Colorado looks to crack down on in-home hash oil production

Colorado is learning a new lesson about the risks of legalized marijuana. Some people have blown up their homes, trying to make a form of highly concentrated pot. Now regulators are searching for ways to fight this potentially deadly threat, reports CBS News correspondent John Blackstone.

It's the kind of explosion meth labs are notorious for, but investigators said one fire in Washington state and another in California was the result of a homemade hash oil lab, a potent form of marijuana. Officials said such explosions have nearly tripled in Colorado in the two years since voters legalized recreational marijuana.

Paul Mannaioni was charged with illegally processing the substance after an explosion last year in Denver.

"Accidents don't mean that a crime has occurred," his attorney Robert Corry said.

Last month, Colorado's then-Attorney General John Suthers said the state "is experiencing a real public safety issue as a result of unsafe and unlicensed manufacturing and production."

He said while marijuana is legal under the new law, manufacturing the drug's oil at home is not.

Corry said that doesn't make sense according to state law.

"The constitution says marijuana is legal. This is the equivalent of manufacturing olive oil which is legal, the equivalent of frying a turkey which is legal," he said. "The substance that you're using is a substance that legal under our laws."

Colorado does allow licensed commercial producers like Brett Mouser to process hash oil.

"We've gone from the garage to the laboratory methods," Mouser said.

Mouser said it's a safer alternative and Colorado could crack down on home production by restricting bulk butane sales, the same way sales of cold medicine are limited to deter meth production.

"If you limit the sales of cans of butane, I think you will limit the explosions," Mouser said.