Embrace extraction! 710 is way bigger than just oil and dabbing

ere’s one bona fide ray of sunshine in this otherwise canceled year: At least the hash is better than ever.

Indeed, cannabis extracts—commonly called hash—have never been more legal, pure, affordable, and available than in North America in 2020.

Leafly celebrates 710, or OIL Day, this July 10, honoring all the hashmakers and lovers powering a Great Cannabis Extract Enlightenment. Let me explain.

Since about 2013, the 710 holiday has grown in popularity each year. High-THC consumers wanted their own 420 time of day and date. They chose 710, which is the word “oil” upside-down and backward.

710 has clicked with extract brands looking for a marketing hook. Today, 710 and Oil Day are synonymous with dripping globs of resin and $1,000 dab rigs.

But Oil Day 2020 is also a chance to celebrate the broader world of extracts. Simply put: 710 is about way more than dabs now.

• Extracts give America’s nanas back the use of their shoulders and joints, through stuff like Mary’s Medicinals CBD topicals and transdermal patches.
• It’s a chance to note that cannabis extracts can help kids with seizures through pharmaceutical products like Epidiolex, which is essentially an ethanol tincture.
• Cannabis extracts can help with Tourette’s Syndrome tics with a single vape pen hit.
• Today, tens of millions of consumers buy several billion dollars’ worth of legal extracts or edibles each year.

Legalization critics proven wrong

Legalization critics have long warned that marijuana extracts are dangerous. They can be multiple times as strong as the raw plant. “It’s not your dad’s marijuana,” they say.

And yeah—THC over-exposure has side effects, usually anxiety or nausea. But unlike whiskey, you can’t fatally overdose on dabs. And for every young bro Instagramming a glob, there are legions of folks quietly benefiting from these cannabis products.

Critics may say they hate anyone smoking or getting high—how poetic that medical and adult-use legalization in dozens of states have created manufacturing licenses, so now we have weed products you don’t smoke (like edibles) and don’t get you high (see CBD).

“Extraction is nothing to be scared of,” said Bradley Melshanker, founder of 710 Labs, serving California and Colorado. “It’s part of the normal process in the food and beverage world.”

Years of innovation applied overnight

Look at the cannabis inhalers, nebulizers, transdermals, microdose mints, sublingual strips, and on and on. Prohibition’s 80-year freeze on cannabis crop science is over. We’re witnessing decades of innovation happen in the span of years. The results are more terpene-rich and more effect-specific products than mere “indica” or “sativa” flowers.

Modern extract science has a boundless frontier that is attracting brilliant minds otherwise bored by mere marijuana, said Frosty, founder of the award-winning solventless hash team Feeling Frosty in California.

“It’s amazing what science is emerging out of the woodwork now that people aren’t afraid to look into it,” he said.

Thanks to discrete disposable vape pens and life-changing tinctures, no one’s taking away people’s rights in legal states. We won’t fall back to crude, plant matter now.

Hash personality The Dank Dutchess of Oakland, CA, told Leafly, “710 is a time that’s not only about the dabs, it’s about every single way extracts can make our lives helpful. They have great efficacy—I can get better relief from a single tincture versus 1,000 joints. I don’t know what I would do for anxiety without concentrates, mainly tinctures. I wouldn’t be having this conversation with you.”

Spread freedom countrywide

Prohibitionists love to pounce on dangerous, illegal BHO lab fires. So replace illicit labs with inspected, licensed facilities that generate tax revenue for firefighters. We need more legal weed in more states to unlock manufacturing in more places.

Let’s lift local bans, lower taxes, and slash red tape to allow for great hash for every tax bracket, made by people of every color who want a legal job.

When consumers have a more affordable, accessible, safer option than street markets, they make the legal choice every time.

This Oil Day, don’t fear the dab. Embrace extraction on your terms. Unlock the freedom to use cannabis your way. Join the fight for others’ freedom.

Take a fat dab of that, America!

David Downs

David Downs directs news and lifestyle coverage as the California Bureau Chief for Leafly.com. He’s written for WIRED, Rolling Stone and Billboard, and is the former cannabis editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, as well as the author of several cannabis books including ‘Marijuana Harvest’ by Ed Rosenthal and David Downs. He co-hosts The Hash podcast. TW: @davidrdowns | IG @daviddowns