Do you suspect that you have adulterated or contaminated hashish in your hand? The first step is knowing how to identify! Come and understand the signs.

Contaminants and adulterants are a recurring problem in the marijuana industry, and can affect all its products and by-products. Hashish and concentrates are no exception. There is a wide range of elements that have the potential to contaminate them, and transform what could be medicinal into a huge risk to our health.

The production of concentrates, specifically solvent-free concentrates such as ice water hash (or bubble hash) and rosin, does not remove certain contaminants during the extraction process. This means that any contaminants found in the plant prior to extraction, apart from the plant matter, will be transferred to the final products. In solvent extractions, there is an increased risk of contamination by the solvents themselves resulting from poor purging. This is all without counting what can be added to the concentrate before sale.

As consumers, we need to understand that paying attention to the quality of what we use is no frills. Quite the opposite: throwing away contaminated or adulterated juice may seem like a waste of money at first glance, but it will save you countless expenses to repair the damage. In fact, it can save several years of your life too.

Quality is serious when it comes to marijuana and concentrates.

To help you better understand all of this, let's talk a little more about adulterated or contaminated hashish and what strategies you can use to identify a sample that is potentially dangerous to your health.

WHAT CAN CONTAMINATE HASHISH?

To talk about contamination, we need to revisit some points about the quality of the concentrates! The main factors that can indicate or influence the quality of a hashish are its potency and purity. This means that:

Different marijuana plants will produce resins with unique chemical profiles that vary in potency and the amount of terpenes. But, generally speaking, it is the potency of the material that will be responsible for the potency of your extract.

A material can be contaminated even before it becomes an extraction, during the cultivation, harvesting, curing and drying process (when we talk about products made from dry matter). In this case, we are talking about pesticides, heavy metals and mold.

Concentrate extraction processes can allow the introduction of undesirable materials, ranging from small pieces of plant matter (leaf residues) to adulterants added on purpose to make the product yield. All of this reduces the purity of the hash.

When we think about solvent extraction processes, we also need to take into account possible contamination with the solvent used. In both the legal and illegal markets, a poorly done purging process can be responsible for high concentrations of heavy chemicals in samples!

But it's not just that, no. When it comes to contaminated hashish, there are some pretty shitty things (pardon the pun) that we need to take into account. In the dynamics of the irregular European market, for example, one of the most common ways to transport hashish is by swallowing and then evacuating the sample. This means that most of the concentrates found in cities like Madrid are contaminated with fecal coliforms.

AND WHAT IS USED TO ADULTERATE HASHISH?

Low-quality hashish is often adulterated with “cutting agents.” These ingredients are added to increase the volume of the substance, making it more profitable and generating more profit when sold. Adulterants found in hashish can range from residues of the cannabis plant, such as pieces of leaves, to products such as:

soap;

petroleum jelly;

beeswax;

grease;

licorice;

henna;

ground coffee;

powdered milk;

pine resin;

barbiturates;

ketamine;

aspirin;

glues and dyes;

carcinogenic solvents such as toluene and benzene.

The low quality of adulterated hashish can lead a person to smoke more to get the same effect. And, although not all of these adulterants may seem so dangerous, their high concentration in the body can cause numerous problems — mainly chemical pneumonia and, in the long term, other chronic diseases.

HOW TO IDENTIFY QUALITY HASHISH?

When we think about measuring the quality of hashish, we can do the same as in the case of marijuana flowers and use our five senses:

TOUCH

High-quality solvent-free hash, fresh and well stored, is soft and can be molded by the heat of your fingers. Old, low-quality hash is harder and more brittle, and needs to be heated substantially before it is soft enough to use. Most hash falls between these two extremes, and the tactile qualities also vary depending on the methods used in extraction and pressing.

SMELL

Can you smell these terpenes? If your hash has no smell or smells like grass, it is low quality. High-quality hash will have a pleasant, pungent aroma that stays true to its original profile. Hash that hasn't been dried enough can develop mold and other types of fungus — which you'll also notice by smell. But be careful: many of the products used to dilute hash and make it more profitable may be odorless!

VISION

Hashish can take on various shapes and colors, depending on the way it is extracted, the type of plant used, the way it was stored, how it was dried and several other characteristics. Regardless of the type, high-quality hash should not be completely black or green. Green, in this case, means a greater concentration of plant matter from the plant in your display.

TASTE

Ultimately, the most important thing is the taste of your sample. It is in the taste that you can conclude the quality of your hash. Hashish that has no taste at all or a strange, metallic or musty taste are signs that it could be bad for you.

HOW DO I TEST THE QUALITY OF MY HASH?

There are a few different techniques to understand if your hash is adulterated or safe to consume! One of the best ways to check this is the lighter test. The process involves taking a piece of hash and adding a flame to it.

If the hash is of high quality, the resin will boil and bubble.

If your hash catches fire and turns black, it means we have too many contaminants in the sample. In other words: the hash is not of good quality.

If the hash does not bubble, it may be of low quality and possibly contain contaminants. Not to mention the high levels of plant material remaining.

If it bubbles a lot and gives off a plastic smell, it could also mean that the sample was mixed with other oils.

There is also the hand pressing test. To do this, simply take a sample of your hash and crush it with your fingers. The less time, pressure and temperature it takes to become a homogeneous dough, the higher its quality. If you want, you can also use a hot water bottle.

By combining the smells, experience, taste, appearance, and bubble factor, you should be able to distinguish between low and high quality. When additional oils or resins are present, they often create an oily appearance and uncharacteristic smells. This is often done in the case of BHO and other solvent extractions.

TESTS FOR EXTRACTIONS WITH SOLVENTS

It will be very difficult to tell if your solvent extraction is well purged without a laboratory test. But, in Brazil, this mission is practically impossible. And it's a very complicated subject when we consider that, to adulterate extractions with solvents, several heavy chemicals that are toxic to health are used, such as:

silica;

tree resin;

gum arabic powder;

other products, ranging from gel to plastic.

According to reports we received, there are people who take 1g of pure BHO and can transform it into up to 7g with heavy adulteration.

Furthermore, it is not easy to notice tampering. This is because most of the materials used to make them are odorless and tasteless (that is, odorless and tasteless). Its boiling temperature is also very similar to that of concentrates, which means it melts and vaporizes in the same way.

One way to test your sample is to place a little bit of it in isopropyl alcohol. If it melts, it is possibly marijuana resin. Otherwise, you're dealing with another product — and you've been beaten.

To the next! 🍁