Honey Oil: What It Is, How It's Made and the Risks

Honey oil is butane hash oil, or BHO, named for the way it looks. A US Drug Enforcement Administration fact sheet describes cannabis concentrates as most similar in appearance to honey or butter, brown or gold in colour, and lists honey oil, butane honey oil, budder, wax and shatter among their street names. In a 2018 report reprinted by the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs, an Ontario Fire Marshal investigator described honey oil as a highly potent cannabis derivative made with butane, or sometimes propane, which is evaporated off to leave a honey-coloured resin.

The name goes back decades. Wikipedia traces so-called butane honey oil to the 1970s, when it was made in Kabul and smuggled into the United States, and notes that production is thought to have stopped when the facility was destroyed in an explosion. Today the same extracts go by texture names such as oil, shatter, honeycomb, crumble and budder, according to a 2018 peer-reviewed review. Hash oil can be a liquid, a sticky semisolid called wax, or a clear amber solid called shatter (Wikipedia); honey oil is the honey-like end of that range.

The principle is simple. Liquid butane is passed through cannabis, the THC and other compounds in the trichomes dissolve into it, and the butane is then evaporated off or actively purged with heat or vacuum, leaving a product far stronger than flower (2018 review). About 1 to 2 grams of oil come from 10 grams of cannabis (Wikipedia).

Most ready-to-use extracts are made in closed-loop systems that recover the solvent and return it to a holding vessel (Wikipedia). Amateur "blasting" skips that step, and the purged butane can build up in an enclosed space (2018 review), which is where the danger starts.

It is illegal. As Justice Canada explains, adults may make cannabis products at home only as long as organic solvents are not used to create concentrated products, and producing with organic solvents is listed among the criminal offences. After a 2022 butane explosion in a Sudbury motel room, where the occupant had been trying to make cannabis oil, Greater Sudbury Police charged him with arson and with altering cannabis using an organic solvent.

It is also dangerous. Butane is a liquid in the can but turns to vapour in the air, and that flammable vapour collects in enclosed spaces and can fuel flash fires or explosions, an Ontario Fire Marshal investigator said in the same 2018 report (OAFC). Static electricity alone can set it off, and much of this happens in poorly ventilated basements (University of Toronto Scarborough). The record is long:

Leave solvent extraction to professional facilities. If you want to make something yourself, solventless bubble hash uses only ice, water and mesh bags, with no flammable solvent involved.

Hash oil seized in the 1970s ran about 10% to 30% THC, while hash oils seized in the 5 years before 2018 reached as high as 90% (Blue Line). The Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA) notes that some extracts reach 99% THC, against the 10% to 25% typical of dried buds, and that high-strength extracts can cause intense intoxication quickly, with over-intoxication symptoms such as severe anxiety, vomiting and paranoia. Canada's Lower-Risk Cannabis Use Guidelines link higher THC potency with more mental health problems, cannabis use disorder and injuries.

Leftover solvent is the main quality issue with any solvent-made extract. CCSA notes that some residual solvent can be left in the final product. Without a lab test there is no way to know how much, so look for extracts with lab results. The 2018 review names unpurged butane as a typical impurity and cites research suggesting that more than 80% of tested samples were contaminated with residual solvent and pesticides.

Thickness is not a quality test either. CCSA's summary of the 2019 vaping lung-illness outbreak explains that vitamin E acetate was added to some cannabinoid oils as a thickener, to exploit the belief that thicker oil means purer oil. More than 75% of the US cases were linked to vaping products containing THC from cannabis extracts, and the US Food and Drug Administration warned that inhaled vitamin E could lead to lipoid pneumonia. CCSA calls rigorous testing of vaping products for toxic substances essential, so stick to lab-tested cartridges. Anyone who vapes and develops a cough, shortness of breath, chest pain, nausea, vomiting or diarrhea should get medical attention.

There are 2 common ways:

If you are new to cannabis, skip concentrates for now: CCSA's advice is to start with 1 or 2 puffs of a vape with 10% THC or less. Read the dabbing guide before trying a rig. Don't drive for at least 6 hours after using cannabis, and don't combine it with alcohol (Lower-Risk Cannabis Use Guidelines). For medical questions, ask a doctor or pharmacist.

Hash oil exposed to air, warmth and light loses its taste and potency as it ages (Wikipedia), and CCSA notes that extracts are sensitive to heat. Keep it sealed, cool and dark, in a labelled child-resistant container out of sight and reach of children; CCSA suggests a lockbox.

Look for a clear THC figure on the package, and don't judge an oil by how thick it is. GasDank delivers same-day across Toronto and the GTA, usually within 1 to 2 hours, and ships mail order across Canada. Browse the concentrates menu; the menu carries lab-tested products. Toronto and Mississauga orders have a $40 minimum, with free delivery from $80 ($15 below that), and customers must be 19 or older (21 in Quebec), with ID checked at the door.