Introduction
Marijuana and hash or hashish vary in potency and quality. Hash is generally more potent than marijuana. This is because most of the cannabinoids are concentrated in the trichomes from which the hashish is obtained. In other words, you will consume a product with more THC or CBD content. Many users want to know the difference between hash and marijuana, how to make hash oil or why hash is more potent than marijuana. This article explains their differences and their elaboration methods.
Hashish constitutes a paste formed by the resinous secretions of THC (or other cannabinoids) that are stored in the female marijuana flowers.
On the other hand, what we know as marijuana, cannabis, weed, grass among many other names, it’s actually dry cannabis buds. The buds can be ground to smoke it in joints or just smoke it directly in pipes. In addition, cannabis or hash oils are obtained from these cannabis buds generally by adding a solvent to extract the cannabinoids from the plant material.
Cannabis plant and its uses
Some people say there are two magic substances that are a gift for humanity: aspirin, also known as acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) and cannabis or marijuana. For years, humanity has neglected the positive and medical properties of cannabis. Moreover, authorities have classified cannabis as a “recreational drug”, trivializing it and even despising it as a gateway drug, which is an unscientific and pious assumption.
The Spanish philosopher Antonio Escohotado wrote a book called “General History of Drugs”. After this encyclopedic masterpiece, he wrote a book entitled “Learning from Drugs”. And this is the big issue that is of utmost importance. Drugs are not bad by themselves, but the misuse we do of them is what it’s harmful. In other words, substances or drugs are an intrinsic part of humanity and have been fundamental both in medical development and in many occasions in spiritual development. For instance, the opioid crisis in the US was caused by an excessive prescription of opioids. However, opioids have been essential and very important in the development of medicines and medicine, this is something we shouldn’t omit.
Recently we have learned more about the medical uses of THC and CBD and many other cannabinoids. The CBD is being widely investigated by the scientific community due to its important properties in the treatment of many diseases, among which we can include anxiety, epilepsy, and as an anti-inflammatory. For instance, many people are using CBD to treat inflammation, including many athletes. Furthermore, THC is also used for many medicines, especially because of its pain-relief properties.
What’s Hash or Hashish?
Hashish is obtained from cannabis trichomes. The trichomes are separated from the plant (the buds), collected, and then compressed.
Hash comes in different qualities and there are many methods to separate the trichomes from the buds.
Traditionally, there are two methods to obtain hash: an Asian method used in countries or regions such as Nepal, Tibet, and Afghanistan, and another method used in Lebanon or Morocco.
The Oriental Method
In the oriental procedure, the collector covers part of the body with leather and they pass through the mature plants, rubbing with them. What remains attached to the leather is scraped with spatulas; It is so rubbery that it is possible to shape it in the palm of the hand it acquires a very dark color. The hashish obtained by this procedure is very aromatic, gentle to the throat, and of unmatched potency.
The Mediterranean Method
The other method, commonly used in Mediterranean countries, is based on shaking the dried cannabis plants, to subsequently collect the resin and dust by using several filters.
The first filter usually consists of a fine metal grid that allows big plant fragments to pass through it. Underneath, there’s another filter made of coarse fabric that sieves it again. If the procedure is well done, under that filter there will be another one, made of silk, through which only the pure resin particles can pass.
In Morocco, it was common and it’s still common to add other plant materials to increase weight. This plant is commonly known as henna and it’s often mixed with other products such as gum arabic also known as acacia gum, condensed milk, and even egg yolks.
New Methods
Nowadays, both filtering and dry ice are common methods to separate the trichomes from the buds. Perhaps, filtering is still the best method to obtain the purest and highest concentration of kief (trichomes). Using dry ice is a common method, but the hash obtained with this method has some plant material and, thus, the result is a hash with a greenish color.
What’s hash oil or cannabis oil?
So, we know what hash is and how it’s made. Hash or hashish is usually smoked either in pipes or as joints mixed with some tobacco or with marijuana. However, hash or/and cannabis oil could also be vaporized with a vape pen or any other type of vaping device. We explained in a previous post how to make hash oil.
Basically, cannabis oil is made by extracting the trichomes from the buds. For this process, generally, a solvent is used such as ethanol or butane. Hash oils have a higher concentration of cannabinoids than cannabis buds (similar to hashish vs marijuana). Nonetheless, the potency of cannabis oils, hash or cannabis buds depends on the strain. For instance, some strains have very low THC content while some others have very low CBD content. In other words, it depends on the quality and the effect we want to get from it.
Both hash and hash oils can be vaped. However, how to make hash oil is a different process than making hash. Both are cannabis byproducts with higher cannabinoid content than cannabis buds.
Conclusion
We have explained the process to obtain hash, both traditional (Oriental and Mediterranean methods) and new methods (filtering and dry ice). Hash has a higher concentration of cannabinoids than dry cannabis buds. Moreover, hash is often smoked but it can also be vaporized.
Many people wonder how to make cannabis or hash oil. For this process, it’s common to use a solvent such as butane or ethanol. The process is a bit more complicated, but it still contains the resins and terpenes.
There are other methods to obtain higher concentrations of THC or CBD, but these methods don’t contain terpenes. We usually tend to forget the importance of terpenes in cannabis perhaps because we still don’t know to what extent the terpenes have an effect on our bodies.
Originally published at https://www.getispire.com on November 6, 2019.
