Making real hash requires the tedious collection of resin glands from several pounds of fresh female cannabis flowers, and is a rare delicacy in most parts of this country. In most cities, low-grade, unpalatable cannabis is the only available form of T.H.C. I decided I wanted to turn the available low-grade stuff into a high quality end product, using simple solvent extraction methods.. The methods I used are efficient with a few ounces or less of any quality cannabis.
             Delta-nine-tetrahydracannibinol is the major psychoactive ingredient in cannabis from which we obtain the 'high' feeling (Julien 202). This chemical is not soluble, or able to be dissolved, in water, but does dissolve readily in alcohol, fatty substances, and other non-polar solvents. Polarity is a relatively nebulous idea of the general solubility characteristics of solvents. Polar solvents dissolve water soluble substances but not oily substances, and non-polar solvents dissolve oily substances (like T.H.C.), but not water soluble substances. Moderately polar solvents have a tendency to dissolve both types of substances. For creating "American hash", high quality isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) of at least a ninety percent concentration is a suitable moderately polar solvent.
             After letting about 1/2 ounce of finely ground cheap marijuana steep in a Tupperware container for a week, the alcohol had turned a beautiful emerald green. The dark color does not connote potency, however. Rather, it signifies quite the opposite, the presence of non-psychoactive chlorophyll found in all plants. This occurred because alcohol is not a terribly selective solvent when used to extract cannabinoids (the multitude of psychoactive agents occurring in cannabis, including T.H.C.). Now that I had this alcohol based tincture, I needed to convert it into a solid, smokeable substance. I poured the mixture through a clean T-shirt to filter the larg...