Hashish, or hash, is a cannabis product composed of compressed or purified preparations of

stalked resin glands, called trichomes. It contains the same active ingredientssuch
as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and other cannabinoidsbut often in higher concentrations than
unsifted buds or leaves.
Hashish may be solid or resinous depending on the preparation; pressed hashish is usually solid,
whereas water-purified hashishoften called "bubble melt hash"is often a paste-like
substance with varying hardness and pliability, its color most commonly light to dark brown can
vary to seethrough glass varying toward yellow/tan, black or red. This all depends on the process
and amount of contaminate left over.[1]
Contents
[hide]

1 History

2 Use

3 Manufacturing processes

4 Quality

5 See also

6 References

7 Further reading

History[edit]
The name hashish comes from the Arabic word ( ) which means grass. It is believed that
massive hashish production for international trade originated inMorocco during the 1960s, where
the cannabis plant was widely available. Before the coming of the first hippies from the Hippie
Hashish Trail, only small pieces of Lebanese hashish were found in Morocco. [2] However, hemp
has been reported from a cultural setting on Taiwan as long ago as 10,000 BC., and "[t]he
earliest human use of Cannabis appears to have occurred in the steppe regions of Central Asia
or in China."[3] Northern India has a long social tradition in the production of hashish, known
locally as charas, which is believed to be the same plant resin as was burned in the
ceremonial booz rooz of Ancient Persia.[4]Cannabis indica grows wild almost everywhere on the
Indian sub-continent, and special strains have been particularly cultivated for production
of ganja andhashish particularly in West Bengal, Rajasthan and the Himalayas.[citation needed]
In 1596, Dutchman Jan Huyghen van Linschoten spent three pages on "Bangue" (bhang) in his
historic work documenting his journeys in the East. He particularly mentioned the Egyptian
Hashish.[5] He said, "Bangue is likewise much used in Turkie and Egypt, and is made in three
sorts, having also three names. The first by the Egyptians is called Assis (Hashish (Arab.)), which
is the poulder of Hemp, or of Hemp leaves, which is water made in paste or dough, they would
eat five peeces, (each) as big as a Chestnut (or larger); This is used by the common people,
because it is of a small price, and it is no wonder, that such vertue proceedeth from the Hempe,
for that according to Galens opinion, Hempe excessively filleth the head."

Use[edit]
It is consumed by being heated in a pipe, hookah, bong, bubbler, vaporizer, hot knife (placed
between the tips of two heated knife blades), smoked in joints, mixed with

cannabis buds or tobacco, smoked as bottle tokes ("brewing bots", "bucket bongs") or cooked in
food, especially sweets.

Manufacturing processes[edit]

Making cannabis resin, Uttarakhand, India

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 also 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 in order to skirt paraphernalia
selling laws), are separated from the plant through various methods.
Mechanical separation methods use physical action to remove the trichomes from the plant, such
as sieving through a screen by hand or in motorized tumblers. This technique is known as
"drysifting". The resulting powder, referred to as "kief" or "drysift", is compressed with the aid of
heat into blocks of hashish; if pure, the kief will become gooey and pliable. When a high level of
pure THC is present, the end product will be almost transparent and will start to melt at the point
of human contact. Ice-water separation is another mechanical method of isolating trichomes. The
clarity of the final product determines quality of the final product.
Chemical separation methods generally use a solvent such as ethanol, butane[citation
needed]
or hexane to dissolve the lipophilic desirable resin. Remaining plant materials are filtered out
of the solution and sent to the compost. The solvent is then evaporated, or boiled off (purged)
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 distillationto yield "red
oil". The product of chemical separations is more commonly referred to as "honey oil." This oil is
not really hashish, as the latter name covers trichomes that are extracted by sieving. This leaves
most of the glands intact.

Quality[edit]
Tiny pieces of leaf matter may be accidentally or even purposefully
added; adulterants introduced when the hash is being produced will reduce the purity of the
material and often resulting in green finished product. Thetetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content of
hashish comes in wide ranges from almost none to 65% and that of hash oil from 3090%. [6]

See also[edit]