Hashish (pronounced /hæˈʃiːʃ/ or /ˈhæʃiːʃ/) (from Arabic Arabic (العربية al-ʿarabīyah, ( Arabic pronunciation ) or عربي ʿarabī) is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages. Arabic has more speakers than any other language in the Semitic language family. It is spoken by more than 280 million: حشيش ḥashīsh, lit. "grass", from hashisha "to become dry"; also hash) is a preparation of cannabis Cannabis, also known as marijuana, marihuana, and ganja , among many other namesa[›], refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug. The most common form of cannabis used as a drug is the dried herbal form.[citation needed] composed of the compressed stalked resin glands called trichomes Trichomes are fine outgrowths or appendages on plants and certain protists. These are of diverse structure and function. Examples are hairs, glandular hairs, scales, and papillae, collected from the cannabis Cannabis is a genus of flowering plants that includes three putative species, Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis. These three taxa are indigenous to Central Asia, and South Asia. Cannabis has long been used for fibre (hemp), for medicinal purposes, and as a recreational drug. Industrial hemp products are made from 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, reddish.

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 Kiseru is a Japanese smoking pipe traditionally used for smoking a very fine, shredded tobacco. The word kiseru comes from the Khmer word "ksher", midwakh A midwakh also spelled Medwakh is a small pipe of Arabian origin, in which dokha, a sifted preparation of Iranian tobacco mixed with aromatic leaf and bark herbs, is smoked. The bowl of a midwakh pipe is typically smaller than that of a traditional western tobacco pipe, lending to conservation of smoking material. It is usually loaded by dipping, sebsi etc.), hookah A hookah (Hindustani: हुक़्क़ा , حقّہ (Nastaleeq) huqqā) or waterpipe is a single or multi-stemmed (often glass-based) instrument for smoking tobacco in which the smoke is cooled and filtered by passing through water. Originally from India, hookah has gained popularity, especially in the Middle East and is gaining popularity, bong A bong is a filtration device for smoking, generally used to smoke cannabis, tobacco, or other substances bubbler A bong is a filtration device for smoking, generally used to smoke cannabis, tobacco, or other substances, vaporizer A vaporizer is a device used to extract for inhalation the active ingredients of plant material, commonly cannabis, tobacco or other herbs or blends . Vaporization is an alternative to burning smoking which avoids the production of irritating, toxic, and carcinogenic by-products by heating the material so its active compounds boil off into a vapor, hot knife, smoked in joints Joint is slang for a cigarette rolled using cannabis. Rolling papers are the most common rolling medium among industrialized countries, however brown paper, cigarettes with the tobacco removed, and newspaper are commonly used throughout the developing world. Modern papers are now commonly made from a wide variety of materials including rice, hemp, mixed with cannabis buds In botany, a bud is an undeveloped or embryonic shoot and normally occurs in the axil of a leaf or at the tip of the stem. Once formed, a bud may remain for some time in a dormant condition, or it may form a shoot immediately, tobacco Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as an organic pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, it is used in some medicines. It is most commonly used as a recreational drug, and is a valuable cash crop for countries such as Cuba, China and United States or other aromatic herbs In American English the initial "h" is normally silent: /ˈɜrb/.[Full citation needed] In standard British English the "h" is pronounced: /ˈhɜːb/ Also see American and British English pronunciation differences. In Canada, it is pronounced either with or without the "h"[1], or cooked in foods.

Contents

History

A Hash store in Kathmandu Kathmandu is the capital and largest metropolitan city of Nepal. The city is the urban core of the Kathmandu Valley in the Himalayas, which also contains two sister cities namely Patan or Lalitpur, 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) to its southeast (an ancient city of fine arts and crafts) and Bhaktapur, 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) to its east (city of devotees).

It is believed that hash first originated from West Asia Western Asia, West Asia, Southwest Asia or Southwestern Asia are terms that describe the westernmost portion of Asia. The terms are partly coterminous with the Middle East - which describes geographical position in relation to Western Europe rather than location within Asia. Due to this perceived Eurocentrism, international organizations such as, 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 by UCLA's Abu Usaybia that this Charas is the same plant resin burned in the ceremonial "booz rooz" of ancient Persia. (see Usaybia's "Notes on Uyunu al-Anba fi Tabaquat al-Atibba", Berkeley: University of California Press, 1965.) Cannabis sativa subsp. indica Cannabis sativa is an annual plant in the Cannabaceae family. It is a herb that has been used throughout recorded history by humans as a source of fiber, for its seed oil, as food , as a drug (see cannabis (drug)), as medicine (see medical cannabis), and for spiritual purposes (see spiritual use of cannabis). Each part of the plant is harvested 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.[citation needed] 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 loose sifted herb or kief, has been greater ease of transport or concealment. Consumption of hashish saw an increase in the 20th century, in Europe Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus region (Specification of borders) and the Black Sea to the southeast. Europe is bordered by the and America ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language, associated with the hippie The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s, swiftly spreading to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into New York City's Greenwich Village and San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury scene which promoted pacifism and introspection. Hashish use declined significantly in the United States ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language starting in the 1980s for several reasons, including U.S. political pressures against Afghanistan The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south-central Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan in the south and east, Iran in the west, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in the north, and China in the far northeast. In addition; India claims a border with Afghanistan at the Wakhan corridor as part of its claim on the Gilgit- and the ensuing Soviet invasion The Soviet War in Afghanistan was a ten-year conflict involving the Soviet Union, supporting the Marxist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan at their own request against the Islamist Mujahideen Resistance. The mujahideen found other support from a variety of sources including the United States, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia,, the Reagan-escalated War on Drugs, a huge jump in price, and the success of marijuana cultivators in North America North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific Ocean; South America lies to the southeast with new methods for increasing THC Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), also known as delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC), Δ1-THC (using an older chemical nomenclature), or dronabinol, is the main psychoactive substance found in the cannabis plant 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.[2]

Manufacturing processes

Stalked trichomes of the Cannabis Cannabis is a genus of flowering plants that includes three putative species, Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis. These three taxa are indigenous to Central Asia, and South Asia. Cannabis has long been used for fibre (hemp), for medicinal purposes, and as a recreational drug. Industrial hemp products are made from Cannabis plant.

Hashish is made from cannabinoid Before the 1980s, it was often speculated that cannabinoids produced their physiological and behavioral effects via nonspecific interaction with cell membranes, instead of interacting with specific membrane-bound receptors. The discovery of the first cannabinoid receptors in the 1980s helped to resolve this debate. These receptors are common in-rich glandular hairs known as trichomes Trichomes are fine outgrowths or appendages on plants and certain protists. These are of diverse structure and function. Examples are hairs, glandular hairs, scales, and papillae, 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 This article deals with the cultivation of the flowering plant cannabis primarily for the production and consumption of marijuana buds, which contain the main psychoactive ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol or THC. Cultivation techniques for other purposes such as the production of hemp vary dramatically. A basic description of hemp cultivation can specifically for their ability to produce large amounts of trichomes. The resin reservoirs of the trichomes, sometimes erroneously called pollen Pollen is a fine to coarse powder containing the microgametophytes of seed plants, which produce the male gametes . Pollen grains have a hard coat that protects the sperm cells during the process of their movement between the stamens to the pistil of flowering plants or from the male cone to the female cone of coniferous plants. When pollen lands (vendors often use the euphemism "pollen catchers" to describe screened kief Kief or keef refers to the loose, dried resin glands (or trichomes) of cannabis which may accumulate on containers, in grinders, or be removed with a kiefing screen or sieve. The term originates from the Egyptian dialect of Arabic, where the word can be translated as "being buzzed" or "liking to get high". It is sometimes-grinders), are separated from the plant through various methods. The resulting powder, often referred to as "kief Kief or keef refers to the loose, dried resin glands (or trichomes) of cannabis which may accumulate on containers, in grinders, or be removed with a kiefing screen or sieve. The term originates from the Egyptian dialect of Arabic, where the word can be translated as "being buzzed" or "liking to get high". It is sometimes", 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 A sieve, or sifter, separates wanted elements from unwanted material using a filter such as a mesh or net. However, in cooking, especially with flour, a sifter is used to aerate the substance, among other things. A strainer is a type of sieve typically used to separate a solid from a liquid. The word "sift" derives from sieve 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 A clothes washer, or washer, is a machine designed to wash laundry, such as clothing, towels and sheets. The term is mostly applied only to machines that use water as the primary cleaning solution, as opposed to dry cleaning or even ultrasonic cleaners. 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).[3] 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 A solvent is a liquid, solid, or gas that dissolves another solid, liquid, or gaseous solute, resulting in a solution that is soluble in a certain volume of solvent at a specified temperature. Common uses for organic solvents are in dry cleaning (e.g. tetrachloroethylene), as a paint thinner (e.g. toluene, turpentine), as nail polish removers and such as ethanol Ethanol, also called ethyl alcohol, pure alcohol, grain alcohol, or drinking alcohol, is a volatile, flammable, colorless liquid. It is a powerful psychoactive drug and one of the oldest recreational drugs. It is best known as the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages and thermometers. In common usage, it is often referred to simply as or hexane Hexane is a hydrocarbon with the chemical formula C6H14; that is, an alkane with six carbon atoms to dissolve the lipophilic Lipophilicity, , refers to the ability of a chemical compound to dissolve in fats, oils, lipids, and non-polar solvents such as hexane or toluene. These non-polar solvents are themselves lipophilic — the axiom that like dissolves like generally holds true. Thus lipophilic substances tend to dissolve in other lipophilic substances, while desirable resin. The remaining plant material is then filtered out of the solution and sent to the compost.[4] The solvent is then evaporated, leaving behind the desirable resins, called honey oil, "hash oil Hash oil is an evaporated solution of tetrahydrocannabinol and various other compounds produced by a solvent extraction of cannabis. Despite the similarity in names, it does not resemble hashish. It can be a very potent drug due to its high THC concentration, which generally varies between 15 and 20%, but can reach 60 to 70% in some cases.[", or just "oil". Honey oil still contains waxes Traditionally, wax is a substance secreted by bees and used in constructing their honeycombs. The term has come to refer more generally to a class of substances with properties similar to beeswax, enumerated below: and essential oils An essential oil is a concentrated, hydrophobic liquid containing volatile aroma compounds from plants. Essential oils are also known as volatile, ethereal oils or aetherolea, or simply as the "oil of" the plant from which they were extracted, such as oil of clove. An oil is "essential" in the sense that it carries a and can be further purified by vacuum distillation Vacuum distillation is a method of distillation whereby the pressure above the liquid mixture to be distilled is reduced to less than its vapor pressure causing evaporation of the most volatile liquid(s) (those with the lowest boiling points). This distillation method works on the principle that boiling occurs when the vapor pressure of a liquid to yield "red oil". The product of chemical separations is more commonly referred to as "honey oil".

Quality

Hashish

The main factors affecting quality are potency and purity.

Tiny pieces of leaf matter or even purposefully added adulterants Adulterants are chemical substances which should not be contained within other substances . Adulterants may be intentionally added to more expensive substances to increase visible quantities and reduce manufacturing costs, or for some other deceptive or malicious purpose. Adulterants may also be accidentally or unknowingly introduced into introduced when the hash is being produced will reduce the purity of the material. The tetrahydrocannabinol Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), also known as delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC), Δ1-THC (using an older chemical nomenclature), or dronabinol, is the main psychoactive substance found in the cannabis plant (THC) content of hashish comes in wide ranges from 15–70%, and that of hash oil from 30–90%.[5]

Fresh hashish of good quality is soft and pliable and becomes progressively harder and less potent as its THC content oxidizes to cannabinol Cannabinol is a psychoactive cannabinoid found in Cannabis sativa and Cannabis indica. It is also a metabolite of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). CBN acts as a weak agonist of the CB1 and CB2 receptors, with lower affinity in comparison to THC and as essential oils An essential oil is a concentrated, hydrophobic liquid containing volatile aroma compounds from plants. Essential oils are also known as volatile, ethereal oils or aetherolea, or simply as the "oil of" the plant from which they were extracted, such as oil of clove. An oil is "essential" in the sense that it carries a 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.

Vaporizer (left) with "whip" or long drawtube, and bong (right) A narrow, screened [6] one-hitter, such as the midwakh A midwakh also spelled Medwakh is a small pipe of Arabian origin, in which dokha, a sifted preparation of Iranian tobacco mixed with aromatic leaf and bark herbs, is smoked. The bowl of a midwakh pipe is typically smaller than that of a traditional western tobacco pipe, lending to conservation of smoking material. It is usually loaded by dipping (shown here), kiseru Kiseru is a Japanese smoking pipe traditionally used for smoking a very fine, shredded tobacco. The word kiseru comes from the Khmer word "ksher" 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 A vaporizer is a device used to extract for inhalation the active ingredients of plant material, commonly cannabis, tobacco or other herbs or blends . Vaporization is an alternative to burning smoking which avoids the production of irritating, toxic, and carcinogenic by-products by heating the material so its active compounds boil off into a vapor.

Vaporization

Used with hashish as with any cannabis, tobacco or other herb material, a vaporizer A vaporizer is a device used to extract for inhalation the active ingredients of plant material, commonly cannabis, tobacco or other herbs or blends . Vaporization is an alternative to burning smoking which avoids the production of irritating, toxic, and carcinogenic by-products by heating the material so its active compounds boil off into a vapor can volatize cannabinoids at temperatures as low as 140 °C, protecting against loss of this ingredient which occurs in burning, and eliminating carbon monoxide and other toxic combustion gases. Since hashish is solid, its surface area may be enlarged by slicing off tiny pieces with a sharp knife or breaking into small crumbs to achieve maximum cannabinoid vaporization.

Pipe

Hashish may be smoked through a narrow pipe[7], with a #40 metal screen to prevent drawing in small particles to clog the inner channel, and a long flexible draw-tube, such as those provided on hookahs, attached to the exit end in order to give the vapors extra distance to travel, cooling, before inhalation. A hookah or bong is designed to provide water filtration for cooling.

Vaporizing with a one-hitter

Main article: One hitter (smoking)

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

Incense

Hashish can be 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[8] may be burned alongside in a pipe 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 combustion point, 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.[9]

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

References

  1. ^ http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Smoking_Cessation#Herbal_alternatives
  2. ^ Shafer, Raymond P. et al. Marihuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding, Ch III. Washington DC: National Committee on Marijuana and Drug Abuse. http://drugwarfacts.org/cms/?q=node/53
  3. ^ http://bubblebags-bubblebag.com/
  4. ^ Hashish
  5. ^ Inciardi, James A. (1992). The War on Drugs II. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company. p. 19. ISBN 1559340169.
  6. ^ http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-1/4%22-diam.-Screen-for-a-Single-Toke-Utensil
  7. ^ http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Smoke-Pipes-From-Everyday-Objects
  8. ^ http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Smoking_cessation#Herbal_alternatives
  9. ^ http://thedude.com/images/thule_hash_under_glass.jpg

Further reading

External links

Look up hashish in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Further history

Cannabis
General

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Other topics

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On April 10, Clearwater Central Interior Traffic Services seized 450 grams of . hashish. during a traffic stop. The stop was as a result of an complaint about an impaired driver traveling south on highway five.

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