Extraction Conversion of Commercial CBD containing products into THC with Sulphuric Acid

[LittleBear]

Hey dudes, was recently in the smoke shop when I noticed the were selling a CBD e liquid, which blew my fucking mind for a few seconds. Once I hopped on the phone and realized CBD is legal in the states (I need to pay more attention ), I remembered an article about the conversion of CBD into THC through reflux with sulphuric acid:

http://www.bluelight.org/vb/threads/351514-The-Conversion-of-CBD-to-THC

So, why would this not work? I understand absolutely shit about organic chemistry, but I have certainly seen crystallized CBD available for sale on Amazon, as well as CBD tinctures and the like. This doesn't seem like a very hard synthesis (you know, vs THC Actetate production), but given the token amount of lab equip and materials needed (reflux setup? some sulph acid?) this seems quite achievable for 'home scientist". Is there some caveat of this process that makes this meh? I will still say its simply easier to grow yourself a fresh batch of THC, lol, but this may have merit.

Your thoughts/experiences

 

[Dr Who]

Hey Bear, I've no idea whether or not it would work or not but I am at least a little sceptical. Concentrated sulfuric acid will turn sugar (CH2O)n to carbon and water, to the starting materials (CBD?) would need to be pretty stable. Organic synthesis never was my strong point, but I would think seriously about how you minimise any impurities that you might introduce, and also how you might be able to purify the final product. If you can't get it out of the concentrated sulfuric acid safely, and then get rid of any other nasties that step may have introduced, then all you have done is ruin some of the starting material. It's often the recovery efficiency after a step like this that is the problem, even in a commercial setting. If you can only yield 5% of the theorertical yield from your quantity of starting material then is it still worth doing?

 

[BII]

Using some common sense, CBD products would absolutely not be legal (essentially unregulated, like nutraceuticals, in the U.S.) if CBD were a THC precursor; and particularly, if doing the conversion to THC was in any way simple or effective. And if it actually worked and was that simple, wouldn't we all be doing it? Theoretically, there could be something to acid-driven conversion. But keep in mind hemp rope and other cannabis-derived products presumably contain good amounts of CBD and have long been sold commercially (centuries); and it's obviously pretty useless, totally impractical, to try to get high grade THC from the CBD readily extractable from these products.

Also, as Dr. Who noted, even if the reaction worked and it ran at high yield (seems unlikely), how will you purify the acidic THC complex mixture? And what is there to stop the THC reverting (which seems likely) to its original presumably more stable non-acid-environment CBD configuration when you raise the pH (remove/separate the THC from the acid and many other impurities)?