Cannabis consumers are turning to more discreet concentrates and oils
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Smoking pot will soon be as retro as smoking a cigar or enjoying a fine wine.
As the legal market for marijuana expands, product offerings have diversified from the standard dried flowers and cannabis-infused edible items like cookies and gummy bears to vaporizable oils and concentrates. They have become a major portion of legal marijuana sales, allowing consumers more potent and less overt forms of consumption.
“Patients don’t want to be stigmatized or ostracized, they don’t want to be obvious,” says Rob Hunt, a general partner at cannabis-focused private-equity firm Tuatara Capital. “It’s important for people to have alternative forms of consumption, to consume in a way that’s anonymous.”
Twenty-three states have legalized marijuana for medical use, and four states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational cannabis.
In
Washington state, which legalized the sale of recreational marijuana in
2012, concentrates have grown from about 10% of all legal sales in the
third quarter of 2014 to more than 15% in the third quarter of 2015,
according to Marijuana Business Daily’s 2016
Marijuana Business Factbook.
In the same period in Washington, dollar sales of concentrates increased by more than 1,500%, while the average price per gram of cannabis rose 11%. Similar point-of-sale data were not available for other states that have legalized both recreational and medical sales.
As
companies have developed more sophisticated methods of extracting
tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, which gives a psychoactive effect, and
cannabidiol, which is typically used for medicinal purposes, the variety
of concentrate products on the legal market has increased, Hunt says.
Products like waxes and shatters — a sugar glasslike concentrate
substance — which contain high amounts of THC, have become especially
popular in the past year.
They are consumed by a process known as “dabbing” where the substance is heated on a surface such as titanium or quartz via a high intensity heat source like a blowtorch, then inhaled through a specialized device, typically a glass rig similar to a traditional bong.
Waxes and shatters accounted for 20% of all concentrate sales in Washington in the third quarter of 2015, up from virtually no sales in the third quarter of 2014, according to cannabis industry data firm BDS Analytics.
“It’s a speedy way [for consumers] to get a lot of cannabinoids into their system,” says Derek Peterson, chief executive of cannabis-focused agriculture company Terra Tech TRTC, +0.73% based in Newport Beach, Calif. The streamlined method can be dangerous, however, if wax or shatter has been improperly extracted, leaving concentrated leftover gases like butane to be inhaled, Peterson adds.
“If [manufacturers] rush the process or don’t know the process and don’t get the residual solvents out of the concentrates, it can be dangerous to your health,” he says. Until states institute more regulations on these producers, consumers should be sure to research the manufacturer if they’re interested in ingesting these products, Peterson adds.
As the legal market for marijuana expands, product offerings have diversified from the standard dried flowers and cannabis-infused edible items like cookies and gummy bears to vaporizable oils and concentrates. They have become a major portion of legal marijuana sales, allowing consumers more potent and less overt forms of consumption.
“Patients don’t want to be stigmatized or ostracized, they don’t want to be obvious,” says Rob Hunt, a general partner at cannabis-focused private-equity firm Tuatara Capital. “It’s important for people to have alternative forms of consumption, to consume in a way that’s anonymous.”
Twenty-three states have legalized marijuana for medical use, and four states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational cannabis.
In the same period in Washington, dollar sales of concentrates increased by more than 1,500%, while the average price per gram of cannabis rose 11%. Similar point-of-sale data were not available for other states that have legalized both recreational and medical sales.
They are consumed by a process known as “dabbing” where the substance is heated on a surface such as titanium or quartz via a high intensity heat source like a blowtorch, then inhaled through a specialized device, typically a glass rig similar to a traditional bong.
Waxes and shatters accounted for 20% of all concentrate sales in Washington in the third quarter of 2015, up from virtually no sales in the third quarter of 2014, according to cannabis industry data firm BDS Analytics.
“It’s a speedy way [for consumers] to get a lot of cannabinoids into their system,” says Derek Peterson, chief executive of cannabis-focused agriculture company Terra Tech TRTC, +0.73% based in Newport Beach, Calif. The streamlined method can be dangerous, however, if wax or shatter has been improperly extracted, leaving concentrated leftover gases like butane to be inhaled, Peterson adds.
“If [manufacturers] rush the process or don’t know the process and don’t get the residual solvents out of the concentrates, it can be dangerous to your health,” he says. Until states institute more regulations on these producers, consumers should be sure to research the manufacturer if they’re interested in ingesting these products, Peterson adds.
These products have helped draw in a more conservative demographic, customers over the age of 50 and women.
Vaporizing devices that heat pre-filled cartridges of cannabis concentrates are another popular — and less volatile — way to consume marijuana in a measured manner. “The vape pen is discreet, the smell is minimal and it’s a fast way to absorb THC,” says Sally Vander Veer, president of Medicine Man dispensary in Denver.
These products have helped draw in a more conservative demographic, customers over the age of 50 and women, Vander Veer says. Pre-filled cartridges are the most popular marijuana concentrate products, making up about 36% of category sales in Washington in the third quarter of 2015, according to the Marijuana Business Factbook.
Pre-filled cartridges allow consumers to control the exact amount of cannabis chemicals they are ingesting, while smoking the plant directly or eating it in an edible is much more imprecise, Vander Veer says. The effects of vaporizing are also felt more quickly, so consumers can easily start at low doses and consume more if necessary, she adds.
Pantelis Ataliotis, president of Las Vegas-based vaporizer retailer Dr. Dabber, says the company’s customers range from ages 18 to 70, though the majority of sales are from customers between the ages 18 and 35. “Our whole mantra is high class, low profile,” Ataliotis says. “We appeal to an older demographic that isn’t going to take out a blowtorch and glass piece to dab.”
Though sales of concentrates have been growing rapidly, industry experts don’t expect dried flowers to be completely phased out of the legal market. Peterson compares the act of smoking marijuana with smoking a cigar or decanting a fine wine — a slower, less convenient process enjoyed by a subset of customers. Concentrate products can help expand the cannabis market, he says, for “other people who just don’t want to be bothered.”
