Hashish and THC Concentrates

Hashish, also known as "hash," is a concentrated form of cannabis made by collecting and compressing the sticky, resinous trichomes (tiny hair-like growths) from cannabis plants. Unlike regular marijuana flower, hashish and other THC concentrates are processed to extract and concentrate the plant's most potent compounds, resulting in products that are far more powerful than traditional cannabis.

In America, nearly 62 million people are using some form of cannabis each year, whether flower, hashish, concentrate, or edible product. Eight percent of adults aged 35 to 50 and ten percent of adults aged 19 to 30 use the drug every day.

At this time, nearly 19 million of these people suffer from cannabis addiction. This number, while smaller than the 28.9 million people suffering from alcohol addiction, represents a very real danger. It's clear that marijuana is not harmless, and for those who are addicted, it can present real problems for personal development and health.

The Concentrate Market Keeps Growing in Diversity and Availability

Hashish is a concentrated cannabis product. A few decades ago, hashish and hash oil were the only types of concentrates on the illicit market. Hash was mostly sold as sticky, brown chunks or balls of cannabis resin. At that time, the hashish sold in America and most of the rest of the world came from Morocco. Afghanistan and Lebanon were also major sources of hashish being trafficked internationally.

In the twenty-first century, however, the concentrate market has vastly expanded beyond traditional hashish. If you live in one of the 39 U.S. states where cannabis sales are legal, these concentrates may be available right down the street from you.

This new and expanding market offers dozens of different types of cannabis concentrates sold in medical dispensaries, retail stores, or online businesses. These variations include traditional hashish, oils, sticky waxes, powdery material, and much more.

Today’s Hashish and Concentrates: Powerful and Addictive

These concentrated cannabis products contain between 30% and 99% THC (delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol). THC is the primary intoxicant that a person who wants to get high is looking for. Some types of concentrates you may have heard of are butane hash oil (also called butane honey oil), shatter, wax, dabs, and crumble. Each product is processed differently and therefore has a unique appearance.

Cannabis users seek out these more potent products as they produce a faster, more powerful high. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, these potent concentrates are associated with a higher risk of becoming addicted.

Hashish Concentrate Manufacture: Historical and Modern Methods

For many centuries, traditional hashish was the only concentrate in widespread use and was processed by hand. In the last few decades, the cannabis industry has become far more commercialized, sophisticated, and mechanized. Huge industrial mixers, heating devices, and solvents are now used to manufacture various types of concentrates.

The intoxicating THC in the cannabis plant is concentrated in the resins in the trichomes—fine, hairline growths on flowers. The hashish manufacturing process focuses on collecting this resinous material and turning it into solids, oils, waxy masses, or glass-like material.

Here are several of the most common methods of processing hashish products:

Original Manual Processing: Originally, hashish was made by straining dried cannabis through a series of fine screens. The trichomes detach from the flowers and pass through the screens. After multiple passes through these screens, a powdery substance called kief accumulates and is pressed into blocks or bricks. Alternatively, the sticky resins were collected on workers’ hands as they rubbed the flowers of the plants. The resin was then rolled into balls of hashish.

Ice Water Extraction: Bubble hash can be made in volume using ice-water baths that cause the resinous trichomes to become brittle. Large agitation tanks stir cannabis flowers in the ice water. The resulting solution is run through a series of fine filters. The solids from this process are then dried.

Heat and Pressure: Cannabis is placed in a filter bag, which is then pressed between two heated plates. The heat and pressure extract the resins, which are collected into a product called rosin.

Solvent Extraction: Butane is used as a solvent to separate the resins from the plant. Cannabis material is placed in a tube, and butane is then passed through the tube. The resulting liquid is filtered to remove plant matter. The butane is separated from the resin through heat or vacuum purging. The sticky material that remains is manipulated into various textures that may be oily, gummy, or glass-like. Therefore, the results are typically called butane hash oil, shatter, wax, crumble, or other names.

This method is controversial because of the possibility that traces of butane may remain in the final product. There is also an incredible risk of fire or explosion when using butane.

Carbon Dioxide Extraction: In this process, CO2 is pressurized and heated until it has the quality of a liquid. This CO2 is pumped through cannabis that is similar to that used for butane hash oil production. The result may be called CO2 hash oil or CO2 wax.

Types of Hashish and Other Concentrates and Their Potencies

• Bubble hash: A crumbly, powdery mass that is as much as 60% THC.
• BHO/butane hash oil/butane honey oil: Glass-like, waxy or oily substances that are up to 90% THC.
• Charas: Hand-rubbed products resulting in sticky, dark resinous masses. Between 10% and 30% THC.
• CO2 oil: Thick golden oil that can be 60% to 85% THC.
• Crumble: A dry, crumbly form of butane hash oil that can be 80% to 90% THC.
• Distillate: A very highly refined product that is 90% to 99% THC. It is a clear or golden, thick, oily liquid.
• Dry ice hash: Dry ice is used to separate trichomes from plant material. The final product is a powdery material that is typically 30% to 60% THC.
• Full melt hash: A fine, sandy product that melts to a liquid. The process does not require a solvent. It is 60% to 80% THC.
• Hashtabs: Tablets or pills made from hashish concentrates, intended for swallowing. They typically contain 25 mg of THC.
• Kief: Powdery material that has not been pressed into hash. It runs from 50% to 70% THC or higher.
• Live hash: This product is made from fresh-frozen cannabis and is sticky, oily, or saucy. Potency runs between 60% and 80%. Some premium products may have higher potency.
• Propane hash oil: Similar to BHO, but the process uses propane. The result can contain terpenes, cannabis components that give the plants their distinctive smells and tastes.
• Resin or live resin: Solvent-processed resin that ends up sticky, oily, or saucy. It’s 60% to 90% THC.
• Rosin: A solvent-free process that uses heat and pressure to squeeze out an oily or waxy mass that is 50% to 85% THC. However, some rosin can end up buttery or even glass-like, depending on the final stages of processing.
• Sauce/Terp sauce: A syrupy liquid with crystalline bits. This product contains not only THC but also terpenes. It averages 60% to 90% THC.
• Shatter: A glass-like product resulting from the BHO process. It’s 70% to 90% THC.
• Snap-and-pull: This BHO product is turned into a taffy-like product. It’s also 70% to 90% THC.
• Wax/Budder/Butter: A creamy, buttery, whipped BHO concentrate that is 70% to 90% THC.

Signs and Symptoms of Hashish Use

As with all drugs, there are certain effects that hashish users are seeking, but these come with significant risks, including addiction and serious side effects. While hashish users may initially experience short-lived effects like euphoria, sedation, relaxation, or temporary relief from pain or anxiety, these effects are fleeting and often lead to a cycle of repeated use and eventual dependence.

The reality is that hashish use comes with a long list of harmful side effects that are also signs of use. These negative effects include:

• Drowsiness
• Loss of an accurate sense of time
• Reduction of short-term memory
• Loss of ability to concentrate and complete tasks
• Lowered coordination
• Impaired ability to carry out complex tasks such as driving due to distortions in time and space perceptions
• Reduced comprehension and ability to learn
• Lowered inhibitions
• Impaired judgment
• Lowered ability to listen accurately and think clearly
• Slow speech
• Lowered motivation

When looking for physical signs of hashish use, you would look for bloodshot eyes, lethargy, slowed speech, dry mouth, cannabis odor on the body and clothes, and increased cravings for snacks or drinks.

When a person takes too much hashish, they can experience aggression, anxiety, confusion, panic, immobility, heavy sedation, and even psychotic episodes. Chronic, heavy users may suffer from paranoia, hallucinations, and psychosis.

How Hashish Is Consumed

Most types of hashish are smoked or vaporized. Traditional types of hashish (like kief, bubble hash, or charas) are often smoked by themselves or mixed with cannabis flower in joints, spliffs (cannabis cigarette that includes tobacco), blunts (a tobacco-wrapped mix of crumbled hash with cannabis flower), simple or fancy glass pipes, or bongs.

Newer concentrates such as rosin, BHO, shatter, wax, and live resin are commonly vaporized or "dabbed" using specialized equipment or vaping devices.

To be ingested, hashish must be specially prepared to release the psychoactive effects of the drug. Hashish can also be added to edibles or sold as hashtabs.

The Harmful Results of Using Hashish and Concentrates

Lowered motivation is one of the most defining characteristics of cannabis or hashish use. When young people abuse hashish, they often abandon their prior interests, such as hobbies or educational and career goals, in favor of the dreamy relaxation of hash intoxication.

Hashish and cannabis concentrates can make it difficult to learn and solve problems, and the alteration of time and space perceptions can impair a person’s ability to be successful at sports. As a result, a young person who was an athlete or scholar before hashish use may drop out of his sports or academic activities. Their grades may drop markedly as well.

Withdrawal Symptoms for Hashish and Concentrates

While some people think of cannabis products as harmless, they can in fact be addictive. If a person tries to quit using hashish, they are likely to experience these withdrawal symptoms:

• Disturbed sleep
• Hyperactivity
• Reduced appetite
• Depression
• Fatigue
• Irritability
• Aggression
• Stomach problems and pain
• Sweating and shakes
• Tremors

Cravings for more cannabis and a person’s mental and emotional dependence on the drug can make it very hard for them to stop consuming hashish when they want to.

Helping Someone You Care About Recover from Hashish Addiction

The first step in helping a person recover from hashish addiction is getting them the support and guidance they need. This is best provided in the safe environment of a residential drug rehab. Once they enter the drug rehab, they are removed from drug-using contacts and places where they used drugs. Instead, they have the support of dedicated drug rehab staff who can encourage their recovery and help them learn new sober living skills.

The Narconon drug and alcohol rehabilitation program has helped tens of thousands of people recover from addiction to cannabis products, alcohol, heroin, and other drugs.

Over its 60-year history, the Narconon program has expanded to a worldwide network of 30 residential rehab centers in 16 countries.

How Is Narconon Different from Other Drug Rehabs?

Many drug rehabs employ medications as part of their programs, either to treat withdrawal symptoms or to treat the mental consequences of drug abuse. There are no medications used as part of the Narconon program. Nor are any pharmaceutical drugs offered as substitutes for the drug a person was using. It is also not a Twelve-Step program.

At Narconon, no one will be told that they “will always be an addict” or that addiction is an incurable, chronic disease. The Narconon program focuses on enabling a person to become drug-free and make positive, sober choices. A sixty-year record of success has proven that Narconon can provide a path to lasting sobriety.

Help Someone You Care About Take Their First Step Toward Sobriety

If you care about someone who is ruining their life with hashish or cannabis concentrates, take action now. Learn how the Narconon drug rehab program can provide them with a brighter outlook, relief from cravings, and the life skills they need for lasting sobriety.

Addiction to hashish or cannabis concentrates is not an incurable problem. Call Narconon today for a confidential conversation.

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