Hashish
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Spanish Hashish
Blocks of hash on a table. Hashish is made from the flowering tops of female Cannabis sativa plants, which are rich in resins containing THC, the active chemical that produces a high. (The leaves and other parts of the plant are used to make another drug, marijuana, which has a lower THC content. ) The tops are dried and then compressed into a variety of forms, such as balls, cakes, or cookie-like sheets. Pieces are then broken off, placed in pipes, and smoked. The Middle East, North Africa, Pakistan, Nepal and Afghanistan are major sources of hashish.
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Inside Hashish
A man breaks apart hashish close up. Though hashish generally is defined in the West as a drug made from the flowering tops of Cannabis plants, in Arabic-speaking countries, the term also sometimes broadened to include preparations that include the leaves, stems and other parts as well, which elsewhere are more commonly called marijuana. Traders from the Arab world may have introduced recreational use of Cannabis to Africa as early as the 3rd Century AD, though it may also have been spread by Indian or Chinese visitors as well.
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Hash Market
A man points out the different types of hashish for sale. The drug has been used in the Middle East since at least the time of the Roman Empire, when physicians prescribed it for the treatment of migraines and syphilis, and as a painkiller. As Islam expanded across the Middle East in the 7th Century AD, hashish also became popular as a recreational drug, since some saw it as not being expressly prohibited by their religion, as alcohol was. (Others pointed to the Koran’s admonition against khamr, or substances that “cover” the mind). Some early Arabic texts tout its mind-altering properties, describing it as the “blissful branches” and the “morsel of thought.”
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Hashish Pollen Pile
Hashish being crumbled into a pile. Hashish actually is made portions of the Cannabis sativa plant called trichomes, which are glands that produce resin. In the Netherlands, the dried trichomes and stalks of the plant are called “pollen” or “polm,” which has a different meaning in the Dutch language than the word pollen does in English. Because this raw powder is an extremely potent form of cannabis extract, some users jokingly refer to it as “hippie crack.” The powder is then rolled or pressed into a solid mass before being sold and used.
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Hashish Plants
Dried flowering tops from Cannabis sativa plants are picked apart to collect the raw material for hashish. Because the flowering tops have a higher resin content, hashish generally has a THC content of about 10 to 15 percent, compared to considerably less—from 0.5 to 5 percent-- for the other parts of the plant that are sold as marijuana.
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Smoking Dope
A man smoking hashish from his pipe. Hashish generally was eaten rather than smoked until the 16th Century, when the arrival of tobacco from the New World caused the habit of smoking to sweep through Europe and then the Middle East and Asia. The idea of burning vegetable material and breathing in the smoke to absorb its active chemical was readily transferrable from tobacco to Cannabis, and in the Middle East and Asia, hashish users began smoking the drug in pipes. Smoking hashish had advantages because while the THC’s effects were experienced more quickly, they didn’t last as long, which made hashish use less incapacitating.
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Hashish Cigarette
A hashish cigarette, or joint, is smoked. Initially, hashish, whose smoke is hotter and harsher than tobacco, was smoked in pipes, rather than in cigarette form, and many users still use the drug in that fashion. Two types of pipes evolved. Some inhaled hashish smoke through clay pipes that contained a pebble halfway along the stem to prevent the ignited ash from being inhaled. To cool the smoke, a damp cloth was placed over the mouthpiece as a filter. Iranian potters are credited with inventing indirect smoking devices known as hookahs, which filtered the smoke through water to cool it. The latter method had the disadvantage of reducing the drug’s potency.
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Numbing the Trauma
Graham, a British war veteran, smokes hash to numb his physical and psychological traumas from war. He suffered a high velocity bullet wound to the head while in combat. Graham feels his pain would be unbearable if not for hash. The 19th Century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzche once said that “If a man wishes to rid himself of a feeling of unbearable oppression, he may have to take hashish.”
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Coffeehouse Hash Cake
Hash cakes for sale in a coffee shop in Amsterdam. Up until the early 1970s, the Netherlands had strict drug laws that made possession of 10 grams of cannabis as serious as being caught with 50 grams of heroin or morphine. But after a government commission concluded that cannabis was less dangerous, possession of up to 30 grams was reduced to a minor offense, and sales were permitted in licensed coffee shops and bars. The first cannabis café, Mellow Yellow (named after a popular song by the British musician Donovan) opened for business in 1972. The shops are limited to sell amounts of up to 5 grams per person.
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Hash and Coffee
A hash block on a coffee shop cutting board in Amsterdam. The sale of small amounts of hashish and marijuana has been legal in Dutch coffee shops since the early 1970s. Paradoxically however, the larger-scale dealers from whom café owners obtain their drug supply are still considered lawbreakers, so the legal hashish trade still quietly continues to rely upon smuggling by criminal organizations. By the late 1990s, the typical Cannabis café generated $450,000 in annual revenue, and some shops near the German border generated as much as $3 million apiece. Some cannabis cafes also sell alcohol, but by law, no other drugs are allowed.
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Growing Hashish
A Hashish field in Morocco. A 2003 United Nations report concluded that while Moroccan authorities were attempting to fight Cannabis cultivation, European countries needed to do more to reduce demand for the drug inside their borders. “It is Europe’s turn to focus especially upon preventative measures,” said Antonio Maria Costa, director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, which produced the report. Costa attributed rising Cannabis production in Morocco to the synergy of that country’s rural poverty and the spectacular expansion of hashish and marijuana consumption in Europe. Cannabis farmers in Morocco made just $214 million in revenue, but their raw materials are used to make a product that generates $12 billion for trafficking networks in Europe.
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Fire It Up
Heating up Hashish to crumble into a joint. One how-to manual for smoking hashish advises that hashish comes in many different varieties, each with different characteristics, from hard, rocky Lebanese hash to the softer, oilier version of the drug made in Nepal. While the highest-grade hashish is made from rubbing the sticky resin from the flowering tops of the plants, most hashish also contains other parts of the plant and binding agents, and some low-quality hashish is adulterated with chemicals as well. “Good” hashish should burn and crumble with ease, the manual explains.
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Cutting Up Cannabis
Cannabis on a cutting board in an Amsterdam coffee shop. Cannabis, along with hashish, has been legal in Amsterdam since the 1970s. Coffees shops may sell up to 5 grams per person. Greater quantities are illegal. A how-to manual for hashish smokers advises that an even mix of hashish powder and other ingredients, such as herbs or tobacco, is crucial for a satisfying smoking experience. “Uneven mixes burn erratically, often resulting in collapsed joints and wasted bud,” the author notes. Experienced smokers sometimes break up and remix their hashish in the palms of their hands before putting it into rolling papers, while others use mixing bowls.
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Confiscated Cannabis Resin
Blocks of confiscated hashish. On average, Spanish customs officials seize around 100 tons of hash a year, much of that from intercepted boats. Hashish use in Europe dates back at least to Muslim-controlled Granada in the 1360s, and Portuguese traders brought back hashish from south Asia in the 1500s. The Portuguese botanist and physician Garcia Da Orta wrote a book in 1563 describing the effects of “bangue,” as he called hashish. “The Indians get no usefulness from this, unless it is in the fact that they become ravished by ecstasy, and delivered from all worries and cares, and laugh at the least little thing,” he observed.
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Human Hashish Stash
A man cuts the tape that binds blocks of hashish to his abdomen. While not a popular drug in the U.S., Europe has a flourishing illegal trade in the substance, with which it has a complicated, often conflicted history. In the 1790s, the British rulers of India not only permitted the cultivation of cannabis and the manufacture of hashish, but used it as a source of tax revenue. The French were introduced to hashish when Napoleon’s forces invaded Egypt and, finding wine unavailable, acquired a taste for hashish instead. Returning soldiers told of the drug’s wondrous effects, and scientists who had accompanied the army brought back samples for laboratory analysis. Travelers brought back more hashish from Egypt and elsewhere in Africa, and by the 1840s, European pharmacists actually stocked hashish, which they suspended in oil or port wine, as a medicine.
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Moroccan Sunset
Sunset over the Rif Mountains of Morocco. For generations, this region has been the heart of Morocco’s Cannabis cultivating industry, and farmers earned at least a modest living from growing the plants that provide the raw material for hashish. While growing Cannabis was technically illegal, authorities generally turned a blind eye to the practice. In the mid-2000s, Morocco produced an estimated 53,000 tons of Cannabis annually, according to United Nations estimates. In recent years, however, the European Union and the U.S. have pressed Moroccan officials to crack down on Cannabis farming, and have provided tens of millions of dollars in funding for eradication efforts, such as burning fields.
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No More Hash Life
Richard, an ex-hash dealer, is a British citizen who operated from the luxury resort of Marbella, on Spain's southern shore. He was forced to quit his operations after police technology improved. According to a recent report in the independent, a British newspaper, Spanish officials are now targeting a network of British traffickers who seek to wrest control from Dutch smugglers of the illegal traffic in hashish from Morocco to Europe via Seville. Spanish officials recently seized 614 kilograms of hashish hidden in a British truck, and arrested its driver, who is awaiting trial. Nevertheless, Spanish officials reportedly only manage to stop about 10 percent of Moroccan hashish that passes through their country.
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Balaclava Blocker
A hash farmer wears a balaclava to conceal his identity. The Rif Mountains region of Morocco is one of the world’s major producers of Cannabis sativa plants that are used to make hashish. In recent years, however, European and U.S. antidrug officials have been pressing the Moroccan government to destroy the Cannabis industry, but according to a 2010 Global Post article, the crop is still grown openly by mountain farmers. The only major impact of the campaign against hashish, they complain, is that Moroccan police are now demanding bribes to allow the cultivation to continue. A local politician and activist told the newspaper that farmers have no other alternative to support themselves. “They’re ready to stop if they find another dignified way to earn a living,” he said.
