Hashish

This article is about the cannabis preparation. For other uses, see hash.

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"Blonde" hashish

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Hashish

Hashish (pronounced /hæˈʃiːʃ/ or /ˈhæʃiːʃ/) (from Arabic: حشيش ḥashīsh, lit. "grass", from hashisha "to become dry"; also hash) is a preparation of cannabis composed of the compressed stalked resin glands called trichomes, collected from the cannabis plant. It contains the same active ingredients but in higher concentrations than other parts of the plant such as the buds or the leaves. Hashish is often a paste-like substance with varying hardness and pliability. Its color is most commonly light to dark brown, but can vary toward green, yellow, black, or red.

Psychoactive effects are the same as those of other cannabis preparations. It is sometimes believed that the effects are different, but those perceptions usually stem from the increased potency of hashish, as well as variations between regionally different Cannabis specimens that are typically processed into hashish.

Hashish is heated in a screened miniature smoking pipe (one-hitter, kiseru, midwakh, sebsi etc.), hookah, bong bubbler, vaporizer, hot knife, smoked in joints mixed with cannabis buds, tobacco or other aromatic herbs, or cooked in foods.

History

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A Hash store in Kathmandu.

It is believed that hash first originated from West Asia, as this region was among the first to be populated by the cannabis plant. More reliably, it may have originated in Northern India which also has a very long social tradition in the production of Hashish which is locally known as Charas. It is hypothesized that this Charas is the same plant resin burned in the ceremonial "booz rooz" of ancient Persia. Cannabis sativa subsp. indica grows wild almost everywhere in the Indian sub-continent and special strains have been particularly cultivated for production of 'ganja' and 'hashish' particularly in Kerala, Rajasthan and the Himalayas. The earliest hashish was created without the use of sieves. The ancients would gently rub their palms and fingers on cannabis buds for hours while resin accumulated on their hands and then scrape that resin off. This sort of primitive harvesting is undertaken even today in the Cannabis growing farms of Manali, Naggar and Upper Himachal Pradesh.

The principal utility of hashish, compared to other forms of marijuana, has been greater ease of transport or concealment. Consumption of hashish saw an increase in the 20th century, in Europe and America, associated with the hippie subculture. Hashish use declined significantly in the United States starting in the 1980s for several reasons, including U.S. political pressures against Afghanistan and the ensuing Soviet invasion, the Reagan-escalated War on Drugs, a huge jump in price, and the success of marijuana cultivators in North America with new methods for increasing THC production, such as indoor growing.

Influence on behavior

No reports of a statistical linkage between hashish and violent crime have been published in known scientific literature; instead it has been found to generally inhibit aggressive impulses.

Manufacturing processes

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Stalked trichomes of the Cannabis plant.

Hashish is made from cannabinoid-rich glandular hairs known as trichomes, as well as varying amounts of cannabis flower and leaf fragments. The flowers of a mature female plant contain the most trichomes, though trichomes are found on other parts of the plant. Certain strains of cannabis are cultivated specifically for their ability to produce large amounts of trichomes. The resin reservoirs of the trichomes, sometimes erroneously called pollen (vendors often use the euphemism "pollen catchers" to describe screened kief-grinders), are separated from the plant through various methods. The resulting powder, often referred to as "kief", is compressed, with the aid of heat, into blocks of hashish which have historically been easily stored and transported, or alternatively the uncompressed dry kief can be smoked as-is in a screened one-hitter, avoiding the additional costs of making hashish.

Mechanical separation methods use physical action to remove the trichomes from the plant, sieving through a fine (#30) screen by hand or in motorized tumblers. The kief made in this way is sometimes called 'dry sift'. 'Finger hash' is produced by rolling the ripe trichome-covered flowers of the plant between the fingers, rupturing the trichomes, and collecting the freed resin that sticks to the fingers.

Ice water separation is a more modern mechanical separation method which submerges the plant's leaves in ice and water and agitates the mixture, sometimes in a washing machine. The low temperature solidifies the resinous trichomes. They become brittle, and the mechanical agitation breaks them off the leaves. The waste plant matter, detached trichomes, and water are separated by filtering through a series of increasingly fine screens or bags (with pore sizes ranging from 220 to 25 microns). The trichomes of various sizes are then dried and pressed into solid blocks of hash. Kits are commercially available which provide a series of filter bags meant to fit inside standard bucket sizes. Hash made in this way is sometimes called 'ice hash', or 'bubble hash'. This method produces valuable product from leaf matter that would otherwise be discarded (after the plant's "buds" are trimmed for sale). The advent of this process has made hashish much more readily available in North America.

Chemical separation methods generally use a solvent such as ethanol or hexane to dissolve the lipophilic desirable resin. The remaining plant material is then filtered out of the solution and sent to the compost. The solvent is then evaporated, leaving behind the desirable resins, called honey oil, "hash oil", or just "oil". Honey oil still contains waxes and essential oils and can be further purified by vacuum distillation to yield "red oil". The product of chemical separations is more commonly referred to as "honey oil".

Quality

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Hashish

The main factors affecting quality are potency and purity.

Tiny pieces of leaf matter or even purposefully added adulterants introduced when the hash is being produced will reduce the purity of the material. The tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content of hashish comes in wide ranges from 15–70%, and that of hash oil from 30–90%.

Fresh hashish considered to be good quality is soft and pliable and becomes progressively harder and less potent as its THC content oxidizes to cannabinol and as essential oils evaporate.

Hash is generally said to be black, brown or blonde. There is also hashish of greenish or reddish hue. A green tinge may indicate that the hashish contains a large amount of leaf material. Hashish color usually reflects the methods of harvesting, manufacturing, and storage.

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Vaporizer (left) with "whip" or long drawtube, and bong (right)

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A narrow, screened one-hitter, such as the midwakh (shown here), kiseru or sebsi, provides low-temperature 25-mg. servings, minimizing THC waste and health risks.

Preparation and methods of use

Like ordinary cannabis preparations, hashish is usually smoked, though it can also be eaten (more commonly than cannabis plant) or vaporised.

Vaporization

Used with hashish as with any cannabis, tobacco or other herb material, a vaporizer is used to volatize cannabinoids at temperatures as low as 140 °C. This protects against loss of this ingredient which occurs in burning, and reduces carbon monoxide and other toxic combustion products. Since hashish is solid, its surface area is often enlarged by slicing off tiny pieces with a sharp knife or breaking into small crumbs to achieve maximum cannabinoid vaporization.

Pipe

Hashish is sometimes smoked through a pipe with a narrow (5.5-mm. inner diameter) crater fitted with a #40 metal screen to prevent drawing in small particles to clog the inner channel. A long flexible draw-tube, such as those provided on hookahs, is sometimes attached to the exit end. This gives the vapors extra distance to travel, cooling, before inhalation. A bong is designed to provide water filtration.

Vaporizing with a one-hitter

Main article: One hitter (smoking)

Holding a heat source, such as a moderate lighter flame, about 2-cm. below the crater opening for several seconds while sucking steadily through the drawtube, permits drawing in enough heat—- but no flame—- to subject a 25-mg. loading to appropriate vaporizing temperature(140°-200°C.). Ignition occurs only after the hash is throughly dried out from successful removal of desired ingredients.

Incense

Hashish is sometimes rolled into a line and made to burn like an incense stick. This is done by taking the line of hashish, upholding it with a paperclip on a table, and trapping the smoke with a cup. Later the cup can be lifted and the smoke cleared with a straw.

Auxiliary herbs

Other aromatic herbs may be added to a pipeload to assist in vaporizing hashish. Hops (Humulus lupulus) flowers, previously ground to a fine particle size in a mesh-16 screen strainer, have a low enough combustion point to help vaporize cannabinoids without igniting the hashish; they are delicate and mild, and interfere least with perceiving the taste of the hashish. Eucalyptus leaf adds a strong flavor, as does oregano. Mild species include basil, catnip (Nepeta cataria), camomile, damiana, dandelion, ginseng (leaf), lemon balm (melissa), marjoram, parsley, savory, tarragon, thyme, uva ursi (kinnickinnick), and various flower petals.

Dabous

A piece of hash may be ignited and placed inside a container, such as a plastic bottle. The smoke that collects inside is then inhaled. "Dabous" or "Khabour", but most commonly "shisha" (glass in Arabic) is a North African technique, commonly referred to as "Bots" or "BTs" ("Bottle-Tokes") or simply "Ts/Tees" in Canada. "Hash under glass" is for smoking with minimal equipment. A small ball of hash can be stuck onto a safety pin opened and inserted through paper. The ball is ignited and then covered by a drinking glass. Smoke collects in the glass and can then be inhaled by tipping the glass slightly.

Cooking

As cannabinoids are fat-soluble, they dissolve in oils and fats, including butter. Finely crumbled or dissolved hashish can be used for cooking (see hash cookies and Alice B. Toklas brownies).

See also

• Club des Hashischins—A club in Paris in the 1840s, dedicated to explore the effect of drugs, specifically hashish.
• Charles Baudelaire—A member of the club mentioned above, who in Les paradis artificiels (1860) described the effects of opium and hashish.
• Fitz Hugh Ludlow and his autobiographical The Hasheesh Eater (1857).
• Legality of cannabis
• Legality of cannabis by country
• One hitter (smoking)

References

• Starkes, Michael. Marijuana Potency. Berkeley, California: And/Or Press, 1977. Chapter 6 "Extraction of THC and Preparation of Hash Oil" pp. 111–122. ISBN 0915904276.

Further reading

• Hashish by Robert Connell Clarke, ISBN 0-929349-05-9
• Artificial Paradises by Charles Baudelaire; first edition 1860
• The Hasheesh Eater by Fitz Hugh Ludlow; first edition 1857
• Indoor Marijuana Horticulture, by Jorge Cervantes, ISBN 1-878823-29-9; 2001, reprinted 2005

External links

• Erowid Vaults
• Analysis of adulterated hashish
• Neil Montgomery of the University of Edinburgh's findings on adulterated hashish
• The Methods Of Hashish Production
• Hashish of the world (types, cultivation and production)
• Methods for THC extraction (Bubble Hash)
• Description of the Hashish Experience by R.P. Walton M.D. Ph. D.
• Bibliography of scholarly histories on cannabis and hashish. (Updated to include article abstracts.)
• How to make Bubble Hash (water hash).

Further history

• Erowid Cannabis Vault: Hashish History
• The Hashish Club - Paris 1840s
• W.W. Willoughby: Indian Hemp (Hashisch), 1925

ar:حشيش fi:Hasis