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The geopolitics of Afghani hash
by Pete Brady (20 Mar, 2002) Afghanistan was once known for producing world-class hashish. What does the future hold?
In the middle of the night, in mountains northwest of Kabul, Afghanistan, where American bombs and missiles have fallen like acid rain, a young man named Mahmoud is arranging a shipment of precious, psychoactive agricultural merchandise.
Impoverished Afghanistan, home to 25 million oppressed people, demonized and flattened by war, lacking permanent water supplies, surrounded by hostile neighbors who shut out its refugees, has long been an important source of quality cannabis products. India, Iran, Pakistan, Kashmir, Nepal, Afghanistan and most other nations in this region have marijuana traditions that span centuries and embody the highest arts of cannabis production, processing, and consumption.
Mahmoud's cargo is one of the last shipments of Afghani hashish to leave the country before September 11, 2001. His commodity is a five hundred pound collection of hashish slates. The individual slates, about the size of a book, are chocolate-colored on the outside, reddish brown on the inside, wrapped in plastic and tape, weighing between 250 and 800 grams each.
The resin powder used to produce them was gathered from short, tenacious Indicas grown in isolated semi-arid areas in Afghanistan. Some of the powder is collected and formed into hashish in Afghanistan, but the Afghan powder is also processed in regions of Pakistan such as Kurram, Orakzai and Tirah.
The slates are then dispatched on an odyssey that may take them through Tajikistan and Russia, or through Pakistan and India. The shipment might travel via caravan through tribal areas, headed for Baluchistan, where it will exit Pakistan into Iran. It might also travel through Central Asian republics.
Eventually, after the slates have been transported and handled by a variety of methods, including mules, camels, trucks, and intermediaries, they arrive in Europe, primarily to be sold in Dutch coffee shops for six to eight US dollars per gram.
Today's Afghani hash is considered a mid-grade product, slightly inferior to primo traditional hashish from Morocco, Nepal, India, and Europe. It is only about 40% as potent as the newest types of hashish, such as Ice-O-Later, Nederhash, and Bubblehash, that are made using technology and modern quality control that results in a far purer product than can be produced by farmers and processors in desert countries like Afghanistan.
[SIZE=-2]Dutch nerderhash[/SIZE]Yet, during the 1960's and early 70's, Afghani hash was considered the best available. Cultivation of squat, rugged, phat-leaved Indica plants, which cannabists now call "Hindu Kush," "Afghani," and "Hashplant" became prevalent during this era; some ethnobotanists say Afghanistan's earlier cannabis farmers mostly grew Sativa varieties.
According to cannabis pioneer Wernard Bruining, who created Holland's first coffee shop nearly 30 years ago, Western hippies collected Afghan marijuana seeds and spread them across the world in the 1970's, most notably to Northern California, where the seeds became genetic precursors for many of today's most popular cannabis cultivars.
"People who we call the early Skunk pioneers' were experimenting with these Afghani seeds," says Bruining, whose Positronics seed bank was one of the earliest to offer a large menu of international marijuana seeds. "Afghan plants were highly sought after because they grew fast and short, were hardy, and produced huge tops full of resin. Some of them had the characteristic skunky smell and powerful body high that now identifies varieties known as Skunk.'"
Afghani hash was known for its sticky, resiny, unadulterated color and texture, its sweet, tangy taste, and its narcotic, dream-inducing high. Before US anti-drug pressure changed Afghanistan's cannabis policies in 1974, super-potent connoisseur hashish was available at teahouses inside Afghanistan, and as exported fingers, sticks, hooves, half moons, slabs and bricks that had a wide array of colors, tastes, and cannabinoid profiles.
Foreign cartels, including drug networks from North America, purchased tons of Afghan hashish and resin powder, using the substances to produce and market what came to be known as "honey oil," a highly-refined, amber-colored fluid that was often two to three times as potent as hashish.
Farmers in many parts of Afghanistan used primitive methods such as hand irrigation and fertilization techniques to produce resin glands for the burgeoning industry. It's not easy work, because most of the country is barren desert, with marginal soils, inadequate and unpredictable water supplies, dry, hot summers and harsh winters.
Huge fields of cannabis, surrounded by huts, barns and other buildings where resin powder was stored and processed, were seen near the southern city of Kandahar, in Central Afghanistan, and around the north-central city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
As this article is being written, US forces are using aerial bombardment and ground troops against Afghan Taliban government strongholds in Kabul, Kandahar and Mazar-i-Sharif. It may well be the first time that a global war machine has attacked a city that is so linked to marijuana that it has a variety of marijuana named after it as advertised in the Marc Emery seed catalog, "Mazar-i-Sharif" is a potent Afghani crossbred with a classic "Skunk #1" variety.
by Pete Brady (20 Mar, 2002) Afghanistan was once known for producing world-class hashish. What does the future hold?
Impoverished Afghanistan, home to 25 million oppressed people, demonized and flattened by war, lacking permanent water supplies, surrounded by hostile neighbors who shut out its refugees, has long been an important source of quality cannabis products. India, Iran, Pakistan, Kashmir, Nepal, Afghanistan and most other nations in this region have marijuana traditions that span centuries and embody the highest arts of cannabis production, processing, and consumption.
Mahmoud's cargo is one of the last shipments of Afghani hashish to leave the country before September 11, 2001. His commodity is a five hundred pound collection of hashish slates. The individual slates, about the size of a book, are chocolate-colored on the outside, reddish brown on the inside, wrapped in plastic and tape, weighing between 250 and 800 grams each.
The resin powder used to produce them was gathered from short, tenacious Indicas grown in isolated semi-arid areas in Afghanistan. Some of the powder is collected and formed into hashish in Afghanistan, but the Afghan powder is also processed in regions of Pakistan such as Kurram, Orakzai and Tirah.
The slates are then dispatched on an odyssey that may take them through Tajikistan and Russia, or through Pakistan and India. The shipment might travel via caravan through tribal areas, headed for Baluchistan, where it will exit Pakistan into Iran. It might also travel through Central Asian republics.
Eventually, after the slates have been transported and handled by a variety of methods, including mules, camels, trucks, and intermediaries, they arrive in Europe, primarily to be sold in Dutch coffee shops for six to eight US dollars per gram.
Today's Afghani hash is considered a mid-grade product, slightly inferior to primo traditional hashish from Morocco, Nepal, India, and Europe. It is only about 40% as potent as the newest types of hashish, such as Ice-O-Later, Nederhash, and Bubblehash, that are made using technology and modern quality control that results in a far purer product than can be produced by farmers and processors in desert countries like Afghanistan.
According to cannabis pioneer Wernard Bruining, who created Holland's first coffee shop nearly 30 years ago, Western hippies collected Afghan marijuana seeds and spread them across the world in the 1970's, most notably to Northern California, where the seeds became genetic precursors for many of today's most popular cannabis cultivars.
"People who we call the early Skunk pioneers' were experimenting with these Afghani seeds," says Bruining, whose Positronics seed bank was one of the earliest to offer a large menu of international marijuana seeds. "Afghan plants were highly sought after because they grew fast and short, were hardy, and produced huge tops full of resin. Some of them had the characteristic skunky smell and powerful body high that now identifies varieties known as Skunk.'"
Afghani hash was known for its sticky, resiny, unadulterated color and texture, its sweet, tangy taste, and its narcotic, dream-inducing high. Before US anti-drug pressure changed Afghanistan's cannabis policies in 1974, super-potent connoisseur hashish was available at teahouses inside Afghanistan, and as exported fingers, sticks, hooves, half moons, slabs and bricks that had a wide array of colors, tastes, and cannabinoid profiles.
Foreign cartels, including drug networks from North America, purchased tons of Afghan hashish and resin powder, using the substances to produce and market what came to be known as "honey oil," a highly-refined, amber-colored fluid that was often two to three times as potent as hashish.
Farmers in many parts of Afghanistan used primitive methods such as hand irrigation and fertilization techniques to produce resin glands for the burgeoning industry. It's not easy work, because most of the country is barren desert, with marginal soils, inadequate and unpredictable water supplies, dry, hot summers and harsh winters.
Huge fields of cannabis, surrounded by huts, barns and other buildings where resin powder was stored and processed, were seen near the southern city of Kandahar, in Central Afghanistan, and around the north-central city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
As this article is being written, US forces are using aerial bombardment and ground troops against Afghan Taliban government strongholds in Kabul, Kandahar and Mazar-i-Sharif. It may well be the first time that a global war machine has attacked a city that is so linked to marijuana that it has a variety of marijuana named after it as advertised in the Marc Emery seed catalog, "Mazar-i-Sharif" is a potent Afghani crossbred with a classic "Skunk #1" variety.