Hashish, Pollen & Oil


What is Hashish?

Harder types of resin - mostly from Morocco and Lebanon are made by sifting mature cannabis flowers through a series of sieves until only a resinous powder remains. This powder is compressed and heated to allow the resins to melt and stick together forming blocks. The resin is then compressed into blocks and sealed with cellophane or cloth. The result is a hard, brittle hash, usually light yellow to brown and sometimes even reddish brown. Generally, the really hard and yellow stuff which is cerebral is old Lebanese on the whole, and the slightly darker brown hash is usually Moroccan. Apparently, new Lebanese is often also malleable.

The method used in Southern Asia involves rubbing the living flowers of the cannabis plants with hands, a leather apron or other implements. The aim is to get the soft and sticky resins to stick to a surface which can be taken somewhere to be processed and collated. These are then scraped off the skin or leather and rolled into lumps of various sizes and compressed into blocks. The color is usually dark-brown to black on the surface and lighter on the interior - air contact makes this hash go darker in color. The consistency is normally soft and a lump can usually be moulded into various shapes or sausages.

Usually, the potency of seized hash varies from under 1% THC to 26% THC. Typically the strength is 3% to 8% THC, with the rest being vegetable matter. Remember that THC is not the only drug in cannabis - there are various others such as CBD and CBN which all add to the effect.

Moroccan BlondCultivation: Cannabis is cultivated in the Northern regions, especially in the province of Ketama. In 1992 Morocco cultivated at least 30'000 acres of Cannabis. This produces about 15'000 tons of Hashish, which are exported to Europe (especially Spain, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Switzerland and Italy).


Smell: Lightly aromatic, not spicy.

Taste: Compared to other kinds of Hash the taste is very mild. Personally speaking the taste of Morocco is one of my favorites, it's very soft on the throat (especially in good varieties like Pollen or Zero-Zero) and reminds of Weed.

Consistency: Quite variable, however generally quite hard. Usually Morocco is sold in 0,5 - 1,5cm thick slabs. Pollen is less pressed than normal Morocco, ZeroZero is very soft, almost like Afghani.


Potency: Light to medium, only rarely potent. Even very good Morocco can't be called particularly strong. (0.9%-10% THC)



NOTE: Botanically speaking the definition Pollen is completely wrong. Of course the Hash is produced from Female resin glands and not from male pollens (which contain virtually no THC).

Various: Even though the locals will offer you hash at very, very good prices, be very careful. Don't tell them where you're staying, don't let the hotel staff catch you with a spliff. Paranoia is a useful tool when it saves you from a five year prison sentence!!!

Cultivation: Moroccan hash oil is made from unpressed resin.

Production(Self instruction): Use the smallest alcohol molecule, methanol, to perform a cold solvent extraction. The resin needs only to be soaked for an hour or two with a stir or three; wash the resin three times with at least a 4:1 ratio of methanol to resin, condensing the methanol driven off by heat from the filtered mixture each time.

Boil down to a 1:1 ratio and after the third wash set fire to it, immediately give this a final methanol wash, fire it again; the flames will subside on their own, if your resin was pure, and your filter papers were fine, and then it will bubble up to the top of your pressure cooker; it is now super-hot (close all the windows) will cool slowly but needs to be poured to easily separate the crust which can be recycled.

Big warnings: methanol will rot your brain and send you blind if you regularly inhale (luckily good hash oil contains none) and methanol fires are deceptively fierce, you need good practical chemistry lab habits. Incidentally, the washed residue looks exactly like hash still, but will not get you stoned at all (guess what happens to that!)

Color: Dark brown as unwarmed solid, yellow and brown on rizla paper.

Smell: Very little, slightly toasted; if it smells strongly of anything, just say no.

Taste: Slightly acrid, not pleasant unless disguised.

Consistency: When frozen will shatter; at room temperature is solid but sticky; will drip from spatula when heated gently, quickly solidifies to sticky solid again.

Effect: Same as the hash you made it from, but will not deteriorate as quickly with time.

Potency: Again, same as the resin you used, though the oil is clearly more concentrated so less equivalent oil is needed than the original hash.

Availability: there's always resin in Morocco, but users need to love it to handle it with total success. This is the combustible that will be used in medical inhalers because it contains at least 75% less vegetable matter.

Self-Hemployed Social Stream