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National Geographic
12-08-2025
- Health
- National Geographic
Inside the lab-driven quest for the ultimate high
Extraction labs take the oily essence of cannabis and transform it into highly potent concentrates with dramatically varied textures. Both the live sauce and crushed diamonds shown here, from California cannabis producer Raw Garden, can be consumed by dabbing, a process of heating a concentrate and inhaling its vapors. Photographs by Sergiy Barchuk This article is part of The New Cannabis, a National Geographic exploration into the most critical questions raised by today's stronger, stranger, ever more accessible weed. Learn more. In a white-walled lab inside the vast manufacturing facility of California cannabis company Raw Garden, the bouquet of marijuana is unmistakable, even without a plant or bud in sight. Technicians in lab coats monitor armoire-size machines that rattle as they refine flask after multi-liter flask of amber-colored, cannabis-scented oil. In a room around the corner, near a row of vacuum ovens, the same extracted oil has been used to make an array of concoctions set out on steel tables in trays, jars, and Pyrex dishes. They range from viscous semiliquids that ooze like tree sap to creamy pastes resembling peanut butter. A few trays contain glasslike golden shards, and there's a crystallizing substance akin to aging honey. Together the products represent a substantial shift in how Americans consume pot: Year after year, they are smoking proportionately less of it and instead embracing more products made with its extracted oil. These include edibles, like gummies and beverages, but also new types of high-potency concentrates that are consumed, not by smoking, but by vaping or what's known as dabbing—flash vaporizing dabs of thick extract. And these concentrates are radically altering the experience of getting high. Like other modern cannabis companies, Raw Garden still grows weed, but it is primarily a raw material, something to be processed into goop for an arguably heightened experience. If you think the heart of the United States' roughly $32 billion cannabis industry looks like a farm or a grow room, think again: It increasingly looks like these industrial chem labs, full of scientists imagining new frontiers of mind-blowing offerings. Such cannabis concentrates are often named for their textures: sauce, wax, shatter, diamonds, and more. They are dizzyingly more potent than the joint you might have smoked 20 or 40 years ago. And, of course, they are now legal in many states, as policy shifts have helped launch a space race in the cannabis industry, with entrepreneurs developing more sophisticated techniques to alchemize plant matter into a kaleidoscope of forms and flavors. The rise of the high-potency concentrates market comes at a time when marijuana flower—traditional smokable cannabis—is already pretty darn powerful. Thanks to advances in crop science, pot grown in the U.S. has been bred to be substantially stronger than it was a few decades back. Potency in cannabis products is typically expressed as a concentration of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the compound in marijuana that is primarily, though not exclusively, responsible for its psychoactive effects. While precise numbers are tricky to come by, studies suggest that THC levels in marijuana sold in the U.S. 30 years ago averaged somewhere in the single digits. Today, at a time when many states require lab-verified potency labels on legal products, the average is somewhere between 15 and 20 percent. Cannabis concentrates, however, result from an extraction process that isolates only the desired compounds, prominently including THC, from pesky plant matter. Raw Garden advertises a product called live sauce—a golden goo described as having an applesauce consistency—at around 70 percent THC potency, depending on the strain used to make it. The company's refined live resin diamonds, which look like something you'd find at a gem show, can top out above 85 percent. For some, the THC content—and hence, the rapidity and intensity of the buzz—is the point. High-potency vapes and dabs get users high with smaller amounts than other means of ingesting cannabis. But the draw also has to do with the subtlety of flavors and precision of one's intake, says Raw Garden chief brand officer Dmitri Siegel. It's 'a purity thing,' he says, 'where you're either getting a really distilled high or you're getting a really distilled flavor. You're not burning a whole lot of organic matter.' The many manifestations of modern cannabis include (left to right) cartridges of vape oil, gummy candies of varying potency, pre-rolled joints sold like cigarettes, and the buds the industry calls "flower." Handheld vaporizers are also less conspicuous, notes cannabis-industry analyst and consultant Tom Adams, president of Adams Research. Some concentrate users are enticed by the discreetness of taking a quick toke off a small amount of oil or applesauce-like gel. 'It just seems odd as an adult to be taking weed out of a bag, crushing it up, and rolling it,' he says. 'What am I, a cowboy?' Adams, who has analyzed the legal cannabis market since 2015, says demand for legal concentrates originated in the first medical dispensaries. Smoking can be impractical for those looking to consume hundreds of milligrams of THC each day—a substantial amount, but which may nonetheless be what brings relief to chemotherapy patients or sufferers of chronic pain. Edibles can pose problems for patients with appetite or gastrointestinal issues. And concentrates, whether for medical or recreational use, arguably make it easier to regulate dosage. Sure, Adams allows, pre-rolled joints, with measured amounts of flower, offer some consistency. 'But even that is less predictable than the cleaned-up, scientifically produced concentrate that you know exactly what the impact is going to be,' he says. Rolling your own? Stuffing erratic hunks of vegetable matter into a pipe? It's a hard sell, says Adams: 'Consumers are just not used to the primitiveness.' The quest to concentrate the psychoactive components of cannabis goes back to at least the 11th century, when hashish caught on recreationally in the Arab world. Hashish is made from plant glands now known as trichomes, which early hashmakers rubbed or sieved off the surface of cannabis leaves and buds, then pressed into a sort of cake. Trichomes are rich in bioactive compounds called cannabinoids, the most well known of which are THC and cannabidiol, or CBD. They also contain other specialized compounds, such as terpenes, the hydrocarbons responsible for plants' aromas and flavors. Today's cannabis processors have built on medieval methods, finding new, efficient ways to isolate those prized compounds. Among the most common is hydrocarbon extraction, in which a solvent separates desired chemicals from raw plant material. Butane and propane are the industry-standard solvents, and prior to widespread legalization, back when extraction was an underground hobby, use of these combustible materials occasionally resulted in hotel rooms and apartments blowing up. FEMA went so far as to issue a bulletin in 2013 warning, 'Hash Oil Explosions Increasing Across U.S.' But during the wave of state legalization that has swept the country since, cannabis extraction has gone mainstream, and today companies like Raw Garden are subject to licensure, regulations, and inspections. The basis of nearly all Raw Garden products is the oily substance known as live resin, a cannabis extract that aims to capture a wide array of those cannabinoids and terpenes (some extraction processes, by contrast, isolate only a single compound—usually THC or CBD). But before they become oil, all of the company's offerings start out as plants on 54 acres of farmland in the Santa Barbara wine country. At harvest time, the plants are cut, then the buds are removed and immediately flash frozen with liquid nitrogen in a cryogenic tunnel, preserving all those volatile organic compounds. From the farm, the pot is trucked to a cold-storage warehouse in nearby Lompoc, where it's placed in a deep freeze. When any given strain is up for extraction, the frozen buds are moved to a manufacturing facility up the road, where they're loaded into six-foot-tall stainless steel columns, each of which can hold about 18 pounds of pot. Inside, they're saturated with pressurized solvent that dissolves the desired chemicals and leaves behind unwanted biomass. Later stages for some products include one in which the crude extract is purified, with fats, waxes, lipids, and other solids filtered out. Other products cook for 24 to 36 hours in a vacuum oven to purge away residual solvent, the pressure inside the oven lowered so that the solvent evaporates without any of the good stuff boiling off. Using solvents isn't the only way to make an extract. Raw Garden sends a small amount of its harvest to a partner facility, where it's turned into a hashish-like product called rosin via a simpler process, using only ice water, heat, and pressure. But hydrocarbon extraction is scalable and highly efficient: Raw Garden's facility processes around 1,200 pounds of cannabis a day, and has plans to expand. This isn't to say there's no art to it. A concentrate's consistency—that is, whether the live resin turns into something creamy or crispy or oily—results from the strain one starts with, as well as small, inspired interventions during extraction. What if we whipped the extract before purging it? What if we cured it so that crystals form? Extract bound for vape cartridges sometimes involves an additional step, in which terpenes are evaporated and collected in a distillation column, then selectively reinserted to achieve specific scent and flavor profiles. In Raw Garden's vape lab, a colorful aroma wheel shows a hundred-plus fragrances one might allegedly encounter in cannabis, like apricot, sage, pine tar, and espresso. 'We're taking aromatic compounds from plants,' says vice president of agricultural operations Casey Birthisel. 'There's a lot here that's parallel to the perfume industry.' Some medical professionals see more alarming parallels, however, to drugs ostensibly harder than cannabis. The sky-high potency of concentrates has raised red flags, as multiple epidemiological studies have found correlations between their frequent use and increased risks of psychosis and cannabis use disorder, a form of dependence. Those risks seem particularly acute for teenagers. Colorado and Washington, the first states to legalize recreational pot, are among the states where bills to limit THC potency have been introduced, then rejected or withdrawn amid industry pushback. Meanwhile, according to analyst Adams, sales of marijuana flower made up about 70 percent of the recreational market when the first legal retailers opened in Colorado in 2014. Today, according to point-of-sale data from Adams and market research firm BDSA, that number has dropped to 40 percent. In the same span, sales of vaping and dabbing products have climbed from around 15 percent of the legal market to 32 percent, though the pace of that growth now seems to be slowing. It's all a function, Adams says, of a 'reunion of technology and cannabis' brought about by legalization. Ironically, what excites him most about the future of extraction has nothing to do with THC. The next big thing in cannabis, Adams suggests, might derive from the industry's ability to efficiently isolate all those other compounds. What new effects are there to discover from the terpenes? Or from the more than a hundred other little-researched cannabinoids that aren't THC or CBD? 'We are totally revolutionizing the view of what the compounds in the plant can do through the concentrates side of the market,' he says. 'That opens up the uses to all sorts of things other than sitting on the couch watching Netflix.' This story appears in the September 2025 issue of National Geographic magazine. Set Design: Mat Cullen, Lalaland Artists
Business Upturn
02-07-2025
- Business
- Business Upturn
Raw Garden Announces California Cannabis Deals for July 4th to 7/10
SANTA YNEZ, Calif., July 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Raw Garden, California's leading Clean Green-certified cannabis concentrates brand, marks its 10th anniversary during the high holidays of July – with a full month of product drops, promotions, and brand milestones. Raw Garden, with its Clean Green and ECCO certifications, continues to set the standard for purity, transparency, and innovation in the cannabis industry – pushing to make clean cannabis the industry standard. Celebrating 10 Years as California's Top Concentrates Brand Since 2015, Raw Garden has refined its craft of delivering 100% pure cannabis oils and terpenes with no additives, fillers, or flavorings. Now recognized as the #1 concentrates brand in California, the company remains committed to making clean cannabis accessible and sustainable. Spotlight on The Raw Garden Sprout™ Launched earlier this year , The Raw Garden Sprout™ is Raw Garden's newest innovation — an All-in-One device featuring strain-specific oil, USB-C charging, and three customizable heat settings. The Raw Garden Sprout™ is so small it fits in the palm of your hand — but don't let the size fool you. The product has quickly gained traction among new and long-time Raw Garden consumers thanks to our terpene-safe PA12 material that keeps every hit clean and free from contamination. Sprout™ will be featured in special July promotions across California retailers. July Deals To celebrate the 7/10 holiday and a decade of leadership in clean cannabis, Raw Garden is rolling out a limited-time 710 Holiday Discount on select products at participating retailers across California. The celebration continues with in-store demos on July 3 and July 10 at select retail partners, offering customers a chance to receive exclusive merch and explore Raw Garden's award-winning vapes, concentrates, and The Raw Garden Sprout™ hardware up close. These activations reflect Raw Garden's ongoing mission to make clean cannabis more accessible, transparent, and enjoyable for all. Check out the participating retailers across California. SF Hash Week Raw Garden joins SF Hash Week 2025—a citywide celebration of clean cannabis extracts—during two signature events that underscore the brand's legacy in single-source excellence. On Thursday, July 10, Raw Garden headlines the Oil Day Drop Party at Moe Greens Lounge in San Francisco's Civic Center (4–7 p.m.). This special event, inspired by classic record release parties, invites fans to meet Raw Garden's expert team, explore new The Raw Garden Sprout™ releases and fresh jars of live resin, and enjoy an immersive lounge experience Then, on Friday, July 11, Raw Garden brings its clean cannabis expertise to the Warehouse Party at The Midway's 888 Garage in Dogpatch (4–9 p.m.), one of the week's most anticipated gatherings. Through these appearances, Raw Garden is proud to represent the gold standard in clean cannabis at California's top extract showcase. For full event details and schedule, visit the SF Hash Week Festival Guide and event calendar. Explore and Learn More Clean Cannabis Commitment Raw Garden has championed clean, high-integrity cannabis since day one, pursuing the most rigorous certifications to demonstrate our commitment to clean cannabis. For Raw Garden 'Clean Cannabis' is a never-ending process of research and development focused on the health of the customer and the planet. About Raw Garden Raw Garden is California's premier clean cannabis brand and the #1 ranked concentrates brand in the State. Clean Green and ECCO certified, Raw Garden is pushing to make 'clean cannabis' the industry standard. With ten years of single-source expertise, the company is a recognized leader in clean cannabis — having pioneered farming practices and processing methods that have become industry standard for purity and safety. All Raw Garden products are free of additives, rigorously tested, and transparently labeled, setting the benchmark for quality, safety, and sustainability. Visit and follow us on social media for updates: Photos accompanying this announcement are available at: Disclaimer: The above press release comes to you under an arrangement with GlobeNewswire. Business Upturn takes no editorial responsibility for the same. Ahmedabad Plane Crash
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ispire Technology Inc. Unveils Sprout™: The Future of All-in-One Vape Technology
Ultra-Pure, Ultra-Compact, and Engineered for the Ultimate Vaping Experience in Partnership with Raw Garden LOS ANGELES, March 11, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Ispire Technology Inc. (Nasdaq: ISPR), a global leader in vape technology and precision dosing, announced it is setting a new benchmark in the cannabis vape industry with the launch of the Sprout™, an advanced all-in-one cannabis vapor device designed for purity, performance, and safety. Developed through a partnership with Raw Garden, Sprout™ is specifically designed to optimize the nuances and intricacies of sophisticated cannabis oil while eliminating common industry flaws like plastic degradation, clogged airflow and inconsistent heating—ensuring an experience as clean as the plant itself. Initially launching with Raw Garden, the Sprout™ technology is available to cannabis operators across the is engineered with PA12, a terpene-safe material that withstands heat and preserves cannabis purity. Unlike conventional vapes, PA12 ensures a clean and untainted vaping experience. This innovation aligns with Ispire's commitment to raising industry standards, prioritizing material safety, and putting consumer well-being first. The year-long collaboration between Ispire and Raw Garden reflects a shared commitment to innovation and consumer safety. By co-developing the Sprout™, both companies ensured that every component was meticulously engineered to maximize the integrity of the cannabis experience. "Raw Garden has always been about delivering the purest expression of the plant, and this collaboration with Ispire takes that commitment to the next level," said Michael Wang, co-CEO of Ispire. "By integrating Raw Garden's extracts with Ispire's cutting-edge hardware, we're providing consumers with a vaporizer that maximizes flavor and efficiency like never before." Key Features of Sprout™: Terpene-Safe Construction – Built with PA12, the all-in-one cannabis vape elevates the consumer experience by mitigating the impact of heat and preserving terpenes in oils from across the cannabis spectrum. Anti-Clog Overflow Chamber – Keeps airflow smooth, preventing blockages and wasted hits. Three Heat Modes – Low (2.0V), Medium (2.3V), and High (2.6V) for a customizable vaping experience. USB-C Rechargeable – No oil left behind; ensures full use of every drop. Compact and Discreet – Pocket-sized design (1.5" x 2.25") for easy portability. Dual Formulations – Available in Black Label™ Live Sauce for maximum flavor and Green Label™ Refined Live Resin for high potency. "We're thrilled to partner with Ispire. Their expertise in cutting-edge technology aligns perfectly with our shared commitment to doing right by consumers and driving meaningful innovation in this industry. Together, we're shaping the future with forward-thinking solutions," said Thomas Martin, CEO of Raw Garden."Purity in cannabis doesn't stop at the oil—it extends to everything you use to consume it," added Michael Wang. "With Sprout™, Ispire aims to redefine vape quality across the industry, and we invite other brands to adopt safer materials and improved technology, reinforcing a commitment to consumer-first innovation."Sprout™ will be available at and at select dispensaries in California, starting March 7, 2025 for more details, visit Ispire Technology is engaged in the research and development, design, commercialization, sales, marketing and distribution of branded e-cigarettes and cannabis vaping products. The Company's operating subsidiaries own or license more than 400 patents worldwide. Ispire's branded e-cigarette products are marketed under the Aspire name and are sold worldwide (except in the U.S., People's Republic of China and Russia) primarily through its global distribution network. The Company also engages in original design manufacture (ODM) relationships with e-cigarette brands and retailers worldwide. The Company's cannabis products are marketed under the Ispire brand name primarily on an ODM basis to other cannabis vapor companies. Ispire sells its cannabis vaping hardware in the US, Europe and South Africa and it recently commenced marketing activities and customer engagement in Canada and Latin America. For more information, visit or follow Ispire on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube. About Raw Garden:Raw Garden has been the leading producer of clean cannabis in California for over fifteen years. Raw Garden products are made from 100% single source Cannabis flower – no additives, harsh chemicals, or artificial flavors - grown outdoors in sunny Central California. The company uses entirely organically-based and Clean Green-certified farming techniques and ECCO certified practices and upholds the highest standards of transparency with all lab results freely available at Forward Looking StatementsThis press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended ("Securities Act") as well as Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended, that are intended to be covered by the safe harbor created by those sections. Forward-looking statements, which are based on certain assumptions and describe the Company's future plans, strategies and expectations, can generally be identified by the use of forward-looking terms such as "believe," "expect," "may," "will," "should," "would," "could," "seek," "intend," "plan," "goal," "project," "estimate," "anticipate," "strategy," "future," "likely" or other comparable terms, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this press release regarding the Company's strategies, prospects, financial condition, operations, costs, plans and objectives are forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause the Company's actual results and financial condition to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties including those regarding: the Company's ability to collect its accounts receivable in a timely manner, the Company's business strategies, the ability of the Company to market to the Ispire ONE™, Ispire ONE's success if meeting its goals, the ability of its customers to derive the anticipated benefits of the Ispire ONE™ and the success of their products on the markets; the Ispire ONE™ proving to be safe, and the risk and uncertainties described in "Risk Factors," "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations," "Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Statements" and the additional risk described in Ispire's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 2023 and any subsequent filings which Ispire makes with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. The forward-looking statements made in the press release relate only to events or information as of the date on which the statements are made in the press release. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, after the date on which the statements are made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events except as required by law. You should read this press release with the understanding that our actual future results may be materially different from what we expect. IR Contacts:For more information, kindly contact:Investor RelationsSherry Zheng718.213.7386ir@ KCSA Strategic CommunicationPhil Carlson212.896.1233ispire@ PR Contact:Ellen Mellody570.209.2947EMellody@ View original content: SOURCE Ispire Technology Inc. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Raw Garden Introduces Sprout™ Vape, Pioneering Terpene-Safe Plastic for Cannabis Hardware
California's leading cannabis extract company finds a cleaner alternative to commonly used plastic for vape hardware after testing reveals potential health risks SANTA BARBARA, Calif., March 06, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Raw Garden, California's leader in clean cannabis for over a decade, has developed a Terpene-Safe solution for the all-new Sprout™ all-in-one cannabis vape. This breakthrough underscores Raw Garden's unwavering commitment to safety, quality, and sustainability while setting a new industry standard for safer vaping materials. Sprout™ is the latest addition to Raw Garden's lineup of clean, single-source cannabis products, which includes concentrates, infused pre-rolls, and vapes. When Raw Garden's in-house testing revealed potential health risks from the interaction between their terpene-rich cannabis oils and PCTG — a plastic commonly used in vape hardware — they set out to find a safer alternative. Working with their manufacturing partner Ispire Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: ISPR) they identified PA12, a durable, terpene-safe plastic that resists heat and prolonged exposure to cannabis oils without having already produced 300,000 units, the two companies boldly decided to discard over $1 million in inventory rather than compromise consumer safety. 'We thoroughly test all our products above what is required, and our heat testing showed that PCTG plastic became cloudy and corroded when exposed to our cannabis oils and heat. We felt it was highly likely that this degradation could lead to plastic particles being inhaled,' said Thomas Martin, CEO of Raw Garden. 'The risk to our customers was too high, so we delayed the launch of Sprout until we found a safer solution.' Beyond ensuring Spout's safety, Raw Garden is sharing its findings industry-wide. To promote safer vape technology, the company has opted not to patent this innovation, allowing other brands to adopt this safer material freely. They are also working with Ispire to create a consortium to work on vape safety through innovation. With this initiative, Raw Garden is not just improving its own products but pioneering a movement toward greater safety and transparency in the cannabis vaping industry. About the Sprout™ Vape Raw Garden's new Sprout™ vape is produced in small batches using hand-selected cannabis, ensuring each release meets the highest standards for flavor, quality, and purity. Made with 100% single-source cannabis—with no additives, fillers, or artificial flavors—every strain retains its natural terpenes, aromas, and cannabinoids, delivering a full-spectrum, true-to-plant experience. Designed for convenience and portability, Sprout™ measures just 1.5' x 2.25', making it compact enough to fit in any pocket or palm. It also features an anti-clog design with an overflow chamber that pulls excess oil and vapor away from the mouthpiece, preventing buildup and blocked pulls. The chamber is made from terpene-safe PA12 plastic. Sprout™ is available in two of Raw Garden's industry-leading formulations: Live Sauce – For the full plant experience. Refined Live Resin – For maximum THC potency Sprout™ also offers three heat modes, fine-tuned by the Raw Garden team for optimal flavor and potency: Low (2V): Peak flavor Medium (2.3V): Balanced flavor and potency High (2.6V): Strongest hit—ideal for experienced users Sprout™ will be available at select California retailers starting March 8th. Raw Garden products can be found in over 800 retail locations throughout the state. About Raw GardenRaw Garden has been the leading producer of clean cannabis in California for over fifteen years. Its products are made from 100% single-source cannabis flower—no additives, harsh chemicals, or artificial flavors—grown outdoors in sunny Central California. The company uses entirely organic, Clean Green-certified farming techniques and ECCO-certified practices and upholds the highest standards of transparency. All lab results are freely available at In 2024, Raw Garden became a co-founding member of ECCO, an independent organization that provides third-party testing and certification for compliance with safety, quality, and environmental standards. By earning ECCO certification, brands and retailers demonstrate their commitment to consumer safety, product excellence, and environmental responsibility. Since 2015, Raw Garden has been Clean Green Certified, the world's leading cannabis certification. Since cannabis isn't federally recognized as an agricultural crop, this certification is the closest equivalent to organic standards. About Ispire Technology is engaged in the research and development, design, commercialization, sales, marketing and distribution of branded e-cigarettes and cannabis vaping products. The Company's operating subsidiaries own or license more than 400 patents worldwide. Ispire's branded e-cigarette products are marketed under the Aspire name and are sold worldwide (except in the U.S., People's Republic of China and Russia) primarily through its global distribution network. The Company also engages in original design manufacture (ODM) relationships with e-cigarette brands and retailers worldwide. The Company's cannabis products are marketed under the Ispire brand name primarily on an ODM basis to other cannabis vapor companies. Ispire sells its cannabis vaping hardware in the US, Europe and South Africa and it recently commenced marketing activities and customer engagement in Canada and Latin America. For more information, visit or follow Ispire on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube. A photo accompanying this announcement is available at A video accompanying this announcement is available at CONTACT: Media Contact: Raw Garden PR pr@ in to access your portfolio
