The mysterious isomerizer was supposedly able to turn the most bogus bunkweed
into mind-bending hash oil. Did this miracle-machine really work? Mel Frank
delves deep into the isomerizer's murky past.
Almost forgotten by today, a small industry sprouted, flourished and died.
The industry was the manufacture and sale of isomerizers -- machines sold
through head shops and mail-order houses that supposedly could miraculously
transform mediocre marijuana into potent hash oil. The oil could then be smoked in an oil-pipe or sprayed on inferior marijuana to enhance its effect.
The earliest ad I could fimd for an isomerizer appeared in the seventh issue of a fledgling magazine called HIGH TIMES (December/January 1975) about the time HIGH TIMES was first becoming a showcase for drug paraphernalia. Thai
Power, Inc., an Alaskan firm, claimed their "Isomerizer" would "convert
cannabidiol (CBD), an inert and undesirable element, to pure THC resulting
in an increase in up to six times" in potency. The ad also claimed the Isomer-
izer could "convert low-rotating forms of THC as found in low-quality
marijuana and hashish to the more psychedelic and spiritual high-rotating
forms." Wonder of wonders! For only $275 (1975 dollars) amateur alchemists
could transform garbage to gold! The Isomerizer was the dream-machine of '70s
marijuana culture.
In 1976, Thai Power introduced the mew model ISO2 for $159, but soon other
companies began to vie for the dollars of dopers looking for extraordinary
super-highs. Competition from imitators, such as the Maximizer at $29.95 and
Kik at $69.95, dropped the price of the ISO2 to $99 in 1979. How popular was
the Isomerizer? An ad for the ISO2 in the March 1978 issue of HEAD magazine
claimed that over 20,000 had been sold. But by 1982, isomerizer ads and
isomerizer imitators had all but disappeared, due to introduction of anti-
paraphernalia laws.
The idea of isomerization was introduced in a slim booklet, CANNABIS
ALCHEMY by David Gold, published in 1973. All the claims -- transformation of
inactive CBD to psychoactive THC, and conversion of low-rotating THC to
high-rotating THC isomeric forms -- appear in CANNABIS ALCHEMY. Whether the
commercial machines COULD isomerize CBD to THC as described by Gold is not the
issue I want to address here. They did a decent job of extracting raw marijuana resin from buds, leaves and stems. But unfortunately, isomerizers never got the chance to work as the dream-machine buyers expected.
WHAT WENT WRONG?
Gold plainly says in his book that "the quantity of CBD is important." But
Gold and many other writers (including this writer) were led astray by the
faulty data published in the scientific journals of the day.
Everyone -- isomerizer-makers and consumers -- wrongly believed that the
inferior marijuana sold in this country was poor in THC and rich in CBD. But
the fact is that inferior commercial marijuana in the USA is generally poor
in THC AND very poor in CBD. Isomerizer buyers spent time and effort trying to
convert something (CBD) that simply wasn't there.
The assumption that inferior marijuana was rich in CBD began when scientists published reams of research on marijuana in the 1960s and early '70s that confused CBD with other cannabinoids, mainly CBC (cannabichromene). Early test procedures could not s
Substantial CBD is fairly common in North African and Central Asian
varieties (Table 1), but usually not in varieties from Colombia, Mexico,
Jamaica, and US homegrown -- the majority of marijuana consumed here.
Surprisingly, high concentrations of CBD are not that uncommon in some Thai
and Afghani varieties. But smugglers seldom bring such CBD-rich varieties to
the USA simply because the product is mediocre compared to the THC-rich Thai
Table 2 shows concentrations of cannabinoids in sinsemilla collected in
California. Notice that none of the varieties have more than four one-
hundredths of one percent CBD, a minuscule amount. Lower-grade Mexican may have only one to three percent THC, but almost no CBD. Realistically, you're very unlikely to come across CBD-rich marijuana varieties. Do not despair. We have plenty of hemp weed
