What is Hash Drug: 4 Key Facts to Know

Do you know what is hash drug¹? Hash is the potent version of cannabis which is generally produced by compressing the part called trichomes – the major active ingredient from cannabis plants. Trichomes are the very fine-grown growths on the cannabis plants that usually produce brown and orange resin which are sticky in nature. 

In this article, you will learn many things about drug abuse, its side effects and treatments. Without wasting any more words, let us dive right into it.

What is Hash Drug

The hash drug is a king of cannabis plant products, produced from the resin-enriched parts of the Cannabis Sativa plant and marijuana plant. All the marijuana derivatives are obtained and extracted from the cannabis plants. Although many people believe that hash and marijuana are identical. This is not true. There is a very minute difference between hash and marijuana².

Cannabis plants are used to develop other drugs, which are used for various purposes including increased appetite. The active ingredient of cannabis Indica is the concentration for drug use. The potent form of cannabis resin is also used for medical purposes in fatty tissues. Cannabis products also have psychoactive properties and are safe for oral ingestion too.

If both marijuana and hash are used in limited amounts and that too under expert advice then they will give better benefits. But on the other hand, if they are taken continuously without and prescription then they act as distorted perceptions and in extreme cases can even damage the human brain.

Contentious use can make a person physical dependence on a particular drug. The National Institute and American Addiction Centers set a limited range of using marijuana and hash drugs. 

1. Difference between Marijuana and Hash

According to the American Addiction Centers, also known as the drug enforcement administration advice and give suggestions to people that hash is the much more potent form of cannabis. Hash contains medicinal properties according to medical reviewers. Also, it is proven that hash contains a much higher level of THC as compared to the other derivates. 

Hash use has also shown significant psychological effects, and can also affect the motor coordination system of the individual. It also gets rapidly metabolized in young adults.

Hash usually originates and is cultivated in the middle east, some parts of Afghanistan, North Africa, and in Pakistan. The other form of hash includes the bubble and concentrated hash. Along with the medicinally active ingredients, it also has other substances which are not at all good for health.

Marijuana is widely distributed, but the main source of marijuana comes from South America, Mexico, and the united nation. Data rates and messages reveal that a very large amount of marijuana comes from different areas of the United States.

Marijuana is usually comprised of flowers, leaves, and steam. All these parts have further proceeded into various products. It has a lesser amount of concentration than hash and can be consumed in many forms. Marijuana is commonly referred for smoking and hash is used as a drug.

2. How Hash Drug is Made

There is a particular method or procedure designed by the expert for making hash products.

• The first step is to harvest the hash from the farm and the place where the plants are cultivated by hand or either by machines.
• Then the hash active ingredient is isolated by mechanically beating the plants or by putting the plant in water or submerging the plant in the ice water.
• After a few hours remove the extract using the sieve, this is used to remove the trichomes.
• The extract is now dried in the sunlight for a few hours, this type of hash which is dried and then converted into the products is referred to as bubble hash.
• The remaining material is then pressed into the cakes. These cakes can be ingested orally or smoked using pipes.

Hash for some purpose can also be used in cooking but in particular the content. Hash is soluble in solvents including oils and brownies.

3. Side Effects of Hash Drug

According to the American Psychiatric Association, hash drugs have certain side effects.³ Marijuana and hash is having the almost same type of side effects as they both have similar types of effects on the human brain and body.

These side effects include.

• Mood changes

• Memory lapses

• Increase in appetite

• Imbalance in brain and body coordination.

• Hallucination

• Breathing issues in several cases

• Regulation in heartbeat interrupted

Besides this, at the time of withdrawal, the patient will have to face some serious health issues. They may go through serious withdrawal symptoms⁴, which are often labelled according to risk factors. At first, the patient might go through some serious mental issues, which can trigger mood, and even become a danger for people around them. 

These symptoms can go worse as time passes. So considering all the possibilities, one must stop drug abuse, and use it only when prescribed by a doctor. 

4. Treatment for Hash Drug Abuse

Although hash is used in many drugs and has many advantages it has many side effects.

The treatment for hash drug abuse is at the rehab centre. Apart from this addiction-focused evidence-based care is given to the patient. Several medicines are also provided to the patient to decrease the withdrawal system.

Final Note

Hash is used in many drugs because of its medicinal value but apart from all the advantages one major side effect or disadvantage of hash products is addiction, that is why it is always advisable to use products only when prescribed by doctors only.

1. Benjamin, Walter. On hashish. Harvard University Press, 2006. ↩︎
2. Malabadi, Ravindra B., et al. “Cannabis sativa: Difference between Medical Cannabis (Marijuana or drug type) and Industrial hemp.” GSC Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences 24.3 (2023): 377-381. ↩︎
3. Tennant, Forest S., and C. Jess Groesbeck. “Psychiatric effects of hashish.” Archives of general psychiatry 27.1 (1972): 133-136. ↩︎
4. Stefanis, Costas, et al. “Experimental observations of a 3‐day hashish abstinence period and reintroduction of use.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 282.1 (1976): 113-120. ↩︎

Last Updated on January 26, 2024 by Muskan Mishra