Hash of all kinds is more popular than ever in Sacramento. But a lot of it is made with butane: Is this safe for patients to consume? Or even make?

On February 7, a woman shattered all the windows in her San Francisco apartment and was sent to the hospital, along with a 12-year-old boy, for treatment of burn wounds. And on February 19, three people in Tracy were rushed to the hospital, critically wounded after an explosion in their apartment. Authorities have said that these explosions resulted from failed attempts to make butane hash oil.

Butane hash oil, often referred to as BHO, is a concentrated form of cannabis prized for its smooth flavor and strong effects. According to Jeff Hatley at Sequoia Analytical Labs in Sacramento, most concentrated forms of cannabis, such as cold water hash or kief, contain between 15 to 60 percent tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the psychoactive chemical in cannabis. But BHO regularly tests much higher, at 30 to 75 percent.

A 55-year-old Los Osos resident was arrested on Thursday evening after an apparent attempt to convert some marijuana into hash oil in his kitchen went terribly wrong.
John Russell Odom remained in San Luis Obispo County Jail this afternoon on suspicion of manufacturing or converting a controlled substance through a chemical extraction process, a felony. Bail was set at $500,000.
Cmdr. Aaron Nix said sheriff’s deputies received a call about 7:50 p.m. Thursday after a loud explosion was heard by neighbors in the 2100 block of Ferrell Ave.
Deputies soon learned that Odom had been trying to convert some marijuana into hash oil, also called honey oil, in a process that involves butane. He did so inside his apartment with the windows closed, Nix said.
The lack of ventilation likely led to an explosion, blowing the glass sliding door near Odom’s kitchen off its frame.
Odom received some burns to his legs in the explosion, but no one else was present or injured. He was taken to a local hospital, treated and then released to sheriff’s deputies, who placed him under arrest, Nix said.

PORTERVILLE, Calif. (KFSN) -- A South Valley man is in jail for causing an explosion while police say he was trying to make drugs in his apartment. It happened in Porterville on Sunnyside Street near Henderson Avenue.

Repairmen spent most of Monday replacing windows in several units at Sunnyside Apartments in Porterville after a drug-making experiment caused an explosion.

Porterville Police say Seth Liberty, 27, was trying to make a concentrated form of marijuana using a butane bottle and a plastic container.

Sgt. Ronald Moore said, "We think that a flame or a spark came out of the butane and ignited and caused the explosion."

Nicholas Clinger claims he was in the apartment when the explosion happened. He says he, Liberty and some other friends were trying to speed up the process of making a highly intoxicating hash out of marijuana so they put the container in the freezer.

Clinger said, "All that platter has gas and stuff in it but we wanted it to freeze up so we could smoke it already so we put it in the freezer and then boom that's it done deal don't put your hash in the freezer."

The blast blew the door off the refrigerator and broke the windows to the apartment and an apartment next door.

The Kamakshipalya police on Friday arrested Srinivas Naidu, the owner of Sri Lakshmi Venkateshwara Convention Hall, where LPG cylinder blasts killed two and injured 15 people on Wednesday.

“After the incident, Naidu had fled Bangalore and had gone into hiding. A police team arrested him in Tamil Nadu on Friday,” said DCP (West) S N Sidramappa.

Naidu told the police that he had rented out the three-storey building to Dinesh Kumar nine months ago. He had also rented out a few houses attached to the hall and Kumar had stored some chemical in barrels, Naidu told the police.

A hashish oil-making operation – not a methamphetamine lab – likely sparked a fire inside a Lakewood home that left one man burned Friday.

After the blaze was doused, police found bags containing several pounds of marijuana and the makings of a hashish oil operation, including tubing and butane, inside the home.

Hashish oil is a potent form of THC, the main active chemical in marijuana. A drop or two of the liquid on a cigarette gives the same effect as a single marijuana joint, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration reported.

ROMEOVILLE — HazMat crews remained at the scene of a large butane leak in Romeoville until the early morning hours on Sunday. Local roads are expected to remain closed until sometime later in the day.

Crews must flush out sewers in the area where liquied butane has collected and is posing a risk of explosion, said police Chief Mark Turvey.

Until that work is completed - probably sometime Sunday, Turvey said - an 800-foot area will remain evacuated and stretches of Weber Road and Romeo Road (135th Street), will remain closed.

’An 8-inch pipeline owned by ONEOK Inc. began leaking butane Saturday afternoon.

Stark County Hazard Materials (hazmat) specialists from around the area were called early Thursday morning to help clean up a small spill at Wheeling Lake Erie Railroad Yard in the 2800 block of Gambrinus Ave. SW.

Scott Johnson, public information officer for the Canton Township Fire Department, said a railroad worker noticed the liquid – later identified as butane – leaking from the railcar which had traveled from the Southwestern region of the United States.

“The issue was that a valve had vibrated itself open on transit,” Johnson said.