Canna-Extracts- What ? Why ? When ? Pt 1.

Salutations
Cannabis Concentrates:

Kief, Hash, Oils, Tinctures, Shatter, Wax, Sauce.

They all share the common concept of increasing the potency of a product by weight, by removing the un needed plant material. Concentration of the terpenes, THC and CBD content is achieved by isolating the trichomes and resin glands of the flowering plants.

Ancient and simple, collecting and separating the dried crystals that have fallen off the plants as they cured by sifting them thru mesh screens or cloth- people created a type of concentrate called kief.  This could in turn be separated further into even finer particles containing just the tips of these trichomes and pressed into a sticky brick called hashish.

Modern techniques for concentration can be split into two categories.  Solvent and Solvent-LESS extraction.  Solvents are a medium to diffuse the same resin glands and oils into a liquid that can then be processed into a variety of end forms.

Edible cannabis products are often made with one or the other, but must undergo a process of decarboxylation before  the medical properties are able to be absorbed into the blood stream. Meaning you can't just eat your weed.  This is often done by extracting the beneficial parts by lightly heating them in fat base- Like butter, coconut oil, grapeseed oil or alcohol.

One of the first recorded instances of cannabis concentrates was from the archives of M.K. Ultra- the cold war era mind control programs employed by the CIA.   Using a THC concentrate made with ethanol, operatives would lace cigarettes and use it to ply unsuspecting victims during interrogations.

Prior to this there was a long history of cannabis tinctures, powders and pills widely available in early pharmacies. Medication was offered to babies for colic often in conjunction with opium and other sedatives~ ( WOW )

And then it disappeared for almost 100 years. 

~Continued~