MMJ DOCTORS - ACCEPTING PATIENTS 18YRS + - HAVE LICENSE WHILE ON PROBATION CALL OR TEXT 720-401-9303 303-356-2882 SUNSETWELLNESSDENVER.COM $40OFF USE COUPON CODE (40OFF) - PROTECTION FROM YOUR EMPLOYER - SAVE $ ON PRODUCTS & TAXES Oiled Up BY THOMAS MITCHELL Has it been almost three months since 4/20? Time to get out the dab rig. The exact origin of the 7/10 celebration Programmatic Cannabis Network Organic & Local SEO • Website Design Social Media Management • Print Media Get started today with a FREE Digital Audit. marijuanamarketingxperts.com is murky, but it’s widely agreed that the inspiration was a date whose numbers look like the word “oil” when turned upside down. While July 10 is a relatively new day of festivities for the cannabis community, 7/10 has evolved quickly as extraction technology progresses. But not all of that evolution has been appreciated. To learn more about 7/10 and how dis- pensaries approach it in Colorado, we spoke with Brent McDonald, marketing direc- tor for Apothecary Farms. One of the few dispensaries that focuses more on hash than anything else, Apothecary Farms has a handful of dispensaries in Colorado and Oklahoma and supplies concentrates to stores across both states. Westword: When did you fi rst hear of 7/10, and how were you celebrating it? Brent McDonald: It’s obviously “oil” spelled backwards, which is sort of the gist of it [laughs]. The fi rst time I heard about 7/10 was about seven or eight years ago, when I was in California. Out here in Colorado, I grew up in the time of the Secret Cup days. Back then, 7/10 culture was almost outpacing 4/20 culture. We were seeing this huge rise in popularity in concentrates six or seven years ago, and we knew this was going to be the future of cannabis use. Back in the days of the 710 Cup and Secret Cup from Daniel de Sailles, I wasn’t competing in them, but I was defi nitely attending and idolizing the folks competing in them. 34 How does the hash you were smoking back then compare to what’s on the market today? It was defi nitely butane hash oil (BHO), shatters and budders. Back then, all the connoisseurs were smoking was nug-run [not from shake] BHO. Live resin was still very much in its infancy and just wasn’t accessible or attainable for everyone. I re- member these nug-run shatters from the Pink House and the Clinic were some of the best concentrates on the market at the time. They were nug-run, and the fl avors and highs were incredible. That was before the rise of rosin and resin tech, though, and now we’re very solventless- focused. I’ll be smoking live hash rosin on 7/10 this year, and it’s defi nitely one of our most popular products that we sell in Colorado and Oklahoma. It has changed our focus from hydrocarbon extract to mainly solventless. We still do a lot of hydrocarbon extraction, but we’ve shifted to solventless, for sure. Given how quickly cannabis extraction technol- ogy evolves in the space, how much of an undertak- ing is to go from a butane or solvent- focused extraction system to rosin techniques? It’s a huge un- dertaking. Solvent- less extraction, in general, is not a large-scale pro- duction technique. The solution we needed to fi nd was how to produce more. For us, that took more shifts and a second machine, which is essentially a closed-loop solventless system. So now we’re not in there running it by hand anymore, at least, but it can still only run at about three times less capacity than BHO. It doesn’t just end there with rosin, either. After that run, you still need to put the bubble hash in the freeze-dryer, let it dry overnight and then take it to the rosin press. Whereas on the BHO side, you can whip up a shatter or budder in a fraction of the time. We had to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on new equipment, so it was a big undertaking. We were sort of forward-thinking on this four or fi ve years ago and knew cannabis ex- traction was going in that direction because things were changing so fast, yearly and monthly. It probably took a year or year and a half to get it running the way we wanted. How does 7/10 stack up against 4/20 from a cultural impact nowadays? 7/10 has kind of fi zzled out if I’m being honest, and 4/20 is similar. In Colorado, specifi cally, the state kind of did away with these large events that really attracted can- nabis tourism, like the 710, High Times and Secret cups — and that scared all of us away from building true community. We were worried about losing our business licenses for just smoking and hanging out. I get that side of things, but it defi nitely has degraded the culture in Colorado. There’s just not a lot going on here anymore. I know of maybe three events in Colorado for 7/10 this year, and they’re all fairly small. I’m talking a few hundred people, tops, and not something attracting the masses. Given declining cannabis prices and sales in Colorado, how do you view 7/10’s potential this year? Will it provide a good shot in the arm for dispensaries? We’re running some of the most aggres- sive deals we’ve ever run on 7/10. We run big- ger sales on 7/10 than on 4/20 because we’re a concentrate-focused dispensary. It’s also a FIND MORE MARIJUANA COVERAGE AT WESTWORD.COM/MARIJUANA MARIJUANA TOKE OF THE TOWN Dabble in hash? 7/10 could be the day for you. big sale opportunity, because the Fourth of July is a few days before that. The fact that it’s on a Sunday allows us to run aggressive sales all weekend long, too. It’s still a huge opportunity to boost and increase sales, but I think some stores miss out on it because they don’t view it as impactful. That’s all in the eyes of the beholder, though. We’re throwing some parties, too. We’re throwing a party at a glassblowing studio in Colorado Springs, and then another party at our dispensary in Denver, where we’ll have a mural painting. We’re participating in a festival in Pueblo with some cool vendors involved, also, but this is nothing more than a few cool companies getting together Do you see cannabis extraction evolving much more than it already has? Not at the moment. What pushed us toward solventless was really the advance- ment of tech in BHO making. The color remediation column process can essentially take the worst-quality product and make it look beautiful by removing undesirable colors. But that put some tomfoolery in the concentrate market, which pushed people toward a more natural product. If people can afford it, they’re switching over to solventless, and there will continue to be ad- vancement in solventless tech. I don’t want to say we’ve regressed, because solventless is the pinnacle, but I don’t feel like we’re going to get beyond that. Hydrocarbon extraction sure won’t; we’ve already gone down that road. I think we’re just going to get better at sol- ventless tech, and now we’re seeing breeders breed strains that are made for solventless extraction, too. I’m looking forward to new fl avor profi les on the solventless side, be- cause right now it’s all Papaya, GOM and Trop on that side. More unique and exotic terps is the chase we’re on right now as can- nabis processors and growers. Suggest future interview subjects at [email protected]. JUNE 30-JULY 6, 2022 WESTWORD | REAL ESTATE | RENTALS | HEALTH WELLNESS | SERVICES | EMPLOYMENT | ADULT | MUSIC | CLASSIFIED | westword.com JACQUELINE COLLINS
