CBD wax: a concentrate that concentrates THC too

"Wax" is the generic name for solvent-based hemp extracts. Shatter, budder and crumble are not other molecules: these names describe the look the extract takes during the purge, the step that drives off the remaining solvent.

A 2018 review in Substance Abuse and Rehabilitation sorts butane extracts into two families, wax and shatter. According to the review, wax usually lacks a full crystalline structure because the extract was agitated, deliberately or not; sugar crumble has a crystallised surface and wax crumble a smooth one. The consistency of a shatter varies with temperature, humidity and technique, and its translucency does not necessarily reflect the quality users attribute to it. Badder, a trade name close to budder, has no distinct process described in any primary source.

A 2025 review in Frontiers in Toxicology notes that rosin is made with heat and pressure, and that some concentrates are purified cannabinoids with commercial terpenes added back. A syringe of "liquid wax" may therefore hold a concentrated oil or a distillate, and only the process sheet tells them apart. CO₂ and ethanol also yield concentrated extracts: see our article on supercritical CO₂ extraction and our comparison of CBD concentrates.

For wax, the Δ⁹-THC limit applies to the finished product: Article 1, III of the French decree of 30 December 2021 sets it at 0.30% or less for hemp extracts and the products containing them. On 29 December 2022, the Conseil d'État struck down paragraph II of that article, which reserved flowers and leaves for extract production and banned, among other things, their sale to consumers in raw form; paragraph III was left untouched.

Whatever the resin contains ends up concentrated in the extract, residual THC included. A simple calculation shows why a concentrate struggles to stay under that limit.

The table is a worked example and measures nothing. It still yields a rule: a compliant CBD wax either has its THC removed after extraction or starts from a CBD isolate with terpenes added back. For a given batch, only the Δ⁹-THC line of the certificate of analysis tells you which. Our article on the legal THC level explains the limit.

Watch out as well for HHC, a narcotic in France since 13 June 2023, and for H4CBD and THCP, which the French medicines agency (ANSM) added to the list from 3 June 2024; our article on HHC traces that timeline. The texture of a wax reveals nothing about the molecule it contains.

In 2015, a US team tested 57 concentrates sold on the California medical market. THC varied from 23.7 to 75.9%, and residual solvents or pesticides contaminated more than 80% of samples.

Residual solvents turned up in 83.3% of the solvent-extracted concentrates, led by isopentane, which the authors trace to the liquefied gas, often taken from lighter refill cans. None of the 9 dry-sifted or water hash samples contained any, and only 5 of the 57 samples exceeded 5% CBD.

These figures describe THC cannabis extracts, and no CBD wax was tested. They still show what a concentrate's certificate should cover: cannabinoids, residual solvents and pesticides. No French or EU text sets a residual-solvent limit for hemp extracts; the ICH Q3C guideline for medicines lists neither butane nor propane, which California caps at 5,000 µg/g. Our article on solvents in a certificate covers these benchmarks, and our laboratory page lists the catalogue products. The 2025 review also reports a hazardous additive, colophony (a pine resin), in some concentrates.

BHO, short for butane hash oil, is a cannabis extract made with butane and, by extension, the method itself. A CBD wax extracted with butane is therefore a hemp BHO, and its legality depends on its Δ⁹-THC content, whatever the solvent.

The OFDT glossary describes it as a highly concentrated cannabis oil or resin that can take the consistency of oil, honey, wax or a solid. The observatory describes solvent extraction of cannabis resin as marginal in France, but stresses that the purity of these extracts, from 80% to more than 95% THC, multiplies the risk of acute intoxication.

Butane is highly flammable and heavier than air, so in a closed room it collects at floor level, where a single spark can ignite it. Colorado's burn centre, in a state where butane hash oil can reach 90% THC, admitted 29 patients burned during butane extractions between 2008 and August 2014; 19 of them needed skin grafts. A second US burn centre recorded 101 patients between 2007 and 2014, with an average of 26.8% of body surface burned and three deaths.

The 2018 review adds static electricity to the ignition sources; of 30 amateur production videos its authors examined, none mentioned the solvent left in the product. Professional labs extract in closed loops, recover the solvent and purge under vacuum; what remains shows on the certificate's "residual solvents" line.

A wax made from THC cannabis, or containing HHC, H4CBD or THCP, is a narcotic in France: producing, selling or using it is prohibited. The OFDT lists wax among the very high-THC products observed in France. In 2024, according to its note on the drug supply, seized resin averaged 29.6% THC and seized herbal cannabis 14.3%.

In its Point SINTES no. 11 of June 2026, the OFDT reports many cases in 2025 of products adulterated with synthetic cannabinoids, most often without the user's knowledge, in products sold over the counter (CBD shops, tobacconists, vending machines). Samples of smokable products containing synthetic or semi-synthetic cannabinoids rose from 47 in 2024 to 106 in 2025, 57 of them thought to contain CBD. Concentrates (wax, oil, distillate) appeared at the margin among the forms collected: two in 2024, one in 2025.

On 19 June 2025, the French food safety agency (Anses) and the ANSM reported several hundred poisonings since early 2024 after products presented as CBD, mostly caused by synthetic cannabinoids or by THC above 0.3%. According to a 2023 study they cite, 8 CBD products out of 10 had a CBD content that differed from their label.

As for THCA, the ANSM decision of 3 June 2024 excludes it from the narcotics list only when the THC content meets the 0.3% threshold. Heat converts it into THC: in the 2015 California study, more than 90% of the THCA decarboxylated on contact with the heated nail. Our article on THCA sets out the rule.

In case of serious symptoms, call 15 or 112; deaf or hard-of-hearing people can reach 114 by SMS, app or internet. Keep what is left of the product for possible analysis by SINTES, as Anses and the ANSM suggest. Drogues Info Service answers on 0 800 23 13 13.

Concentrates such as wax are designed to be vaporised, in a concentrate vaporiser or on the heated nail of a dab rig; this article does not explain how to do it. Burned in a joint, a wax returns to the combustion that vaporising tries to avoid; eaten or held under the tongue, it becomes a CBD food.

Concentrate pens, desktop vaporisers and dab rigs heated by torch or e-nail are described in our CBD dab guide. According to the OFDT's cannabis overview, people vaporise to avoid the harmful effects of combustion, and our article on vaporising CBD points out that inhalation still carries risks.

For a 2017 study in ACS Omega, researchers heated myrcene, a terpene common in extracts, at several nail temperatures. Users, the study reports, often aim for about 378 °C, within a range of 340 to 482 °C. At a median 322 °C the authors found no methacrolein, an irritant compound. They measured 131 ppb at 403 °C for a 40 mg dab, then 185 ppb at 526 °C, together with benzene.

Do not add wax to an e-liquid. In an alert of 6 February 2025, the ANSM advises against home-made mixes, which increase the risk of poisoning. In the United States, vitamin E acetate, an additive in some THC vaping products, was found in the lung fluid of 48 of 51 patients with vaping-related lung injury. As of 18 February 2020, the CDC counted 2,807 hospitalised cases or deaths, 68 of them deaths, and asked people not to add anything the manufacturer did not intend.

Anses and the ANSM point out that foods containing CBD are not authorised for sale in the European Union. On 9 February 2026, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published a provisional safe level for CBD as a novel food: it applies only to food supplements of CBD at 98% purity or more, and not to wax.

Behind the wheel, even a compliant wax can trigger a positive saliva test. For storage, see our page on storing rosin, wax and crumble.

• A batch certificate with the full cannabinoid profile, Δ⁹-THC at 0.30% or less, and no HHC, H4CBD or THCP where the lab looked for them.
• Lines for residual solvents and pesticides, which a solvent extract cannot do without.
• The extraction method, stated: CO₂, ethanol, closed-loop hydrocarbons or solventless rosin.
• For a syringe, what it actually holds: distillate or concentrated oil, with or without added terpenes.
• The look of the wax: an oily one can signal an incomplete purge, a blackened one degraded material.

Our guide to the certificate of analysis reads it one line at a time.

As of October 2026, Phytogrammes sells none of the concentrates described in this guide: no wax, shatter, crumble, live resin, distillate or isolate. The 15 products in its CBD resin category are hashes whose pages describe separation by sieving or ice water, sometimes followed by pressing, and mention no extraction solvent. This guide is therefore meant to help you judge a wax sold elsewhere.