In a lawsuit that appears to be the first of its kind in the nation, a man who was burned over half of his body when he tried to make a batch of hash oil in his burned over half of his body when he tried to make a batch of hash oil in his million lawsuit faulting the store that sold him the butane necessary for his do- )
it-yourself project.

Kevin Tveisme’s lawsuit blames the importers, the distributors and the Shell mini-mart on Southeast Foster Road that sold him the butane, alleging that they failed to warn that butane vapors are highly explosive, especially in enclosed spaces such as a garage, and that other people who have tried to make hash oil with butane have been badly burned or killed.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Multnomah County Circuit Court, is unprecedented in the U.S., said Jonah Flynn, the Atlanta attorney representing Tveisme.

But hash-oil explosions are not: The list of people who have ended up seriously hurt or dead after flash hash oil explosions been growing in recent years.

Hash oil has become popular in the past five years and contains a particularly potent concentration of THC. It can be made by using butane to extract THC from marijuana. It’s then smoked, ingested or vaporized to achieve a high.

But the production process can be quite dangerous — with butane vapors suddenly igniting from a single spark or flame in a water heater or furnace, blowing off rooftops and literally melting the skin off bodies.

The May 27, 2013, blast that injured Tveisme, who was in his late 20s, also killed his longtime friend, Joseph Westom, who was burned over 90 percent of his body.

Westom, 35, died 18 days later. Westom’s estate has not filed a wrongful death lawsuit.

Tveisme suffered burns over 50 percent of his body, most of them were full-thickness burns, also known as third-degree burns. He was in a medically induced coma for six weeks and underwent 11 surgeries. His right index finger was amputated.

His medical bills have topped $1 million. And he wasn’t able to work for 16 months after the explosion, according to his suit.

At the time, Tveisme was an Oregon medical marijuana cardholder – he said severe pain was his qualifying reason. His lawsuit states that he was legally allowed to use marijuana to make hash oil.

Oregon law prohibits people who aren’t medical marijuana cardholders from producing hash oil. That will all change sometime after January 2016, however, when the Oregon Liquor Control Commission starts accepting applications from non-cardholders to make hash oil, said commission spokesman Tom Towslee.

In May 2014, about a year after the explosion, Tveisme reluctantly spoke to The Oregonian/Oregonian he was subjecting himself to public ridicule, but saying he wanted to warn the public about the dangers of the hash oil-making process. He said that he had researched how to make it on YouTube, and no one in the videos said it was dangerous.

Tveisme bought the butane from the Shell gas station’s mini-mart at 12155 S.E. Foster Road. It was bottled in canisters under the “Power 5X” name. A description on Amazon.com doesn’t state its use, but commenters in a Q&A section wrote they use the product in butane torches and cigarette lighters. Tveisme’s attorney said Power 5X’s distributors market it to websites and stores that sell marijuana paraphernalia as a product that can be used to make hash oil.

Flynn said the company advises caution in refilling lighters, but has failed to warn about the dangers of the hash oil-extraction process, he said.

“I appreciate that they put on there ‘Don’t overfill your lighter,’ but one of those cans is enough to fill up your lighter for five years,” Flynn said. “It’s a wink and a nod. They know and everybody else knows that this product is used for the manufacture of butane hash oil. It’s not a secret.”

The lawsuit states that the butane is odorless and can unknowingly travel a large distance. When Tveisme’s home furnace clicked on, his garage burst into flames, his suit says.

“You have to adequately warn of the hazards and dangers of your product in this country,” Flynn said.

All of the defendants listed in the lawsuit either declined comment or could not be reached for comment. They are: PacWest Energy, Jackson’s Food Stores, Equilon Enterprises, Shell Oil Products US, Hai Chheng Gov, Hai’s Shell Station, Hai’s Shell #2, Vision International Petroleum, LPC Petroleum, Kimhong Leang, Global Lion, BK Power Imports and Bosco Kwon.

Portland attorney Scott Kocher is representing Tvseime along with Flynn.

A construction worker who spent a month in a Portland burn unit after being injured in a butane-fueled explosion in Astoria last fall has filed a lawsuit against the company that made the cannabis extract, the property owner and the company that sold the flammable gas used to make the product.

Jacob Magley, 34, of Portland is suing 11 businesses and three people for violations of workplace safety laws. He filed the suit in Multnomah County and is seeking $8.9 million in damages.

Magley was working as a contractor in the building when it exploded. The suit claims the company making the extract failed to keep butane from filling the room. He says the facility lacked adequate ventilation and exit routes, automatic sprinklers and gas detectors among other safety features.

According to the suit, he was not given fire retardant clothing or other protective equipment and was not warned about the dangers posed by butane.

Magley claims that Jason Oei, one of those named in the suit, consumed cannabis oil in a technique called “dabbing” while William “Chris” West handled butane. Magley alleges Oei’s dabbing caused the explosion, which rocked the building on Oct. 19. West, too, was injured in the blast.

Amy Margolis, a lawyer for the pair, declined to comment Monday.

Making hash oil using butane can be dangerous. For years, the activity was unregulated and underground, carried out by home producers who often misunderstand the risks. The gas, a cheap and flammable solvent, is used to extract tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, from marijuana flowers and leaves.

It can quickly fill an enclosed space, where something as ordinary as a pilot light can ignite a fireball.

The dangers led to a new state law that makes unlicensed production of marijuana extracts a felony. The provision is intended to target homemade butane hash oil operations and not commercial operations, which are regulated by the state.

Clatsop County authorities launched a criminal investigation into the explosion. That inquiry is pending. An official with Oregon OSHA, an agency whose mission is worker safety and health, said Monday that its investigation also is ongoing.

Meanwhile, Oei and West are have applied for licenses to produce and process marijuana for the recreational market, said Mark Pettinger, a spokesman of the Oregon Liquor Control Commission.

Pettinger said the agency is not processing the application until outside agencies complete their investigations. The outcome of those investigations could factor into whether the state issues a license, he said.

Magley’s lawyer, Jonah Flynn, of Atlanta, Georgia, said Monday that his client suffered burns on his upper torso and that emergency workers arrived to find his skin “falling off.”

The episode has caused Magley lasting trauma, his lawyer said. “He’s having a hard time,” he said.
Flynn said Astoria Trading Co. is the parent company of Higher Level Concentrates, which at the time of the blast was on the Oregon Health Authority’s list of state-authorized marijuana processors.

Flynn, a personal injury lawyer, also represented a Gresham man severely burned in a 2013 butane hash oil blast that killed his friend. That suit has been “resolved” and dismissed, Flynn said, adding that the terms of the resolution are confidential.

— Noelle Crombie

ncrombie@oregonian.com

503-276-7184;  @noellecrombie