Beware of Bogus BHO

Oils, shatter, wax, BHO, hash – concentrates are rising in popularity these days, and the sweep of their presence is even being felt as far as prohibition states on the East coast. Still, many such forms of cannabis are still very new to consumers, meaning that it can be hard at times to know exactly what you’re getting when someone is slinging shatter.

Recently, I heard of a friend receiving fake BHO. Intrigued and wanting to learn more, I hit him up and asked for all the details. What I learned was shocking and disturbing.

Tyler* had just finished his stash, when an associate let him know that he had some wax and shatter to get rid of. He jumped on the offer, but right away he noticed something was off with the wax he received, “I noticed [the wax] had a strange texture, almost like a firm body wash with no smell, and a very enticing name that I can’t recall.”

A photo of the bogus BHO which Tyler received.

He placed both the wax and shatter into the same container, and says that an hour later the wax had engulfed the shatter. Thinking nothing of it, however, he proceeded to put some wax into a vape pen. He described the taste as one of burnt marshmallows, and it was accompanied by a decent head high. After getting used to the taste, he continued to smoke it regularly, until he began to notice something else.

“I eventually started to notice blood [and a cough] almost every day followed [after] smoking my pen. I coughed up blood and had blood in my nose for over 2 weeks ’til I stopped smoking it because someone alerted me [that it was from the wax].”

It was then that he began to question what he was smoking. It occurred to Tyler that the head high he had been feeling may have been from the shatter which had merged with the wax, and not the wax at all. He believes the substance he was smoking was a failed attempt at cutting wax, perhaps with sugar, though he also thinks it’s very possible it was purely bogus BHO.

“Because of [this], I haven’t smoked any BHO products and I went back to bud. Even though I love and prefer dabs,” Tyler says.

Not content to wreck his lungs, the faux BHO also destroyed his vape pen in the end, by caramelizing to the pen and becoming hard as a rock.

Perhaps for those who live in Dab City, it might be hard to imagine being fooled by fake BHO, but for those in prohibition states, where concentrates are far less common and sometimes hard to get a hold of, each step towards a dab requires some faith. Dispensaries can promise clean, uncompromised, pure BHO. But dealers? Well, clearly, some of them have no scruples and are willing to risk people’s health and well-being to cash in on the concentrate craze.

When acquiring BHO outside of licensed dispensaries, keep this bogus BHO in mind and use discretion when deciding who to purchase from. If the product seems funky, trust your gut instinct and let it go. Wax may cost a pretty penny in prohibition states, but lost coin is better than damaged health.

Good luck my prohibition wax pioneers, and happy dabbing.

* Name changed for anonymity