MJ BUTTER



      Butter is the ancient, traditional solvent for THC.  It works, and

it's safe.  Almost all traditional MJ food recipes from India, Persia,

Turkey, Morocco, and elsewhere utilize butter as the extract solvent.

      The most basic THC extraction process is water bath extraction using

butter as the base.  This process takes advantage of the fact that THC is

soluble in fats, such as butter, but not in water.

      Eating MJ butter or using it carefully in food recipes will leave no

tell-tale smell of burning MJ to identify the mental state of the user,

and thus has many applications where smoke would preclude use, such as a

trip to the park or a Sunday morning church service.  Further, cookies

made with MJ butter lying on the seat of your car do not raise anywhere

near the police suspicion and action precipitated by an ounce baggie of

green leafy.

      This water bath technique may be used to extract relatively large

amounts of MJ with relatively small amounts of butter, in order to

concentrate the THC.  Thus if you have a crop of home grown which has to be

harvested early due to sudden security problems, or other weak MJ, the

potency of a large amount of MJ can be concentrated in a small amount of

butter.

CALCULATING PROPORTIONS OF EXTRACT BASE TO MJ

      If you're working with a very high-potency MJ, a little MJ will make

a lot of extract.  If the MJ is so weak that you can't smoke enough to get

high without a headache, you'll need a lot for a small amount of extract

base.

      Whether MJ is strong or weak to you will depend on how susceptible

you are to MJ, and on other factors.  Anyone who's reasonably experienced

with MJ can divide it into three or four categories of potency.  For

example:

            GRADE A(1)- Extremely potent.  When smoked it is definitely

      two-toke.  It may be very fine, aromatic, resin-flavored sinsemilla,

      or Thai-stick quality, or very heavy Colombian.

            GRADE A(2)- Excellent quality.  The best you'll find at

      reasonable market prices.  Not sinsemilla/Maui/Thai quality.  A half

      joint will get you very high.  Some aroma and tops.

            GRADE B - Moderate quality.  Competent but not excellent

      home grown or bulk imported stuff.  It takes one or two joints to get

      you high for several hours.  May give you a headache.  Little aroma,

      few tops.

            GRADE C - Found along roads in the Midwest; also growing in

      homes with poor light, poor soil, excess watering, etc.  You can't

      smoke enough to get high.  Definite headache.



      Okay - with these subjective grades established, let's talk about

MJ/butter extract base proportions:

      Grade A(1)- Use a ratio of 1 oz of MJ to 16 to 20 oz. butter.  This

will yield 100 to 125 teaspoons of very potent extract, each of which will

produce a six to nine hour high.

      Grade A(2)- Use a ratio of 1 oz MJ to 12 to 16 oz. butter for a

yield of 75 to 100 teaspoons of potent extract, each one good for a five

to eight hour high.

      Grade B- Use a ratio of 1 oz to 8 oz of butter.  This yields 50

teaspoons of extract, each one potent enough for a four to seven hour

high.

      Grade C- (Turn dregs into gold!)  Try 1 oz of MJ stems or trash to

4 oz. (or less) of butter.  One 4 oz. (or less) stick of butter per pound

of rope-quality hemp.

      Remember, you can always add regular butter to a too strong MJ

butter, but you can't go the other way.  No-one wants to eat a whole bowl

of butter to get a little buzz.



WATER BATH EXTRACTION

      Step 1.  In a large pot bring several quarts of water to a boil,

then reduce the heat to a low simmer.  Heating water this way produces a

more even temperature throughout.  If available, use an electric crock pot

on the low setting.

      Step 2.  Add your dry MJ to the water--seeds, stems, shake, and all. 

Break up the leaf.  Just dump it in, and disperse it by stirring, using a

wooden spoon if you have one.  Don't worry about the floaters.

      Step 3.  Cover the pot and simmer the MJ on low heat for about two

hours.  Water temperature should be hot to the touch but nowhere near a

boil.  Stir the MJ every so often.

      Step 4.  After two hours of gently simmering the MJ in water alone,

add the butter by dropping it into the pot.  Check ratios above for

amount.  

      [It is much better to use "clarified" butter, if all of the extract

will not be used immediately because clarified butter will keep much

longer without going rancid and does not burn as easily in recipes calling

for high temperatures.  Buttered is clarified by melting butter in a heavy

saucepan over very low heat.  Be very sure you don't burn it.  When the

butter is melted, a foam will be floating on the top.  Skim this off and

discard it.  Then raise the temperature a little.  More foam will form. 

Skim that off and discard it.  Repeat the process several times until you

get no more foam.  Now, carefully pour off the clear, straw-colored liquid

butter, leaving the sediment of milk solids in the bottom of the pan. 

Start the clarification process with about twice as much butter as you

will use for extraction, and then weigh or measure the remaining clarified

butter.]

      Step 5.  The butter will melt within minutes after being added, and

you should stir the contents of the pot frequently over the next two

hours.  Keep the pot covered except when stirring.  If the water level

drops, replenish it with hot water.

      Step 6.  When you're ready to take the pot off, after a total

cooking time of four hours (two hours simmering with only water, two hours

simmering with butter added), heat a kettle pot of water to boiling on the

side.



      Step 7.  Make ready a bowl, a strainer through which you'll pour the

extract liquid and catch all the MJ, and several pot holders.

      Step 8.  Pour the MJ/butter liquid through the strainer (strainer

covered with tee shirt material as a filter) into the bowl.  Then slowly

trickle the boiling water through the MJ in the strainer, shaking the

strainer as you pour.  This removes most of the butter clinging to the MJ. 

Press the MJ in the strainer to squeeze out the last of the liquid.

      Step 9.  Now you can discard the MJ in the strainer; most of its

potency has been converted and transferred to the butter.  [To conserve

what potency may remain in the leaf, you can add fresh water to the pot,

bring it to a simmer, and simmer the MJ leaf for another two hours with a

half stick of butter.  This butter is rarely very potent.  Keep it

separate from the first extract, or use it as the extract base for a new

batch.]

      Step 10.  Set aside the liquid to cool, keeping it covered.  When

the liquid has cooled several hours, put it into the refrigerator and

chill it overnight.

      Step 11.  After complete cooling, the mixture will have separated

into two or three layers.  

      The upper layer will be hard.  It can be broken into large pieces

and removed.  It's easiest to slip a table knife under the hardened butter

at the side of the bowl, pry it up, and break it into pieces.

      The second layer will have a creamy, semisolid texture.  It should

be removed carefully with a large spoon.  Care is necessary because you

don't want to stir up the liquid below and lose some of the second layer

by remixing it with the liquid.  [Discard the liquid.  It contains

primarily water soluble, non-psychoactive, tars and waxes.]

      Step 12.  There is very little difference between the potency of the

top two layers, so most people mix them together into a paste, which is

then ready for use.

      Step 13.  You should freeze the butter you aren't going to use

immediately.  Of course, you may not want to wait to cook with the butter. 

You may try a lightly buttered single saltine cracker.  See section below

on overdose problems.



MICROWAVE - Use of a microwave oven will significantly reduce the time

necessary to complete the above extract process:  Set your microwave on

50% power, place the MJ on a dish, and cook the MJ for 2.5 minutes.  Then,

having melted the appropriate amount of butter in a low temp. crock-pot or

other large pot holding sufficient water, add the cooked MJ.

      The microwave time has converted a high proportion of the inactive

THC to active form, and so all that is needed is for the butter to absorb

the already converted THC  Thus, cooking time is radically decreased, and

after 30-45 minutes, the MJ butter/liquid will be ready for straining.

      Even smokers can benefit from microwave MJ processing.  Although

smoking incinerates most of the THC, what does come over to the smoker is

almost doubled in strength by the quick heating it has received in the

microwave.



CAUTION - MJ food overdose considerations:

      It's easier to overdose on MJ food than it is to overdose by

smoking.  With smoking there's an almost immediate feedback from your body

because of absorbsion through the lungs, but with MJ food, you can eat far

too much and not begin to realize it for an hour or so, by which time the

potency has been absorbed by your body and well on its way toward

saturating your nerve net.  Dosage must be controlled up front!  Do not

eat a sample and after an hour or so decide that nothing is happening and

then eat another dose.  When testing to determine potency by volume,

always wait at least 24 hours before trying another sample.  MJ overdose

will cause not only a profound MJ high which is incapacitating, but also

a possibly serious hypoglycemic reaction.  This means that, for some

people, a MJ overdose can create a definite life hazard.  If someone has

undiagnosed diabetes, chronic hypoglycemia, kidney or liver problems, or

other similar problems, too much MJ in any form can be dangerous.

      Once you are in the middle of an overdose, there is very little you

can do other than relax and try to enjoy it or focus on something other

than the high.  Many who are experienced know that it is possible to

separate your consciousness and its controls from the high state by a

combination of relaxation and concentration.

      It also helps if the person who has overdosed consumes readily

assimilable protein rather than carbohydrates like sugar.  The protein

will gradually restore blood sugar balance; chicken soup, along with some

simple brown rice or whole-wheat toast, or yogurt, plus a banana for

potassium, work well.

      A really profound overdose can leave a person high off and on for

days, the high accompanied by unpleasant body sensations.  The mental

state of someone going through an overdose is perhaps the most critical

factor.  If a person panics, the body may go rigid on a deep psychological

level and the trip becomes more difficult than it would otherwise be. 

Fortunately, MJ is a relatively benign drug, even in overdose form.  It

has been found by the DEA's chief adm. judge to be one of the safest

therapeutically active substances known to man.  Any basically healthy

person can cope with and live through a MJ food overdose, or and overdose

caused by smoking.  It's just real unpleasant, and not likely to be done

more than once.

      END NOTE: The use of MJ should not be an issue.  It should be a

matter of personal choice and individual liberty.  Unfortunately, there is

a long, dishonorable tradition in this country of oppressing people who

indulge in activities that other people fear to practice on themselves. 

Further, the pharmaceutical companies stand to loose billions of dollars

if and when MJ is ever legalized for medicinal uses.  MJ may remain

illegal for a long time.  MJ butter offers an alternative not only to

smoking, but also to being smoked out by the Forces of Darkness as you sit

puffing your friendly weed, sipping iced-tea, and peaceful thinking

altered thoughts.  Enjoy!