Dabbing 101: The Basics, the Culture, and LGBTQ Inclusivity Behind the Scenes

Dabbing: It’s been around for a little while now, enjoying a popularity explosion in the mid-2010s and becoming an irresistible challenge for THC connoisseurs and engineers alike. While dabbing itself is a relatively new phenomenon, the goal of maximizing THC consumption via those precious, precious oils found in cannabis plants is one that’s been achieved time and time throughout history.

The Basics of Dabbing

The precursor to dabbing as we know it today began with putting Moroccan brick hash into joints and bowls to vastly increase the cannabinoids burned, which resulted in about 3 to 4 percent THC smoked. Today, that number is much closer to 30 percent. Then, once the 90s and 2000s rolled around, folks started toying with using hydrocarbons like butane and propane to extract those oils once again, this time resulting in hash oil (and a THC percentage of around 80 percent). And the experimenting just kept pushing forward from there.

Jacqueline McGrane, senior vice president of business development for Boulder Creek Technologies in Arvada (and total cannabis expert), says, “It was really in the 2000s when you started to see an explosion of bubble hash—which people used to call ‘earwax’—and which we now refer to as wax or moonrock. That was the explosion of dab culture: finding all the ways to vaporize instead of adding hash oil to biomass material or doing other crazy things. This is when we started to see these beautiful dab rigs and butane cans and torches and self-heating nails.”

To back up a bit, McGrane is the person to talk to if you know nothing about dabbing. She’s been in the cannabis industry for more than a decade, doing work all over the United States and internationally, from South America to Europe to Asia. And she’s gotten a firsthand look at the industry’s total transformation, watching a mostly medicinal product become legal recreationally and take over the globe (more than it already had, anyway). “To see where the industry has gone, from its beginning to where it is today and see its development and that of the consumer space has been an incredible experience.”

So, back to dabbing. What is it, exactly? McGrane simplifies it to “the vaporizing of cannabis concentrate, composed of terpenes and cannabinoids,” AKA trying to get the most out of the cannabis plant without actually lighting anything on fire. “You end up with a higher quality but a very intense experience,” McGrane says. “If you’re just trying to get what’s most special about cannabis and want to do so in a way that’s clean and concentrated, dabbing is the way to go. You might be getting something like 90 percent THC and 8 percent terpene.” Compared to our Moroccan hash hippies of the 70s, that’s a huge leap.

This discovery of the potential for a greater high is really what kicked off the surge of amateur engineers building insane-looking dab rigs. The mesh of creativity and efficiency resulted in some seriously impressive (and sometimes dangerous) methods of dabbing.

“It’s been this crazy progression since the early 2000s, when you saw this interest in dabbable products,” McGrane says. “The biggest products used to be wax and shatter made with butane and propane in a can.” 

McGrane goes on to say that the early 2010s is when the burgeoning of vape products entered the market and dabbers went wild making new, interesting products to give them each an edge. Everything from “flash freezing” (using liquid nitrogen) biomass (cannabis) and then extracting from it to turning bubble hash into rosin was a chance at creating a newer, better method for the ultimate cannabis experience. But one fact holds true, according to McGrane: “One of the essential things about dabbing is that the product you’re going to get is directly related to the material. Dabbing is a reflection of the plant; the best dabs come from the best plants.”

Dab Culture

McGrane has been in the cannabis industry for a long time. As such, she’s seen it grow to what it is today—and has taken notice of who was there when it was budding and who is there now. On the whole? That population doesn’t look a whole lot different.

“Cannabis, at least in the beginning, was a lot of ‘cannabis bros,’ a bunch of dudes with beards wearing Grassroots California hats. Like, I had five of those hats. I’m a queer woman—I don’t wear ballcaps—but I wore them. It was almost necessary to wear one to be included,” McGrane laughs. 

She goes on to say that, back in the day, the industry was predominantly ruled by “bro culture” but was still very accepting. “It was a bunch of misfits who were growing in their basements and selling illegally in the Safeway parking lot,” she says. “I felt so accepted from the very beginning.”

But McGrane’s experience differs slightly from that of the “bros” she mentions, primarily because she entered the space living as a cisgender, heterosexual male who fit in easily with that culture. But she transitioned while fully immersed in the cannabis industry and received an incredible amount of support and acceptance. 

“I transitioned with the support of Karin Lazarus of Sweet Mary Jane. She is this beautiful person who was and is so accepting. She was so supportive, and I leaned so hard on her. Everyone else was super chill about it, too.” 

McGrane goes on to say that while she finds the industry very accepting and credits her own success as proof of that, she also hasn’t met any other trans women who hold a senior title or design products or manage facilities. “It’s queer friendly, but there aren’t a lot of queer people,” she notes.

Still, McGrane has definitely noticed a change in the major players of the cannabis industry as it’s evolved, but it’s not one that she particularly supports. 

“There used to be a significant amount of women owners and a lot of women in the industry in general,” she says. “But as the money has come into the industry, nowadays a lot of cannabis has been taken over by rich, older white men representing giant corporate entities.” 

She says that previously, the industry was much more diverse and exciting—There was a shared buzz over people connecting with their passion for cannabis and also with each other; the legalization of cannabis and the sheer explosion of the industry (turning it into a prime-time moneymaker) forced out a lot of that passion. 

“Back then, you never met a person in the cannabis industry that didn’t smoke weed every day. Now I see people all the time that have never smoked, but they’re the vice president of a company,” McGrane says. 

Nevertheless, McGrane has hope for the future of the industry—mainly that it will return to its more diverse, passionate roots. 

“We need to get more queer people in the industry. What we really need is more women, queer, and BIPOC processors and scientists. For me, I’m like, ‘Where’s the big advertisement with a woman in a lab coat?’ I don’t care abouts a woman in a bikini—I want to see a woman running a giant machine in a processing facility.” 

She encourages anyone who is interested in the industry—particularly women, queer people, and BIPOC folks—to find a resource in someone who is already in the industry who can help. 

“Make that connection. Find someone that inspires you, and reach out to them. I promise you will be accepted and embraced.”