What is cannabis?

Cannabis comes in different forms.

Hash is a black or brown lump made from the resin of the plant.

Much less common is cannabis oil, made by separating the resin from the cannabis plant using various solvents. It is a sticky, dark honey-coloured oil.

Herbal cannabis (grass or weed) is made from the dried leaves and flowering parts of the female plant and looks like tightly packed dried herbs.

Recently, there has been an increased availability of strong herbal cannabis. This contains on average 2-3 times the amount of the active compound, tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, as compared to the traditional imported ‘weed’.

This strong cannabis includes: ‘sinsemilla’ (a bud grown in the absence of male plants and which has no seeds); ‘homegrown’; ‘skunk’, which has a characteristic strong smell; and imported ‘netherweed’.

How can you tell how pure cannabis is?

When talking about the purity of cannabis, there are two separate areas to think about:

1. The ‘strength’ of the unadulterated product (ie how much THC it contains)
2. How much it is ‘cut’ or contaminated.

As a cannabis user, it may not be possible to tell if an amount of ‘skunk' or ‘homegrown’ or ‘sinsemilla’ will have a higher potency or strength than an equal amount of traditional herbal cannabis.

The potency of herbal cannabis decreases over time in storage and is affected by what parts of the plant have been included in it. So there is little guarantee about the ‘intensity of the high’.  The intensity of the smell of skunk may not act as an indicator.

Cannabis resin sold as hash, especially the ‘Soap Bar’ variety, is usually cut with other substances to increase the bulk and profit the supplier makes.  Different substances are used, with reports of henna, turpentine and boot polish. These are then inhaled along with the cannabis resin.