Hashish (Arabic language:) (usually abbreviated as hash) () or cannabis resin also charas is a product for consumption made using resin from the trichomes primarily from flowers, though also stalks and leaves of Cannabis, which is dried (a concentrate). As a psychoactive substance, it is consumed plain or mixed with tobacco. It has a long history of use in countries such as Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, Nepal and Egypt.
Hashish consumption is also popular in Europe. In the United States, dried flowers or concentrates are more popular, and hash has seen a relative decrease in popularity following changes in laws that have indirectly allowed for the development and increased availability of cannabis extracts that are more potent than traditional hashish, although regional differences in product preferences exist.
Hashish is a cannabis concentrate product composed of compressed or purified preparations of stalked resin glands, called trichomes, from the plant. It is defined by the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs (Schedule I and IV) as "the separated resin, whether crude or purified, obtained from the cannabis plant". The resin contains ingredients such as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and other cannabinoids—but often in higher concentrations than the unsifted or unprocessed cannabis flower.Russo, Ethan. Cannabis and Cannabinoids: Pharmacology, Toxicology, and Therapeutic Potential, p. 34 (Routledge 2013). Purities of confiscated hashish in Europe (2011) range between 3% and 15%. Between 2000 and 2005, the percentage of hashish in cannabis end product seizures was at 18%. European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, Lisbon, The consistency and appearance of hashish is highly dependent on the process used and the amount of leftover plant material (e.g. chlorophyll). It is typically solid, though its consistency ranges from brittle to malleable. It is most commonly light or dark brown in color, though may appear transparent, yellow, black, or red.
Etymology "Hashish" usage in the English language developed from the transliteration words ḥašīš or ḥashīsh (Arabic language:), which meant dried grass, hemp, dry herbage; dry pasture, or fodder, or from حش ḥašša, which meant dried, dried up, or to mow.
There is no indication of "hashish" or any similar word in known Arabic language literature from the 9th or 10th centuries or earlier. An early indication of the word "hashish" is an epistle of the tenth Fatimid caliph al-Āmir bi-Aḥkām Allāh circa 1123 CE stating "ḥashīshiyya" (a transliteration) as a contradiction of Ismāʿīlī, using the suffix -iyya which is a way to make abstraction from a noun.
Oxford English Dictionary online states the (their) first evidence for the word "hashish" is 1598 in a translation of book one volume two of The Voyage of John Huyghen Van Linschoten to the East Indies by Jan Huygen van Linschoten. In fact, the word is not found either in the original of 1596 or the 1598 translation, instead exists as an annotation in a 1885 edition edited by P.A. Thiele.
Like many recreational drugs, multiple synonyms and alternative names for hashish exist, and vary greatly depending on the country and native language.
Usage history
Hashish has been consumed for many centuries, though there is no clear evidence as to its first appearance. North India and Nepal have a long social tradition in the production of hashish, known locally as charas.Usaybia, Abu; Notes on Uyunu al-Anba fi Tabaquat al-Atibba, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1965. The earliest known (from studies of 2019) evidence of cannabis pollen in the archaeological record is from Japan circa 10,000 BCE.
Hemp is presumed known from the earliest time in the milieu of Islamic medicine. Ibn Taymiyyah (died 1328) thought hashish should be prohibited. Smoking did not become common in the Old World until after the introduction of tobacco; until the 1500s, hashish was consumed as an edible in the Muslim world.
Hashish arrived in Europe from the East during the 18th century. The Napoleonic campaigns introduced French troops to hashish in Egypt and the first description of its useful stems was in 1830 by pharmacist and botanist Theodor Friedrich Ludwig Nees von Esenbeck. In 1840, Louis Aubert-Roche reported his successful use of hashish against pestilence and typhoid. Also, psychiatric experiments with hashish were done at the same time with Jacques-Joseph Moreau being convinced that it is the supreme medicament for use in psychiatry.
In the 19th century, hashish was embraced in some European literary circles. Most famously, the Club des Hashischins was a Parisian club dedicated to the consumption of hashish and other drugs; its members included writers Théophile Gautier, Dr. Moreau de Tours, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Charles Baudelaire and Honoré de Balzac.Levinthal, C. F. (2012). Drugs, behavior, and modern society. (6th ed.). Boston: Pearson College Div. Baudelaire later wrote the 1860 book Les paradis artificiels about the state of being under the influence of opium and hashish. Around the same time, American author Fitz Hugh Ludlow wrote the 1857 book The Hasheesh Eater about his youthful experiences, both positive and negative, with the drug.
Hashish was used as an anesthetic in Germany in 1869. It was imported in great quantities, especially from India where it is known as charas. Not everyone at the time viewed cannabis as harmless, in fact,as between 1880 and 1900 the peak years of medicinal use where hashish compounds were found almost all over Europe and North America were taking place. Evidence of misuse at that time was practically non-existent (as opposed to widespread reports in Asia and Africa). Hashish played a significant role in the treatment of pain, migraine, dysmenorrhea, pertussis, asthma and insomnia in Europe and USA towards the end of the 19th century. Rare applications included stomach ache, depression, diarrhea, diminished appetite, pruritus, hemorrhage, Basedow syndrome and malaria. The use was later prohibited worldwide as the use as a medicine was made impossible by the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the majority of hashish in Europe came from Kashmir and other parts of India, Afghanistan, as well as Greece, Syria, Nepal, Lebanon, and Turkey. Larger markets developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s when most of the hashish was imported from Pakistan and Afghanistan. In Greece, Hashish was prevalent in the early decades of the 20th century, and although locally produced for hundreds of years prior, it reached its peak with the coming of two and a half million Greek refugees, expelled from Turkey following the disastrous 1919-21 war. Many of these refugees had habitually smoked hashish in Turkey, using waterpipes, (hookas) called "arghilethes", and due to extreme poverty upon arriving in Greece, and living in overcrowded and poor refugee communities, many hashish dens, called "tekethes", sprung up in Greece's larger cities, the port city of Piraeus, and the northern city of Thessaloniki (where many refugees lived). This gave rise to a substantial urban underclass and sub culture of hashish smokers called "hasiklithes", and a musical genre "rembetika" (oriental sounding), "urban blues" played on the bouzouki, tzoura, and oriental instruments such as the baglama, outi (oud) and kanonaki (kanun) that spoke of life as a hashish user in the "tekethes", as well as about life as refugees, society's unfairness, lack of financial opportunities, prejudice against the refugees, and the deceit of lovers and others in the community. The "tekethes" were closed down in the 1930s by the Greek police and the "rembetes" were jailed and ostracized. In succeeding decades, there was a strong resurgence in Greece of "rembetika" music with the songs of the rembetes and hasiklithes being continually performed publicly by many including the younger generation, as a form of cultural heritage, and have gained respectability and popularity for their frank expressions of that period, and Greek society in general.
Production 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 Trail, only small pieces of Lebanese hashish were found in Morocco.
However, since the 2000s, there has been a dramatic shift in the market due to an increase of homegrown cannabis production. While Morocco held a quasi-monopoly on hashish in the 1990s with the so-called "soap bar" blocks, which were of low quality, Afghanistan is now regarded as the biggest producer of higher quality hashish. Since then, hashish quality in Europe has increased while its prices have remained stable, with the exception of during the COVID-19 pandemic, where the cannabis street prices surged due to various national lockdowns.
Morocco has been the major hashish producer globally with €10.8 billion earned from Moroccan resin in 2004, but some so-called "Moroccan" may actually be European-made. The income for the farmers was around €325 million in 2005. While the overall number of plants and areas shrank in size, the introduction of more potent hybrid plants produced a high resin rate. The amount of resin produced is estimated to range between 3,800 and 9,500 tonnes in 2005.
The largest producer today is Afghanistan, however studies suggest there is a "hashish revival" in Morocco.
Hashish remains in high demand in most of the world while quality continues to increase, due to many Moroccan and western farmers in Morocco and other hash producing countries using more advanced cultivation methods as well as cultivating further developed cannabis strains which increases yields greatly, as well as improving resin quality with higher ratios of psychoactive ingredients (THC). A tastier, smoother and more aromatic terpenes and flavonoids profile is seen as an indicator of a significant rise in hashish quality in more recent years. Hashish production in Spain has also become more popular and is on the rise, however the demand for relatively cheap and high-quality Moroccan hash is still extremely high.
Changes to regulations around the world have contributed greatly to more and more countries becoming legitimate hashish producing regions, with countries like Spain effecting more lenient laws on cannabis products such as hashish. Washington State followed by Colorado started regulating cultivation, manufacturing and distribution of cannabis and cannabis derived products such as hashish in the United States, followed by many other places in the US (such as Humboldt, California) and around the world.
European market
According to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), Western Europe is the biggest market for cannabis resin with 70% of global seizures. However, the European hashish market is changing. Cannabis cultivation increased throughout the 1990s until 2004, with a noticeable decrease reported in 2005 according to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction. Historically, Morocco has been the major source for hashish. Lately, however, there has been a shift in the market, and Afghanistan has been named the major producer of hashish.
As 641 tonnes of hashish were consumed in the EU in 2013, the European market is currently the world's largest and most profitable. Therefore, many players are involved in the business, including organised crime groups. The largest cannabis resin seizures in Europe happen in Portugal, due to its proximity to Northern Africa.