Skill Of The Month: Surviving Cannabis Cup

Avoid tobacco mixes. Odds are, if you live in the United States, you can't get good imported hashish with any regularity. So make the most of the opportunity to taste the best of Nepal, Morocco, Kasmir, and other hash hotspots from around the world, but watch out for any joint you didn't roll yourself. Europeans often mix their weed with tobacco, and almost always mix it when rolling hash.

If you don't normally smoke tobacco, puffing down on one of these "blends" will turn your face the deep green of a late-summer sativa, and be a waste of good hash, as well as your lunch. And if you do regularly smoke tobacco, you should stop immediately. Sure, it's legal in the United States, but it's also addictive and deadly, unlike cannabis, which is illegal in the United States-one of the reasons you came to Amsterdam in the first place. Fucked up, isn't it?

OLD-SCHOOL HASH MAKING

Old School Hash Making

Traditional hash making includes several methods of extraction that produce varying grades of end product. In the oldest practice, a collector simply walks through the still-budding fields of cannabis, rubbing the plants by hand and rolling the resin (or charas) that collects into balls. After harvesting and drying, the same buds can later be shaken over screens, beaten against carpets, and pushed through sieves of varying size to filter out the rest of the trichomes from the surrounding plant matter.

Thank you High Times.

HASH FOR CONNOISSEURS

The best hashish is a black, brown, or blond color, depending on the strain of pot used and the method of extraction. Hash with a green tint contains large amounts of plant matter, which dilutes its potency and flavor. Hash that's gone stale will become brittle and lost its fragrance.

Thank you High Times Magazine for the words of wisdom.