A highly dangerous method of producing super-strength cannabis is emerging in the UK, police and firefighters say.

Butane hash oil is made using large amounts of the flammable gas, which can explode with devastating consequences. 

A BBC investigation has learned of two deaths and 27 people being injured across the UK since 2014, as a result of making the drug. 

The warning comes on the same day a Glasgow man was jailed for more than six years after his drug lab exploded.

Butane hash oil (BHO), which is illegal in the UK, is also known as honey oil, dabs or shatter.

Pure and strong

It is pure and strong and made by using solvents to strip out of cannabis plants one of the active ingredients of the drug - THC.

Despite Americans' statistical lack of enthusiasm for both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, the Green Party still has little chance of getting nominee Jill Stein into the White House. But another kind of green ispoised to have a big election day this year: recreational marijuana. 

State law permits a total of three medical marijuana dispensaries. The First State Compassion Center is located in New Castle County. Eleven applications for Kent and Sussex counties are under review.

A former Delaware State Trooper, Mark Lally long considered himself a skeptic when it came to legalizing medical marijuana. He’d spent much of his career hunting down meth labs and uncovering large drug networks as part of a special investigations unit. Marijuana wasn’t his top priority, he admitted, but it was still an illegal drug.

Then, after retiring from law enforcement, he became a lobbyist and began to see the issue from a policy angle. 

“I didn’t realize the medial benefits,” he said. “And as a lobbyist and Delawarean, I’m very interested in good policy.”

The Puyallup Tribe of Indians is taking steps to grow medical marijuana on tribal land.

The News Tribune reported that tribal leaders have amended a compact with the Washington Liquor and Cannabis Board and Gov. Jay Inslee to allow production and sales of marijuana. Earlier this year, the tribe opened a marijuana testing laboratory as part of the original agreement.

Tribal chairman Bill Sterud says the marijuana growing operation would be aimed at improving quality of life for tribal members with cancer. The tribe might explore recreational sales in the future, but Sterud says currently the focus is on marijuana’s medical benefits.

Despite initial fears cash-heavy marijuana dispensaries would be targets for theft, Portland Police say those worries have not come to fruition.

Portland Police have three people in custody after the armed robbery of a marijuana dispensary Wednesday.

Police said three men, one armed with a handgun, robbed the Mt. Hood Wellness Center dispensary.

Portland Police Sgt. Pete Simpson said as recreational marijuana was being legalized, they worried dispensaries might be targeted, because federal banking laws block them from using banks. Owners can’t take cash to the bank every evening like other small businesses, so they end up holding large sums. Authorities worried that would make them vulnerable to armed robbery.

There is a push on to make sure the Windsor area is at the forefront when Canada legalizes the recreational use of marijuana, and it’s coming from a surprising source.

The Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce wants input when the federal legislation is drafted to ensure the area gets its fair share of the potential $5-billion dollar industry.

“We have an emerging cannabis marketplace and we want to be at the forefront in the industry for whatever the future holds,” Matt Marchand, CEO of the Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce, said Thursday.

“Windsor-Essex is a global leader in agricultural production and research. We have skilled talent in the agricultural community, so we want to make sure the economic benefits for Essex County are maximized.”

JPMorgan…you are late.

Yesterday, JPMorgan recommended Scotts Miracle-Gro (SMG) to its clients and changed its rating to Buy from Hold because it believes Scotts’ recent hydroponics business acquisitions will pay off as legal marijuana use increases.

JPMorgan’s analyst said, “We view Scotts as a reasonably valued investment over a longer time frame as weather impacts have understated Scotts' sales growth and Scotts' investment in its faster growing hydroponics portfolio should provide further upside.”

Just More Than a Year Late

In April 2015, Technical420 highlighted Scotts Miracle Gro as an ancillary play on marijuana in this article.

In 1992, Amir Varick Amma was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison on drug charges. Convicted of two nonviolent drug felonies, he was unfortunate to be sentenced under the Rockefeller drug laws – resulting in a harsh sentence typically reserved for murderers.

After drug law reforms were passed in New York in 2004 and 2009, a judge reduced Amma’s sentence. He was released after spending 19 years behind bars.

A strange thing happened last a few weekends ago. The police at the Secret Garden Party music festival in Cambridgeshire stopped trying to arrest drug-takers and instead stood by supportively as The Loop, a drugs charity, tested party-goers’ illegal substances to ensure they were safe.

An Oregon teenager is facing federal drug charges and up to a year in prison for possessing a gram of marijuana, according to his lawyer — the first marijuana possession case federal authorities have prosecuted  in the state since 2011.

Devontre Thomas, 19, recently graduated from Chemawa Indian School in Salem and is heading to college this fall. But first, he'll have to take a trip to the federal courthouse in Portland to fight the charge, stemming from an incident in March 2015.