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In this Growers Spotlight, we interview makers of RSO and Canna-Shea butter, Harry and Bunny, who explain their guiding principles towards donating medicine to patients in need.
The following is an interview with industry experts. Growers Network does not endorse nor evaluate the claims of our interviewees, nor do they influence our editorial process. We thank our interviewees for their time and effort so we can continue our exclusive Growers Spotlight service.
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Abbreviated Article
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Making RSO and Canna Shea Butter
What was the inspiration for making cannabis extracts?
How do you make your products?
- Chop the bud in a food processor.
- Submerse it in a gallon of pure ethanol and stir. This process is makes the oil a “full spectrum extract”, as we’re extracting everything from the flowers.
- Strain out the mash with a sieve, then do a second wash with another gallon of ethanol and repeat step 2.
- Filter what remains through coffee filters. This step removes the remaining plant materials and sediments.
- Discard any leftover plant material.
- Boil off the alcohol.
- Once the alcohol is boiled off, remove from heat and let sit on a warm surface until all residuals are gone.
- Then dispense however you need to.
- Cut up the plant parts, including leaves, stems, and roots.
- Place it into a large crockpot with several pounds of African shea butter and organic virgin coconut oil. Also add some dried flowers and concentrated oil.
- Set crockpot on low for 12 hours.
- Strain out plant material and filter through cloth.
- Pour it into tins/jars.
What parts of the plant do you use?
What results have you seen from your products?
Charitable Donation of Cannabis
What kind of legal hoops are there involved in charitable giving of cannabis products?
How has charitable donation of cannabis products worked for you?
Do you have any testimonials you’d be willing to share?
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If you want to read more, you can read the full article below.
Making RSO and Canna Shea Butter
After being disappointed with mostly low-quality, over-priced cannabis oils from dispensaries and online stores, I decided to follow Rick Simpson’s method and make it myself. For my first batch of cannabis oil to save a loved one battling cancer, acquiring a sufficient amount of dried flowers on a budget was a quest in and of itself. But, with the help of generous friends, good connections, and some research, I was able to amass a pound of cannabis in a relatively short time! I used to dream of having this much cannabis to smoke when I was a teenager, and now here I was throwing it all into a bucket with pure ethanol.
This experience brought me to making cannabis oil as a hobby to help others fighting cancer. Later we would go on to learn how to grow the plants ourselves using organic growing methods, avoiding pesticides, and giving them lots of love! We use the flowers to make the cannabis oil for cancer patients, and experiment with the rest of the plant to produce surprisingly effective topical medicines too!
Following Rick Simpsons instructions for 1 pound of dried flowers:
- We start by lightly chopping the bud in a food processor.
- We then submerse the bud in a gallon of pure alcohol (ethyl or isopropyl) and stir it with a block of wood for no more than 5 minutes. The oily resins in the flowers get stripped by the solvent quickly, but if we let it sit in the alcohol too long then too much chlorophyll will leach, which could diminish the potency in the end. Since alcohol is a polarized solvent and will extract both water and oil soluble compounds. This process is what makes the oil a “full spectrum extract”, as we’re extracting everything from the flowers, not just isolating one cannabinoid like THC or CBD.
- We then strain out the flower and alcohol mash with a sieve, then do a second wash with another gallon of alcohol and repeat the mashing and straining.
- We then filter the dark, green alcohol that remains through coffee filters placed in funnels. This filtering stage is a very slow process, but the more funnels/filters we have set up the faster it goes. This step is important, as it will remove the remaining plant materials and sediments so that the end product is a pure oil and not a sludge.
- All of the chopped flowers, now stripped by the alcohol, are then discarded as there’s nothing of medical value left inside them. But it makes for great bonfire kindling (just be safe)!
- Once all the plant materials and sediment are filtered out, the pure, green alcohol is then boiled off outdoors in an open rice cooker.
- Once close to the end of boiling off, a very small amount of water (roughly a bottlecap's-worth) is added to the batch, which will boil off after the alcohol does.
- Once all we smell is steam coming out of the rice cooker instead of alcohol vapors, we remove it from heat and pour the oil, which appears like used motor oil, black with a golden tinge, into a steel cup atop a coffee pot warmer for several hours until all residual solvent is evaporated.
- You can tell when it’s done when there is no more activity or bubbles showing on the surface. Then it’s sucked up into oral syringes and dispersed to whomever needs it most.
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For our cannabis oil we use only mature, dried flowers that have been trimmed from all non-resinous leaves. But we had the feeling that every part of this plant had medicinal value, so we wondered what to do with all the leaves, stems, roots, and little tiny buds and popcorn nugs that remained.
So, as an experiment, we washed and dried all of the remaining plant material, chopped it up, and put it into a large crock pot with several pounds of African shea butter and a pound of organic virgin coconut oil. We also added some dried flowers and some of the concentrated cannabis oil in as well for kicks. We set the crock pot on low heat and let it all simmer for 12+ hours. Afterwards, we strained all the plant material out with a sieve and poured the oil through a nut milk bag to further filter it. While still warm we poured the cannabis-infused shea butter into jars and tins. The Canna-Shea we made happened to be so effective at treating a variety of ailments that we’ve replicated the process for current and future batches, this time making them more potent with higher ratios of cannabis plant material to shea butter and coconut oil.
Our end products contain varying amounts of THC, CBD, CBN, CBC, CBG and THCV. The concentrated cannabis oil we produce is about 80% active cannabinoids, and while we haven’t tested our Canna-Shea for potency yet, it is very strong for a topical. We have not tested either of their terpene contents.
My goodness... what can’t this plant do?
Each cannabinoid has its own health benefit(s) associated with it, and science is still learning about their uses and applicability. This is why we feel that full-spectrum extracts are so much better for us, as the entourage effect seems to be very valid. There are many co-agonistic partnerships between organic compounds found in nature, so isolating a single cannabinoid like THC or CBD might not have as strong of a healing effect on our bodies versus a full-spectrum extract of the flowers. It’s also much easier and simpler to just keep them together.
Related Article: Variations in Cannabinoid Reporting: Part One
As we’ve researched and practically observed, full-spectrum cannabis medicines are anti-cancer, anti-tumor, anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-spasmodic, and pain relieving! If you could only have one herb in your apothecary, cannabis is your kit and kaboodle!
Charitable Donation of Cannabis
Right now, depending on where you live in the US, there are differing laws on how much you can legally give to someone. For example in California, you’re allowed to gift someone up to 5 grams of cannabis concentrates/extracts, or up to 1 oz of dried flowers, per day. So if you want to give a cancer patient medicine, legally, you are not allowed to give them their full treatment supply at once. It’s an inconvenience, but not a major obstacle. If you wanted to do this on a bigger, non-profit organization scale, there’d be plenty more challenges and obstacles to do it the right way I imagine, especially as regulations increase.
Since cannabis oil is life saving medicine, we feel morally obligated to give it away for free. It personally feels wrong to profit off of someone’s misery. However, we do sell the Canna-Shea for some small profit, as we have plenty of bills to pay ourselves, but nothing close to what dispensaries charge. A typical cannabis topical weighing 2oz could sell for $120 in dispensaries in California, while we try to keep our prices down to $20 or more if folks would like to donate. Plus, we believe the Canna-Shea we produce to be a far-superior topical than what is sold in stores.
Thus far, all of the cannabis oil we’ve made has been given away freely to people in need. We’ve passed along small amounts for folks suffering from pain and other ailments, but the bulk goes to cancer patients. Sometimes we have enough to provide for all of a patient’s needs, but sometimes when we’re running low, all we can do is give them a small amount enough to treat them immediately for a while to buy them time so they can acquire cannabis and make it themselves; directing them to all the resources and information they’d need to create their own oil at home.
It’s a dream of mine to see people growing cannabis at home and making medicines to help others. I think every homeowner in California should grow cannabis to help heal themselves, their families, and their communities! Right now, cannabis oil in dispensaries range in price from $40 to $80 a gram on average. But if you grow the plants yourself, and produce the oil yourself, you could feasibly see the cost of oil fall to $5 per gram or less. Or, for all of you with a sense of humor, $4.20 a gram.
Plenty!
We’ve heard reports from cancer patients whom we’ve donated cannabis oil to that their cancer cell counts have significantly dropped, tumor sizes have shrunk, appetites have increased, and overall feelings of wellness have improved. For non-cancer patients, it has helped provide relief to chronic pain sufferers, helped reduce the pain and cramping of women during menstruation, and worked as a good sleep-aid for some who experience insomnia.
Related Article: Cannabis v. Pain: An Opioid Alternative?
Though we knew the concentrated cannabis oil was powerful medicine, we were shocked to discover just how effective the topical Canna-Shea was as well. My mom had this inexplicable rash on her legs for years, and no matter what she or her doctors did, it never went away. After regularly using the Canna-Shea for about a week it disappeared! Additionally, my parent’s dog had a terrible, fluid-filled cyst the size of a quarter just above its nose. Thinking, “what the heck”, I put the Canna-Shea on the cyst, figuring it couldn’t hurt. The dog immediately licked it off (thankfully it’s completely safe to ingest), but I kept applying it, twice a day for a week. And just after one week applying the Canna-Shea that horrendous cyst went away and new skin had already formed and healed over. We were absolutely blown away.
We’ve also gave it to a young woman with bad psoriasis on her scalp. Expensive creams from her doctor help a little bit, but Canna-Shea heals her breakouts within a day! Any time it flares up, she uses it and she says nothing has ever helped it more.
A number of our friends suffer from chronic pain, some with neck pain, others with sore backs, and others who’ve suffered more acute injuries. And thus far every person who has used the Canna-Shea on their problem areas have expressed that they’ve felt a measurable difference. I can’t say for certain just how powerful it is as spot pain-reliever, and it’s more effective for some people more than others, but we have seen no doubt that it is helping. It’s also helped a friend’s grandmother’s arthritis. She said her hands haven’t felt this good in years – not to mention moisturized! Good ol’ shea butter!
Philosophy of Giving
Why would you risk a loved one’s life doing anything else? A significant volume of research needs to be conducted so that patients and families aren’t experimenting on their loved ones.Harry
I was aware of the medical benefits of cannabis for some time, and like many, saw a few videos on social media on their benefits in fighting cancer, including the eye-opening documentary “Run From the Cure” by Rick Simpson. It wasn’t until someone very dear to me was diagnosed with cancer did I jump headfirst into researching the plant and treatment methodologies that have been used successfully. I searched deeply into Rick Simpson’s work helping cancer patients, and I even read his books. I also found great resources on the web and numerous case studies and testimonials of folks around the world who cured themselves of cancer with full spectrum extracts of cannabis, particularly from Cureyourowncancer.org; all of which fueled my determination to save my loved one with this plant.
At first, I looked everywhere to find the medicine we needed: pure, concentrated cannabis oil, otherwise known as Rick Simpson Oil (RSO). What I found from the few dispensaries that carried it was their potency was sometimes questionable, as were their methods for extraction. The RSO in dispensaries is often made from the trim and shake (the leftovers from bud trimming), which, while still having plenty of active cannabinoids, is not going to make the best medicine. Unfortunately, most of the cannabis oil sold in dispensaries is a salvaged byproduct of flower processing, not the primary product. The extraction methods to create these oils also vary greatly, from the DIY solvent and boil-off method introduced by Rick Simpson, to butane and hexane extractions, and closed-loop CO2 extractions and oil infusions.
In case you want to get fancy equipment, this is what CO2 extraction looks like.
In case you want to get fancy equipment, this is what CO2 extraction looks like.The laws against cannabis in the US are completely ignorant. They’re in place because of racist ideologies, cut-throat profiteering, and, dare I say, malevolent intent.
How would you like to see the law change?
For now, we’re going to keep doing what we’re doing. We’re passionate about helping others and are involved in a couple of charities that provide various help and aid for people here and abroad. But as far as formally creating a non-profit organization centered around the production and distribution of cannabis medicines - though we’d love to see something like that be created and actively be a part of it, with our other primary goals in life we don’t see such an endeavor in our path, particularly to fight the many legal battles that would undoubtedly ensue.
Editor’s Note: The names provided in this article are pseudonyms.
We will happily communicate through the medium of Growers Network.
Editor’s Note: If you’d like to communicate with us, you can reach out to info@growersnetwork.org or hunter@growersnetwork.org.
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About the Author
Hunter Wilson is a community builder with Growers Network. He graduated from the University of Arizona in 2011 with a Masters in Teaching and in 2007 with a Bachelors in Biology.