Help! My vape cart leaked. How do I clean my pants?

Getting the right answers in your cannabis journey can be tricky. But with The Cannigma’s Ask the Expert, you can find questions from readers like you, answered by a real cannabis pharmacist.

Question: Broke a vape cart in my pocket. How do I clean my fave pants?

Answer:

Bummer about your pants and vape! Sounds like you maybe had a faulty pen or a 510 thread that leaked. One of the issues with keeping a 510-thread design in your pocket is that it can put a lot of pressure on the joint between the vape cartridge and the battery. I’ve been a victim of this myself! And hot temps can add to this leaking effect as well.

Removing cannabis resin can be a messy, sticky job, but it is possible and generally you’ll need to follow the same process as removing resin from your vape. We first recommend using isopropyl alcohol (usually 70% or higher) to clean your clothing. You could try ethanol, but usually anything you can buy in stores is less than 50% ethanol, which won’t work as well.

Some clothes may not hold up to alcohol very well, resulting in discoloration or fading. Test the alcohol on a small hidden patch of your garment before trying to fully remove the cannabis oil from your clothes.

If alcohol (isopropyl or ethanol) alone doesn’t work, you can try adding some fine salt to the clothing and scrubbing with the alcohol at the same time, which could help dislodge some of the resin.

Another approach is making a paste out of baking soda and vinegar, to create an acid-base reaction that may help pull up some of the resins.

If all else fails, you can try nail polish remover, but this is even more likely to damage some garments, so tread extra cautiously.

Good luck! I hope you can salvage your pants.

Codi Peterson, PharmD
Scientific advisor, The Cannigma
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