BY ALLISON STEIN
You could compare the story of MCSO processing concentrate to the layers of an onion. Each one peeled away reveals yet another layer.
At first, it seemed as though MCSO was just making concentrates for a few months. Before the Supreme Court ruled on the Jones Case, deciding concentrates and extracts are covered by the AMMA, but patients can only possess the amount of concentrate that can be made from 2.5 oz of dry flower.
In peeling away another layer, Arizona Cannabis News has unearthed video showing MCSO has been making concentrates since 2016, as their recent press release stated.
Now an exclusive video no longer available from its original source, the MCSO video’s original broadcast was on Channel 5 News, around two months before the 2016 election. Beginning in early September of that year the segment aired in its entirety (show only here at ACN). As time grew closer to the election, it began to shorten in length until it just disappeared, Ironically right after election night 2016.
“Dangerous Illegal Labs”
The broadcast starts with Kris Pickle standing next to a map talking about “dangerous illegal labs” popping up all over the valley. No, she’s not referring to meth labs, she’s referring to cannabis extraction labs and one could be close to your home.
Cue stock footage of marijuana plants, SWAT officers in heavy gear, citizens being arrested and cuffed, more plants, and police.
According to the news segment, Sheriff Joe Arpaio started a special MCSO task force in 1990’s working with H.I.D.T.A. or the High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. The HITDA task force uncovered their first BHO lab 4 years prior to the interview being recorded in 2016. At the time of this broadcast, HITDA, was finding about 4 BHO labs month, normally in homes. Since then the task force claims they have seen all kinds of damage done from making this dangerous BHO drug.
The main focus of MCSO at that point in time was to address the dangers of making BHO. Up until the Supreme Court ruling on the Jones Case, it appears the HITDA task force was just having fun blowing things up. Then, when the Supreme Court came with the ruling, HITDA turned its sails toward the flower to concentrate allotment ratio. Which according to a report that is undisclosed due to a pending criminal trial, Officer Shay is claiming to be an expert witness on extracts of all forms—and not just BHO.
In all actuality, the DEA website states the program was “created by Congress with the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988, provides assistance to Federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies.” However, Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office states that MCSO started working with HIDTA in 1997 and operates “a federal program funded by a grant from the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) which provides assistance to federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies operating in areas determined to be critical drug trafficking regions of the United States.”
Reporter Pickle is also shown in the video doing a ride along with a detective from this special MCSO task force, the officer is Detective Matt Shay. Shay claims he has over 18yrs of narcotic drug experience on the video.
In the broadcast, Kris Pickle tags along for an undercover illegal marijuana drug deal and bust. She asks Detective Shay, if the confiscated cannabis is illegal due to the fact that it did not come from a licensed state dispensary. Shays’ response, “Absolutely. You cannot exchange money on the street for narcotics, marijuana. Can’t do it! Nope!”
But they “got what they were after… BHO/Butane Honey Oil–a pure narcotic.” Pickle continues on to talk about how state licensed dispensaries do not pose a threat, “but it’s the illegal manufacturing of the drug, that could have explosive results.”
If there is one thing that people like to do, it’s blow shit up, and one would think cops aren’t much different. Especially cops that have DEA clearance.
At about 3:06 minutes into the video, Detective Shay, demonstrates how to “blast” (manufacture) butane honey oil. The end result appears to be a golden honey cannabis oil.
Shay then repeats the process. This time, unlike the last, a fire starts. Shay states, “One small 12 oz canister [of butane] can cause a whole house to go up in flame.” As if to prove Shay’s point, the CBS news team’s video then shows a series of butane-fueled explosions at a fire department test site. In addition to fiery images of columns of flames, plywood walls and doors are repeatedly blown off the test buildings, like the climax of an episode of “Breaking Bad.”
Here is that exclusive video.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-QV_9ytywg]
Since the discovery of this footage, ACN has reached out to Channel 5 News to obtain a better copy. They informed us we would have to have a subpoena to gain a copy.
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–Allison Stein writes for Arizona Cannabis News.