This marijuana regulation could prevent explosions

By The Editorial Board,

As California moves toward implementation of the legalization of recreational marijuana use, there are a lot of rules and regulations to draw up, on both the state and local levels.

One of those needed regulations is moving through the Legislature now in the form of Assembly Bill 238, by local Assemblyman Marc Steinorth, R-Rancho Cucamonga.

Steinorth’s bill would ban highly combustible cannabis extractors used in concentrated THC production from being used in residential neighborhoods.

“A recent explosion in San Bernardino County highlights the danger of these marijuana processing labs often located in residential areas,” Steinorth said in a statement. “Butane is dangerous and highly combustible. As California comes to terms with recreational cannabis, we should continue to protect public safety and keep explosive equipment out of our neighborhoods.”


He was referring to a May 3 garage fire in Hesperia that investigators attributed to the explosion of a THC extraction lab in the garage. A man, suspected of using the lab to make “honey oil,” was seriously injured in the explosion and fire. The house sits next to a middle school.

Volatile-solvent cannabis extractors, using combustible gases like butane, have caused many accidental explosions.

Proposition 64, passed by state voters in November to legalize and regulate recreational marijuana, creates a “Manufacturing Level 2” license for “sites that manufacture marijuana products using volatile solvents.”


AB238 would prohibit a Manufacturing Level 2 licensee from manufacturing cannabis products while using SWvolatile solvents in a residential structure or on residential property — in other words, in a neighborhood.

“As the cannabis industry transitions into an above-ground economy, it is important that cannabis businesses do not operate potentially dangerous equipment in populated neighborhoods and instead properly use commercial property,” Steinorth wrote in an Assembly analysis of his legislation.


Steinorth’s bill passed the Assembly on a 68-0 vote last week. It should speed through the state Senate and be signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown.