program continued this week when Michigan State Police in helicopters searched for pot plants being grown illegally in fields below.

Up to 250 plants were uprooted at various spots in Monroe County and destroyed, said Lt. Marc Moore of the Monroe Area Narcotics Team and Investigative Services (MANTIS).

Lt. Moore said two helicopters, one from the Michigan State Police and the other from the U.S. Coast Guard, took part in the operation. He said the job, called the Domestic Cannabis Eradication Suppression Program, is funded federally.

Lt. Moore also supported the program because he said he believes marijuana is being taken too lightly by the general public. He said most of the medical marijuana providers he is exposed to are breaking the law by growing or selling more pot than allowed.

“Ninety-nine percent of the people that we come across are abusing the Medical Marijuana Act,” Lt. Moore said.

He also said a new dangerous trend is using butane to extract the THC from plants to create a high concentration of waxes and oils that are used to make potent edibles and other items. Lt. Moore said the potency in these products is so high they cause overdoses.

“It’s not just the weed,” Lt. Moore said. “And that’s the problem.”

The extraction process is volatile and can cause explosions. Lt. Moore said a house in Ypsilanti blew up when the occupants were creating the waxes.

 

http://m.monroenews.com/news/2015/aug/29/police-conduct-marijuana-eradication-program/?templates=mobile&police-and-fire

[Wild Bill]

He also said a new dangerous trend is using butane to extract the THC from plants to create a high concentration of waxes and oils that are used to make potent edibles and other items. Lt. Moore said the potency in these products is so high they cause overdoses.

“It’s not just the weed,” Lt. Moore said. “And that’s the problem.”

 

[+washtenaut]

In other words, "My job and of course, me, are both very important.  I am keeping you safe.  Keep waaaayyy overspending on marijuana eradication.  Be afraid."

[blackhorse]

Yep, they flew over my place a few days ago with the red helicopter (National Guard I think). I'm assuming the outside grow was ok as they haven't stopped in.

 

Disagree with the 99% statement. The grow is enclosed on all sides, including the top, and blocked from neighbors view.

 

They fly over every year looking at the garden.

 

Try to be compliant with the rules.

[trichcycler]

"a new dangerous trend is using butane to extract the THC from plants"

ummm, solvent extractions are thousands of years old, including cannabis botanical extractions. Butane has been used for hundred of years safely in the food, pharmaceutical industry, botanical extractions, perfume industry, essential oil extractions, shaving cream etc. The butane is no more to blame than the asshatamatons holding the cigarettes while blasting his buds.

If cops weren't hanging cannabis users...the patients could be open about their craft and have easier access to solid safe techniques and more affordable equipment, proper equipment.

Cannabis oil IS THE MEDICINE. Vaporizing it is the miracle.
Compare to the burning and inhalation of dried up weeds as an acceptable method of extraction for medicinal use.


An American Makes the First Portable N-Butane for the BHO Market


By Jacob Katel · Tue Oct 14, 2014












RSS






When it come to butane hash oil, experts agree that laboratory grade n-butane is the cleanest, most effective solvent for extracting concentrates from canna- bis. Historically, this gas has only been available in bulk cylinders from specialty gas suppliers or in portable cans from overseas. But now there’s a new American-made n-butane designed specifically for the needs of BHO makers -- Puretane.



The man behind this new solvent is Adam Hopkins -- an entrepreneur who sells synthetic urine, grinders and vaporizers to headshops around the country. Hopkins says that, like most great ideas, he thought of it while getting high.



“I talk to a lot of headshop owners around the country, and I noticed how huge butane was getting,” Hopkins says. “Our retailers couldn’t get enough of it ... but most of the supply chain comes from South Korea and gets locked up at the port for months waiting for inspection.”



So Hopkins began sourcing Gulf Coast oil and manufacturing his own butane from a refinery in Long Beach -- earning him the nickname the “butane cowboy.”



“Most of our oil comes from the Gulf of Mexico and gets refined right in the Gulfport / Shreveport area. No problem with customs, no boat from China.”



Several Asian and European brands that have been popularly adopted by extract artists claim that they’re three, five, or seven-time refined, but those filtrations are not subject to our nation’s rigorous controls.



“No other country in the world has environmental regulations as tight as America,” Hopkins explains. “Here, you know that the filling room was clean, free of particles, and that the lines were cleaned between batches.”



The only other American-made butane company is Ronson, but their gas is full of mercaptans -- organic sulfur compounds added to give the product a distinctly noxious odor. Use of this type of butane for extractions is widely known to result in dirty BHO (known in some circles as “Black Poison” or “Tane Soup”) that can seriously harm a person if ingested.



Puretane, on the other hand, is made with maximum purity in mind, specifically for extracting oils out of marijuana. They utilize fractional distillation -- an organic process that uses heat to separate chemical compounds and filter out impurities. The end product is 99.9998% pure, containing only one ten- thousandth of a percent of sulfur -- which they consider medical grade (as evidenced by the green cross on the can).



“I’m no sommelier of wax,” he admits, “but we’ve been real happy with the clean taste of the BHO it produces. All I care about is passing along the purest possible product to our customers.”



Eventually, Hopkins hopes that his product and other American-made butanes will take over the market. “There’s a lot of entrepreneurs, creativity, and experimentation out there,” he says. “The weed industry is like the wild west.”



Yippie Ki-yay, butane cowboy.


Phytonic Process also known as Florasols Extraction

The Phytonic process is a one of the newest methods of extracting essential oils using non-CFCs (non-chlorofluorocarbons). It is also called Florasol Extraction and the oils are referred to as phytols. Florasol (R134a), a refrigerant, was developed to replace Freon. Florasol is an ozone friendly product and it poses little danger to the environment. One advantage is that the extraction of essential oils occurs at or below room temperature so degradation through high temperature extremes does not occur. The essential oils are mostly pure and contain little to no foreign substances.

Phytonic process provides an even gentler method of extraction than carbon dioxide extraction. Developed in England, this process extracts the oils at even lower temperatures (room temperature or lower) than Co2 extraction, using new agents that are bashfully called non
CFC’s (non-chlorofluorocarbons).

Oils extracted by this method (named phytols by the inventor Wilde) are perhaps to as close to their natural form as possible. While the process does not use ozone depleting CFC’s, it does use fluorocarbons (or correctly Fluorohydrocarbons) which are potentially harmful and do not seem adequate for heightened ecological consciousness. The phytols are popular with flavor houses and pharmaceutical companies, as well as perfumery companies selling to customers who do not consumer alcohol-containing products.

Pam cooking spray is oil delivered with NButane, a very dangerous NEW chemical reeking havoc upon America!

[bobandtorey]

https://youtube.com/watch?v=S8rCy173y7Y

[t-pain]

"marijuana is so dangerous, even if its never killed anyone, that we must fly dangerously low-against faa regulations- over residential neighborhoods in our dangerous helicopters that crash often."

[blackhorse]

"marijuana is so dangerous, even if its never killed anyone, that we must fly dangerously low-against faa regulations- over residential neighborhoods in our dangerous helicopters that crash often."

 

They flew really low over the house and grow, circled around a couple times as I stood watching.

 

Reason so many will not grow outdoors.

[Restorium2]

They flew really low over the house and grow, circled around a couple times as I stood watching.

 

Reason so many will not grow outdoors.

What tipped them off? Circling your tiny grow? No way they just happened to find it by cruising around in a helicopter. It's not that easy to see that it's not one of the millions of legal gardens in the state.  They don't just swoop down on every garden spot. They work off of tips.

Edited August 30, 2015 by Restorium2

[Restorium2]

Not on the eradication flyovers. From my experience, they are truly random (except in that they occur at the same time each year - harvest). You may be confusing the FLIR flyovers they do by warrant sometimes. That is a totally different process; FLIR is always part of an investigation and requires a warrant. This eradication flyover process is more like a cop Easter egg hunt.

I talked with the DEA and State Troopers in my area and they told me that they do fly overs on tips. They build a file of tipped off locations. They barely have the resources to even do that. They don't just fly around looking. They will look on the way to and from a tip location. But they wouldn't be swooping down on small gardens. Only huge ones with like a hundred or more plants, not twelve plant gardens that could be someone's back yard food crop. They would like you to believe they swoop down on all possibly pot gardens but they don't do that. 

[Restorium2]

That may be in your area. It's not that way elsewhere in the state. FYI cops lie daily.

They were not lying. They had no reason to lie to me. They pretty much laid out their whole eradication scenario because they wanted to talk. There's no reason to believe it's any different anywhere else in the state. Same, same. They coordinate with the DEA and they have a master plan across the state. 

[Restorium2]

I'm just saying you are wrong to apply one or even a handful of personal conversations with police unless you are speaking with them in the scope of professional duties and know the whole environment, application, and outcome of the words they are speaking.

 

What they told you does not apply in all areas of the state, so they were either lying to you or the scope of your conversation was limited to some context unknown to you such as geography or police agency. I think it is funny that you say they had no reason to lie to you, and would love to hear the whole story of these conversations where you trust the police so much.

They are not all that smart or tight lipped. I put some time and trouble into getting the most info I could while I was in a position to do that. Either believe me or don't, I don't care. 

 

Right now I'm interested in how they got tipped off to the small grow they circled. Just curious. 

[Restorium2]

That may be in your area. It's not that way elsewhere in the state. FYI cops lie daily.

What proof do you have that they Easter Egg Hunted down a a small crop from the sky without a single tip about it?

[Restorium2]

In every single case we have which utilized aircraft, outside of FLIR. There is never a tip on a flyover operation. They literally have crews in the air and on the ground, following up on stuff spotted from the air, without warrants.

Never? That should be a red flag in and of itself. Probably would rather not mention the tip don't you think? 

 

You could plan an elaborate idea to flush out their actual activities fairly easily. Not all that hard. Then you would be in the position to know how they operate. And be in a position to laugh at their bogus press releases. LOL Easter Egg Hunt? Not happening. 

[shishka]

What tipped them off? Circling your tiny grow? No way they just happened to find it by cruising around in a helicopter. It's not that easy to see that it's not one of the millions of legal gardens in the state.  They don't just swoop down on every garden spot. They work off of tips.

 

 

I talked with the DEA and State Troopers in my area and they told me that they do fly overs on tips. They build a file of tipped off locations. They barely have the resources to even do that. They don't just fly around looking. They will look on the way to and from a tip location. But they wouldn't be swooping down on small gardens. Only huge ones with like a hundred or more plants, not twelve plant gardens that could be someone's back yard food crop. They would like you to believe they swoop down on all possibly pot gardens but they don't do that. 

 

 

They are not all that smart or tight lipped. I put some time and trouble into getting the most info I could while I was in a position to do that. Either believe me or don't, I don't care. 

 

Right now I'm interested in how they got tipped off to the small grow they circled. Just curious. 

 

 

What proof do you have that they Easter Egg Hunted down a a small crop from the sky without a single tip about it?

 

 

Why are you convinced we are talking about a small, tiny garden? blackhorse in no way stated this was a small grow. My buddy has got two 30x96 foot greenhouses packed with 36 plants in each, wouldn't be hard to spot that from the air now would it?

[Restorium2]

Why are you convinced we are talking about a small, tiny garden? blackhorse in no way stated this was a small grow. My buddy has got two 30x96 foot greenhouses packed with 36 plants in each, wouldn't be hard to spot that from the air now would it?

Was waiting for clarification if it was obviously a marijuana grow from the air. There are a lot of gardens out there with fences around them. Big gardens. Michiganders like to garden. It's not an easy task to separate a regular garden from a marijuana garden without a tip. They look the same.

[blackhorse]

Bob posted about the Eradication Program which is going on in Monroe Co. at this time. Article is at top. Federal gov't footing the bill.   http://m.monroenews....police-and-fire

 

I have 3 plants in a 10 x 30 fenced in area. Plants are 6' tall. Also have other vegetable plants in area. Sweet corn outside, and is it ever good. Almost gone though.

 

Last year the county helicopter circled the grow area, and twice again took a direct fly over the grow.

 

The chopper checked this whole area that I live in, low flying circles.

Edited August 30, 2015 by blackhorse

[shishka]

I thought maybe we were talking more like this...

 

[bobandtorey]

I talked with the DEA and State Troopers in my area and they told me that they do fly overs on tips. They build a file of tipped off locations. They barely have the resources to even do that. They don't just fly around looking. They will look on the way to and from a tip location. But they wouldn't be swooping down on small gardens. Only huge ones with like a hundred or more plants, not twelve plant gardens that could be someone's back yard food crop. They would like you to believe they swoop down on all possibly pot gardens but they don't do that. 

 

 

Sorry i agree Leo does lie  and do and they will tell things just to get someone to tell it to others  ( spread the word )

[bobandtorey]

They were not lying. They had no reason to lie to me. They pretty much laid out their whole eradication scenario because they wanted to talk. There's no reason to believe it's any different anywhere else in the state. Same, same. They coordinate with the DEA and they have a master plan across the state. 

Wow! They coordinate with the DEA and they have a master plan across the state. What plan do you think it is ? And do you think cannabis will still be used for medical use  tomorrow ? or even next year?

[GrowGoddess]

When it come to butane hash oil, experts agree that laboratory grade n-butane is the cleanest, most effective solvent for extracting concentrates from canna- bis. Historically, this gas has only been available in bulk cylinders from specialty gas suppliers or in portable cans from overseas. But now there’s a new American-made n-butane designed specifically for the needs of BHO makers -- Puretane.

 

 

I agree with most of what you have said except for this. Butane in considered a low grade extraction solvent just like ethyl. The king of solvents is not alcohol nor butane, but it is one of the most dangerous. It does not even require a spark to ignite. Pure ether is supposed to be the best, from what I have heard, nothing compares, but it is extremely dangerous. It is also used for pharmaceutical grade products. I DO NOT recommend it. Play it safe. Stick with butane or 200 proof ethyl. Of course 99% iso will do just fine too. If you want to really play it safe go with bubble hash.

 

Now, back to topic. I am afraid to grow outside. Where I live choppers fly in close and slow every fall, actually all year long, and scan every inch. I just don't need the hassle. I would rather play it safe and grow indoors.

[Highlander]

I thought maybe we were talking more like this...

 

Wow. Just wow. Impressive. I can't imagine a single caregiver trimming all of that - let alone six people being able to use all of it.

 

I'm not judging anyone who has that much ambition and dedication to his/her patients. But jeez, it looks like a huge, uphill Section 8 case waiting to happen. It looks like 200++ pounds of usable MJ per year. It's beautiful but also mind-boggling.

[Kingdiamond]

I thought maybe we were talking more like this...

 

One of these days real soon this is going to be what my backyard looks like once I get out of

the suburbs.

[trichcycler]

pipe dreams of cash and diamonds. get over it.  a family tried that already.....now jailed.

[trichcycler]

I agree with most of what you have said except for this. Butane in considered a low grade extraction solvent just like ethyl. The king of solvents is not alcohol nor butane, but it is one of the most dangerous. It does not even require a spark to ignite. Pure ether is supposed to be the best, from what I have heard, nothing compares, but it is extremely dangerous. It is also used for pharmaceutical grade products. I DO NOT recommend it. Play it safe. Stick with butane or 200 proof ethyl. Of course 99% iso will do just fine too. If you want to really play it safe go with bubble hash.

 

Now, back to topic. I am afraid to grow outside. Where I live choppers fly in close and slow every fall, actually all year long, and scan every inch. I just don't need the hassle. I would rather play it safe and grow indoors.

hey you...."Puretane" said that...

 

I've used ether, and it is nice. sooo difficult to work with .....without proper equipment. butane functions perfectly though in my experience. with its room temp evaporation the gas can be manipulated very easily, and safely with minimal expense of equip. Recoup is a breeze and reuse adds bonus dollars plus eco friendly. just like concentrates are not for everyone, neither are botanical extractions. I suggest to all patients to stick with a dry sift for the very best results over all. The rest is fluff, experimentation, and tinkering....all very fun and statistically safe for the masses with a minimal amount of common sense.

 

peace