Law enforcement announced last week that a specialized Vermont State Police unit found evidence in a Franklin County home indicating there had been a marijuana oil extraction laboratory.
It’s becoming a familiar narrative. That is the third such lab the Vermont State Police have announced this year.
Police said they found a butane hash extraction lab in an upstairs apartment at 30 Main St. in Winooski in March. File photo by Morgan True/VTDigger
Police say marijuana extraction labs are dangerous and growing more common. But, though the issue came under some scrutiny during the pot legalization debate this year, there is no state statute criminalizing the production of marijuana oil extract.
Amateur marijuana extraction operations have come under scrutiny across the country as the extract has become more popular. Butane honey oil, sometimes called dabs or wax, is a potent derivative of marijuana and is favored by some users for its high concentration of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the principal psychoactive in cannabis. Authorities can bring charges against people for possessing the oil extract.
The production process requires highly flammable materials, commonly butane, and has been associated with serious fires in other parts of the country. The trend has Vermont police on the lookout.
Police originally responded to Phillip Walker-Brazie’s home in Richford in late April after getting information that three fugitives wanted on felony charges were hiding there, according to court papers. During the search, officers said they found a large amount of marijuana and paraphernalia, as well as other items.
“I observed items such as butane and cheese cloth, which are commonly used for the manufacture of hash oil,” Franklin County Sheriff’s Deputy Nathan Vaillancourt wrote in an affidavit.
He also reported that he saw a trash bag hanging from the wall and, patting it, “felt what (he) recognized to be another substantial amount of marijuana.” Altogether, police confiscated more than a pound of marijuana from the residence.
But Vaillancourt’s observations led police to return to the residence almost two weeks later. The Franklin County Sheriff’s Department and a Vermont State Police unit specializing in clandestine labs executed a warrant on Walker-Brazie’s residence May 12.
Evidence the teams recovered, according to a state police news release, “indicate that there had been a THC extraction/butane honey oil (BHO) lab at the residence, as all the components to a lab had been seized.”
The two other marijuana extraction labs that law enforcement announced this year were also in northwestern Vermont. A man in Berkshire was arrested in February on child cruelty charges after police said they found evidence he was extracting marijuana at home.
A few weeks later, a tip led to a raid of what authorities said was a similar lab in downtown Winooski.
Lt. Reg Trayah, the head of the nine-member Vermont State Police clandestine lab investigations unit, said there has been an uptick in the number of marijuana extraction operations around the state.
But, though extraction labs have been in headlines recently, they have not been on charge sheets. Production of marijuana extract isn’t illegal under state statute.
The at-home operations were a subject of some legislative debate this year. After hearing testimony from law enforcement about the dangers of butane extraction, lawmakers drafted language that would have criminalized the process.
It was included as a section in S.241, the Senate bill that proposed to legalize and regulate recreational pot. But ultimately the bill fizzled out, and lawmakers did not pass any legislation to criminalize marijuana extraction.
Trayah said that even without a statute criminalizing extraction in particular, law enforcement has an interest in monitoring for these labs. For one thing, the butane used in the process creates a public safety risk.
“It’s the explosive and safety factor right now,” Trayah said.
Butane could easily ignite from the heat of a stovetop or a spark from an outlet, he said. “You light a cigarette and then kaboom,” Trayah said.
Though Trayah knows of no fire incidents that have been explicitly linked to butane extraction labs in Vermont, many instances have been reported in other parts of the country.
Trayah said an arson investigation specialist who recently joined the Vermont State Police team recalls seeing items like butane canisters at the site of previous fires, but that he can’t say for certain they were labs.
And though prosecutors can’t bring charges specifically for the manufacture of honey oil, they can bring related charges.
“The product that is made from this is illegal. The marijuana you need for it is illegal,” Trayah said.
Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, on the Senate floor. File photo by Elizabeth Hewitt/VTDigger
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Sears, D-Bennington, who led the push on the marijuana legalization bill, said the committee had opted to include language criminalizing chemical extraction of THC after hearing from Trayah about the dangers.
The version of the bill the Senate passed in February would have imposed a penalty of two years in prison and a $2,000 fine. If the extraction caused serious bodily injury, the penalty would have been increased to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
The House Judiciary Committee also considered the issue. However, when the rest of the marijuana bill died, the extraction provision died with it. As to what happens to that provision in the future, Sears said that is an open question.
“We’ll see what we do next year,” he said.
He has been clear that any push to legalize marijuana during the next session would need to come from the House.
Franklin County State’s Attorney Jim Hughes did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story.
Justin Jiron, chief deputy state’s attorney in Chittenden County, where an extraction operation was announced earlier this year, said there are prosecutorial concerns around the manufacture of butane honey oil, as well as around the oil itself.
He said state statute should be adjusted in the interest of consistency.
“The short answer is there should be something,” Jiron said. “I’m not sure what there should be, though.”
David Cahill is Windsor County state’s attorney. File photo by Elizabeth Hewitt/VTDigger
Windsor County State’s Attorney David Cahill also raised concerns about the lack of a statute on the labs.
“It’s a danger to people in the household where these things are being produced, and it’s a danger to the neighborhood,” Cahill said. However, he said, the operations are rare in Vermont.
Cahill does see the question of criminalizing extraction as separate from the question of marijuana legalization. The extraction process is an independent issue of public safety, he said.
Eli Harrington, founder of the blog Vermontijuana.com, noted the increased police interest in marijuana extraction recently.
“The state police are very, very hungry to make these busts and help reinforce the narrative that potheads are playing with explosives,” Harrington said.
Harrington acknowledged that the process can be dangerous, especially when done in poorly ventilated areas. Many of the young people who try to make oil themselves learn how to do it from videos on the Internet, he said. But he noted that extracts are made legitimately for medical purposes.
Meanwhile, the increased number of announcements about extraction operations does not necessarily mean the prevalence has increased, Harrington said. It could just flag a greater level of police interest.
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