3.4 Hashish and marijuana (cannabis) see also 4.4

'Hashish has nothing in common with the crude drunkenness generated by the citizen from the Northern countries with wine and strong drink: Hashish produces an intellectual high. " 111. Gautier 1844.

Hashish and marijuana derive from the plant cannabis sativa. The female tops supply the raw material for marijuana, and hashish is produced from the plant's resin. After tobacco and alcohol, cannabis is the most commonly used drug. Marijuana has a greenish-brown colour, hashish is light-brown to black, but much more characteristic than the colour, is its smell. if you have smelled cannabis once, you will pick out that smell from thousands of others.

How is cannabis used?

Hashish and marijuana are smoked with cigarettes or smoked pure in special pipes: Chillums and water pipes. When smoked with cigarettes, the hashish or marijuana is crumbled onto a small bed of tobacco inside a fold of rice paper and then rolled into a cylinder, i.e., joint.
This joint is smoked like a normal cigarette, By the way, mixing it with tobacco is not very logical because tobacco suppresses the effect of cannabis. To be precise Tobacco constricts the blood vessels, while cannabis expands blood vessels and mind. Smoked pure, cannabis and hashish therefore have a much stronger effect. Sometimes, cannabis is baked into a 'space cake', (hash brownies), and eaten. in this case, the effect only kicks in after one hour. There is a danger that the ingested dose might be too high. See chapter 'Freaking out'.

How does cannabis work?

A hashish or marijuana user gets 'high' or 'stoned'. The word 'stoned' refers to the arms and legs feeling heavy. The relaxation of the muscles is caused by the active substance THC. But tetrahydrocannabinol does more It intensifies one's mood, (also a bad mood!), reduces concentration, slows reflexes and influences the perception. Colour and music, for instance, are experienced very intensely. Beginners are known to get 'the giggles', others, (old-timers too), can get a sudden attack of the 'munchies' (craving for food).

Queen Victoria used marijuana every month

Extracts of Cannabis Sativa have beenused since ancient times as painkillersand medication for exhaustion, asthma, cough attacks, rheumatism, migraine, cramps and other symptoms. John F. Kennedy, for example, regularly smoked joints to relieve his chronic backpains and Queen Victoria used marijuana seeds for monthlyperiod cramps.