Pubdate: Thu, 11 Mar 2010
Source: Sacramento News & Review (CA)
Copyright: 2010 Chico Community Publishing, Inc.
Contact:  http://newsreview.com/sacto/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/540
Author: Skip Jones
Note: Skip Jones has been an underground cannabis cultivator for 26 
years; for obvious reasons, he writes under a pseudonym.
Photo: You'll find quality hashish at most of Sacramento's 
medical-marijuana collectives. Prices range from $20 to $40 per gram. 
[Photo Courtesy of U.S. DEA] http://www.mapinc.org/images/hashish.jpg
Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/topic/hashish
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?253 (Cannabis - Medicinal - U.S.)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)

FELONIOUS CHUNK

Possession of Hashish Is Legal for State's Medical-Marijuana 
Patients, Not That Law Enforcement Seems to Know

American puffers have always had to deal with the fact that 
law-enforcement officials traditionally make a distinction between 
marijuana in plant form and concentrated derivatives such as hash and 
kief. Now that California has legalized marijuana for medicinal use, 
that distinction continues to send innocent patients to jail for 
possession of hash and other concentrates, despite the fact that they 
are clearly authorized by Proposition 215, according to former state 
Attorney General Bill Lockyer.

"Concentrated cannabis or hashish is included within the meaning of 
'marijuana' as that term is used in the Compassionate Use Act of 
1996," Lockyer determined in a 2003 ruling

Nevertheless, hardly a week goes by that I don't hear about a valid 
medical-marijuana patient getting arrested for possessing 
concentrates. Local authorities seem to be unaware of the law. 
Sacramento Police Department spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong, when asked if 
hashish and other concentrates are permitted under the state's 
medical-marijuana law, told SN&R that "If it's the same substance as 
hash, then my narcotics sergeant told me it's illegal."

Leong called several days later to say he had since learned that it is legal.

Why the confusion? Part of the blame goes to hashish's exotic past. 
Decades ago, state and federal governments made possession of hashish 
a felony because it was an imported substance that was erroneously 
equated with opium. Hashish is nowhere near as potent as opium, but 
today many states and the federal government still classify it as a 
felony, with sentences as high as 10 years for possession of more than 1 gram.

The origins of hashish can be traced to its use by ancient Persian 
and Hindu cultures as a sacrament and as an indulgence for the mind, 
body and spirit. Sultans, sheiks, priests and most Eastern royalty 
considered raw marijuana to be a crude product, not fit for 
consumption. It was hard to store and keep fresh a large bundle of 
plant matter.

Hash is pure resin, an oil, which stores longer and isn't a bulky, 
leafy pain in the ass. Most Middle Eastern hash-producing countries 
grow cannabis for extraction purposes only. For instance, in Morocco, 
cannabis cultivation is on the rise, but almost all of it is 
harvested to produce hashish, the country's No. 1 export.

One method these farmers use to extract the "kif" (female pollen) 
includes having naked women run through the fields. In doing so they 
become covered in resin. Then comes the erotic and tedious job of 
wiping the women down and saving the ball of goo that has been 
collected. Most of the other methods use some variation on dry 
extraction using silk screen to collect the pollen crystals and then 
pressing the crystals into blond hash.

To extract more potent concentrates, the female pollen most be 
further processed. In the past, the "blow yourself and your neighbors 
up" method employed alcohol in a double boiler and highly flammable 
petroleum-based solvent. Public safety is always a valid defense for 
authorities to clamp down, but fortunately, Proposition 215 has 
really opened up the avenue for experimentation into new safe and 
sane ways to obtain hash and hash oil.

The most popular way nowadays is cold-water extraction. The process 
uses extraction bags, which can be purchased at most local head shops 
and some hydroponic stores. These bags have a silk-screen bottom sewn 
into them; every bag has a different micron count. The bags range in 
price from $160 to $600 and come in 5 gallon and 32 gallon sizes.

The bags are inserted into the appropriately sized container, 
according to the number of microns, from smallest to largest. The top 
bag holds the material--shake, buds, leaves--and a fair amount of 
ice. Add water and stir with a broomstick or a drill with a 
paint-mixing attachment for at least 15 to 20 minutes, and scrape the 
residue in the bottom bag. To obtain the maximum yield, repeat two to 
three more times. Remove the residue one last time, dry the material 
out, and voila! Homemade hashish.

Many medical-marijuana patients find that concentrates are far more 
effective for treating their particular symptoms. However, it's worth 
repeating that some of the state's law-enforcement officials haven't 
been brought up to speed on the law, which is why patients should 
keep their doctor's recommendation on them at all times. And if you 
don't have a recommendation, you just might be looking at a serious felony.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake