Exclusive Cannabis survey, interview with Louis de Funes and Fantomas

Content originally appeared on Légalisation Douce.

On September 19, M6 aired a Report: Exclusive Investigation, Small-scale growers, new dealers: France, Europe’s cannabis champion.

After a few passages that will remain etched in our memory forever—such as the one where the journalist claims that “weed” is a new form of cannabis—a clarification is in order.

A high-risk extraction!

Quite proud to present cannabis in a favorable light (Well, yeah—on one hand, they tell you that cannabis kills, and on the other, they show you how to grow it—you’ve got to know how), M6 aired a segment on wax extraction featuring Fantomas and Louis de Funès.

This excerpt must have frightened quite a few people whose only knowledge of cannabis comes from the media (and who don’t read *Légalisation Douce*).

How about we ask those two reckless people for an explanation?

Luckily, we had the chance to meet Fantomas and Louis de Funès.

Far from being just a bunch of crazy smokers engaging in dangerous experiments, they are extraction enthusiasts. But then, why did they demonstrate techniques like these in 2016? Find out the answer right now!

Our first question is, of course… How could you have agreed to film these scenes?

The footage was not originally shot for M6 but for Arte. It dates from 2013 and was intended to show how mining operations in France evolved between 2013 and 2017. Somehow, this footage ended up on *Enquête Exclusive*.

What shocked us the most was the fact that the footage shown was that of a journalist friend of ours who has since passed away, and whose footage was taken without our consent and then reused.

Our first reaction: utter astonishment… We were in Spain at the time for the’Expogrow 2016 and we saw the teaser for the documentary while we were getting dinner ready….

We regret even more the fact that in the selected footage (just a few minutes out of several hours of raw footage), no safety messages were shown. We had filmed an entire segment on the safety precautions to take during an extraction, on the use of microdoses… But none of that was aired.

The Cannabis concentrates are the essence of the product. These days, we constantly hear that we need to quit smoking, that vaping is the future. But if we want to quit smoking, we need to make a wide variety of vaping products.

Have you contacted the network?

At first we wanted to, but after thinking it over, we decided against it because, even though the footage had been stolen, we had no proof that we were the ones behind those masks. The filming was kept secret for legal reasons, and the only evidence we had was a photo taken during the shoot, which unfortunately was deleted.

As a result, taking on a group like M6 would be too costly and take far too long—and we don't have the time to get involved in that.

Have extraction methods changed since 2013?

In just three years, we’ve witnessed a revolution comparable to the arrival of the iPhone. In 2013, most people involved in extraction were using methods similar to those described in the report. It’s important to remember that in 2013, people in the United States were also working that way.

Today, we've reached the level of a lab chemist from 2013. We can now separate the lipids from the resins in order to retain only the pure product—namely, the molecules and terpenes.

Recently, CBD has taken center stage in the cannabis industry; even pharmaceutical companies are working on it. We’re now able to produce pure CBD crystal at 99.9%, whereas three years ago, crystal of this purity was impossible to obtain. The goal now is to reduce impurities to 0%.

What extractors are you using today?

Today, we primarily work with «closed-loop» systems, which significantly improve the quality of the extracted product and are safer than traditional extraction tubes. Although we can’t say there’s zero risk—since zero risk, especially with flammable gases, doesn’t exist—we currently believe we’re operating at a 98% safety level. We also enjoy doing extraction methods known as «solventless», solvent-free, like the Polinator, or Rosin.

So do concentrates have a bright future ahead of them in both the medical and recreational sectors?

Most people are afraid of the term «concentrate,» but it’s mainly due to a general lack of knowledge that makes concentrate seem scary. It’s a product that is primarily intended for spraying which is incomparably less harmful than combustion.

Extraction requires more effort than simply harvesting the flowers, drying them, and smoking them. The entire process is carried out with the goal of obtaining a purer product from the plant that can be used safely—specifically, through vaporization.

Conclusion

Today, M6 attracts an audience from all social classes and age groups. A program like the one aired on September 18 not only highlights the (deliberate) amateurism of their journalists but also the fear-mongering that the network promotes.

As for Fantomas and Louis de Funès, unlike the images shown on M6, we got to see people who are truly passionate about an industry that too few people are familiar with at the moment. Yet it is already one of the largest industries in the U.S.

If as many countries legalize it for medical or recreational use Today, that's no coincidence.