There are various forms of marijuana, from whole buds to bubble hash, solvent-extract concentrates, oral tinctures, oils and butane honey oil. But dry sift is becoming increasingly popular — and Darrin Massey, a native of Prince George, B.C., has emerged as a master at producing it. He recently spoke to Herbal Dispatch about his business, D420K, and his passion for his craft.

How did you get involved with cannabis?
I started smoking doobies when I was 11 years old but I moved up in the world soon after. My friends and I found a pizza joint that sold weed. We got a couple of grams of that. When I went to smoke it, I realized it was all bud. I thought we had been ripped off but then someone told me to cut it up and roll it. I tried that and, Holy Shit, did I get stoned! In high school, I started rolling joints and selling them.

Where did you go from there?
I broke my back, my neck and several other body parts in two road accidents in the late 1990s. I started taking oxycodone to treat the pain and got addicted to it. It was horrible. I couldn’t even have a proper piss while I was on it. It also screwed up my gut. I finally got off the oxycodone and stuck with weed. I got a license to grow it. I soon started breaking it down into honey oil, which kicked the crap out of my pain. I made exceptional oils and people were impressed. From there, I started using bubble bags. Nothing ever blew up on me, which is good because I have a pretty face and I didn’t want to lose it.

How did you get involved with dry sift?
I met someone on a road trip to Vancouver who introduced me to dry sift. Well, you know that “Wow” feeling you get a few times in life? I had that, times ten. I remember thinking, “How do I make this?” I bought some materials and started practicing. It took me two months of sifting to get a small amount of product to smoke. I kept working at it, spending time in my lab as a bad scientist. Eventually, I got a sense of the texture. I could feel the granules under the screen. I finally got it right. If you have a good strain and you can sift it down to 99% pure [gland] heads, it will all get smoked. I would go to compassion clubs and almost get attacked by enthusiastic people. Gradually, I started creating relationships and promoting my products.

What advice would you give to people who are interested in producing dry sift but are intimidated because of the learning curve and other issues?
Patience is critical. There are many factors to consider — temperature, humidity, agitation of water, etc. Every single thing takes time so you have to be passionate about it to do it. Dry sift is something that spoke to me when I first came across it. It screamed to me.

#teamdrysift #ogkush #statictech #fullmeltdrysift its nice right now But it can be better. Gonna run this a second or even third time if needed.

A post shared by Darrin (@d420k) on Apr 14, 2018 at 7:52pm PDT

What do you think of the business today?
Other people are doing the same thing as me and they’re making incredible stuff. There is a lot of competition and I welcome it all. We’re not criminal gangs in this business. We’re all about peace, love and being happy. It’s a good community. There are so many nice people.

Do you have any gripes?
People sometimes say the price of dry sift is too steep. But they need to keep in mind that producing the product takes a lot of time and effort, from cloning to growing, feeding and harvesting the plant and all that — and breaking it down to pure heads. It is hard to do. It’s like gold mining. So before they complain about the price, customers should ask themselves, “How much is this producer’s time worth, this person who is making great medicine for the connoisseur market?”

What are your plans for the future in terms of your business?
I don’t know how things are going to pan out with licensing [after recreational marijuana becomes legal in 2018]. I would like to see craft growers be licensed, just the way craft brewers are. But if [the government] doesn’t go that route, I don’t care. I’ll be doing what I’m doing until I’m dead. I get an email every day from someone talking really nice to me because they’re thankful for the medicine I’m making. In many cases, we just giving [our product] to those people. We don’t make money off people who are sick and dying. That is what pharmaceutical companies do. We have changed people’s lives with this stuff. It feels so good that I can’t stop. This doesn’t go against my morals. I have a good heart and good disposition. I’m a good person. It makes sense to do this.