A Vape Primer: What's in your THC cartridge?

the mentioned new vape battery

The other night, my partner came home looking for the bong. I had put it “away” because our landlord is coming through sometime soon. I offered him my new cartridge battery. What came out of his mouth next left me speechless.

“I don’t want to vape. You don’t know what’s in the oil.” 

Which, what?

I'm familiar with the process of super CO2 extraction that ultimately creates the crude oil that is refined into distillate. I saw with my own eyes the material that went into this batch. I could even list where both the botanical and cannabis derived terpenes came from for my dearest boyfriend. Even for the third party cartridges I’ve bought, I spend much of my time at the office pouring over their certificates of analysis. You know, the documents that tell me exactly how clean and potent they are or are not. 

I reminded him of this fact, ran down exactly what cart was screwed into my 5.10 thread battery (a THC distillate cart with botanical terpenes made to resemble Platinum Garlic Cookies that I was given as a sample), and offered to pull up the COA packet. He declined and seemed appropriately chagrined. 

We curled up to watch a movie (Ready or Not) and both pull on the battery for a hit. After he hits it, more tomfoolery comes out of his mouth. 

“Is this synthetic THC?”

While I am such a purist at heart, there are a lot of fascinating things happening in the hemp-derived THC space. This past year at NECANN there was a panel where a lab created hemp-derived THC for white labeling was speaking about their experiences. Not only were they discussing how little oversight there is, but that they’re seeing cannabinoid molecules that have never seen before. The science that is happening in that field is eons ahead of what we could even understand for regulating.

All that to say, this was not synthetic.

The THC in my vape cartridge was derived from weed grown next to my office. This made me wonder if this is something that most folks are thinking when looking at the carts their friends are hitting. I think cartridges are an awesome, accessible way to get into THC concentrates and want to shed some light on this area of a dispensary menu.

When buying a cartridge from a recreational store, regardless of what it’s made of, you are going to have state required tests showing you exactly what is in that specific cart. In Vermont, the tests required vary depending on style of concentrate, but all require a cannabinoid, pathogen, and pesticide test. 

It’s paramount to point out that many of these terms come from dealers who were creating new terms to purposely make themselves seem on the cutting edge of the market. I run into this time and time again when trying to explain terminology or origin stories. That also means that time and space mold these terms into new definitions in different contexts.

Live vs Cured 

At the front of a cartridge’s title you’ll sometimes see the words “Live” or “Cured”. This indicates how the flower was handled when it was first harvested. Live means that within two hours of harvest, that flower was put into a freezer. You’ll hear the phrase “fresh frozen” to mean live as well. The act of freezing the flower allows for the oils that are present at harvest to be preserved and make it into the final, smokable product. This makes for a robust profile that captures the essence of a fresh flower.

Cured flower is, intuitively, flower that goes through the drying and curing process. Drying can take around two weeks and curing can take as long as you’d like it to. Through curing however, some of these fresh cannabinoids will age into another, or terpenes will fade. A cured flower will lose their trichomes easily. They could flake right off into the air so extracting the oil from the plant becomes easier.

Distillate Carts

A distillate cart is your base type of cart. The flower is extracted by cold, liquid CO2 running through and around the plant, stripping it of what you want. Different features of the plant can be pulled through different sorts of passes based on pressure or temperature. The CO2 then evaporates, leaving behind a crude, activated oil. That oil is further distilled down to a smoother, more desirable oil. 

You’ll see lots of distillate in a state’s market. It’s a relatively safe extraction process. It also offers an avenue for a grower to still make money off of their flowers if their crop lacks potency or bag appeal. Distillate is even an option for a crop that  came down “dirty”. Through the process of extracting the straight THC molecule, the rest of the constituents that make up the flower fall away. This means you can mix flower batches and harvests and still come out with a uniform product.

a handful of distillate carts I have collected through formulation testing

A distillate cart that has any terpenes or minor cannabinoids measured out and re-added to recreate the entourage effect. The terpenes added don’t have to come from cannabis. If a cart is labeled “botanical derived terpenes”, the terpenes could come from any plant that has that same scented hydrocarbon. “Cannabis derived terpenes” can originate from a particularly aromatic hemp plant or the same flower run of CO2 extraction. Vermont currently has a law that states you cannot put a botanically derived terpene into a distillate cart if it doesn’t occur naturally in cannabis.

The edge of a distillate cart is that it offers a more consistent product that someone can rely on. It maximizes potency, but the final cartridge does lose its unique flavor and the full spectrum beauty that often has us enjoying some weed more than others in the

first place. However, it’s usually the cheapest, and most accessible, cart on the menu.

BHO & PHO

Butane Hash/Honey Oil, BHO, is another type of solvent extraction. Using Butane is much more accessible to a new extractor and can be used at home. However, I won’t officially be condoning Butane blasting at home because it is extremely dangerous! Excess butane in the open air is precarious; making your home susceptible to fire and combustion. For this reason, Vermont has currently banned BHO from the legal market. The CCB has instead allowed the use of propane, which is a more stable hydrocarbon. It’s not without its own risks, but the state has deemed it a smaller menace. 

When I was on the phone with a brand that creates and sells PHO cartridges, their rep told me that it’s unadulterated and that it’s the closest ratio of the entourage system you can get to the original flower it originates from. I am not going to pretend that I know ANYTHING about the science of different molecule chains pulling different compounds from the plant, but in short, the propane pulls less of the undesirables, like waxes, from the leaf material and leaves the good stuff.

PHO is not separating and reincorporating the different components that make weed what it is, so we have a better composite of what comes from a specific strain. However, this is still a foreign solvent being used to pull these desirables out to formulate an oil. If performed incorrectly or with poor quality propane or butane, it could leave bits of that solvent in your cartridge. Luckily, legality insists on testing for all products to ensure that the finished quality is safe for people ripping on pens. 

Rosetta Stone Cured Resin cart (All carts look more or less the same, with slight amber shade variance)

I’ve never knowingly hit a BHO or PHO pen so I picked up the aforementioned brand for some investigative journalism. I grabbed a 0.5g Rosetta S

tone Cured Resin cart from the dispensary closest to the coffee shop I’m currently typing at. I was screwing it into my battery before I was 10 feet down the road. 

There’s definitely a unique flavor happening. While a distillate cart tastes like whatever terpenes have been put back into it so it hardly tastes like THC at all, this cured resin cart definitely still retains a unique sense of earthiness. I am surprised how much I enjoy the personality of the flavor profile. Looking at the COA of the cart, there’s a whopping 8.9% terpene retention!! After hitting this, I do feel like I am ripping on the imprint, a fossil, of a flower’s profile. 

I didn’t really think I was feeling any effects at first. The flavor was great, the pull was easy, but I had to dig around for sensation. I eventually found it in the space between one thought and another. The quiet moments slowly grew larger and I am now able to edit in moderate peace. 

Rosin

This is the most simplistic, potentially labor intensive form of extraction you’ll find in a cart. Rosin is the pressed trichome heads that are frozen and washed off of the flower. The flower is preserved live and fresh. It’s then put into a barrel to paddle or a machine to agitate the sticky, sparkling trichomes off of the flower. Certain sizes are collected in different bag sizes. These heads are then put in a heated press to have the oil squeezed out. That resulting oil is your rosin. 

Much like with hydrocarbon extraction, the terpenes and cannabinoid profiles remain and create a unique reflection of the starting material. With all of that labor involved, however, it’s possibly going to be a more expensive option. There are people who stand firmly on either side of this divide. I recommend trying for yourself. 

I deeply, truly thought I was a purist for a rosin cart, but this PHO cured resin has me doubting. More experimentation must be had of course, but I may be a convert.

When rosin came onto the scene in the mid-2010s, it was barely more intellectual than running a hair straightener (my coworker told me that this one worked best for him when he started) over dry sift, bubble hash, or even flower. Much has been refined and crafted since then - from the best strains to extract, to different cures, to the best trichome head size for dabbing and carts. The rosin world remains the most interesting and curious to me as a fan of the plant at large.

Bonus terms

My pineapple diamonds cart with my pineapple spindrift

“Resin”

In the modern market, “resin” is a good indicator that a solvent has been used. Something like “Cured Resin” would then be THC oil made by dried flower run through a solvent. However, I’ve been reading through a vintage book about the culture and historical production of hash and the word resin is not only used for all of the old school, solventless extraction processes, but any substance coming from the trichomes of the plant at any stage as well. Like all languages, nothing is set in stone, and this is the current group consensus. 

That same Pineapple diamonds cart I loved so much

“Diamonds”

Diamonds are pure THC-A crystals. These crystals are then put into the “terp sauce” they were separated from. These crystals pack a potent punch once decarboxylated (heated up) and transformed into THC. They can be created from a solvent-rich or solventless extraction method and is more or less a flex on the extractor’s part. 

The one time I did go buy a diamonds cart to see what all the hype was about, I got incredibly stoned. Seriously, as if I had taken a hot dab, I was on an adventure for the afternoon. In hindsight, this may have been the moment I began to callus my tolerance to what it is today. This cartridge and pen were glued to my side until I put it through the wash about halfway through it's lifespan.

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Your options come down to what’s available, what you want to spend, and what gives you the desired effect. The care of any cartridge remains the same. Keep the oil out of the sun, at room temperature. Store the cart upright if you can help it. Don't put it through the wash. When traveling, the batteries belong in your carry-on, not your checked bag.

At long last, my partner put down his crusade against the cartridge and hit the battery. While it’s not my primary method of consuming THC, it's a handy tool for curling up on the couch in my rented apartment or when I am traveling.