Hashish

Hashish, or hash, is an extracted product composed of compressed or purified preparations of stalked resin glands, called trichomes, from the cannabis plant. It contains the same active ingredients as marijuana—such as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and other cannabinoids—but often in higher concentrations than the unsifted buds or leaves from which marijuana is made.

Hashish may be solid or resinous depending on the preparation; pressed hashish is usually solid, whereas water-purified hashish—often 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 solvent left over.

History

The name hashish comes from the Arabic word ( حشيش ) which means grass. It is believed that massive hashish production for international trade originated in Morocco 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. 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."