A Treasury of Hashish (Paperback)

A TREASURY OF HASHISH


Aside from this wonderful book being entirely hand lettered . every page has a clever drawing rare photo or antique map to make the reading it a delight. What we have here is a complete history of hashish from prehistory right up to the classic hippy era after which real hashish sort of disappeared over the horizon This is a story that had never been told . Dr Sumach did the research and finally told it.

The main lesson we learn is that hashish is a concentrated resin taken from carefully cultivated cannabis plants, selected by lineage with all the care of breeding racehorses by people who know what they are doing

Real hashish is not your Dads marijuana, Not by a long shot . Hashish is something unique and specially prepared. Hence its great cost and rarity , even in the olden days. This is because the secrets of growing the finest pedigree cannabis plants under optimal conditions, select ing the best specimens and preparing them for hashish requires a master chefs eye for quality. Making real hash is more an art than a science. It can be done, and you can do it too, but you have to pay attention

Hashish had been a specialty confection of the people of Central Asia for a very long time. Nobody really knows how long, but Central Asia is where Cannabis plants originate. Millennia of mindful selection had let these ancient plantsmen distinguish the hempish fibre positive plants as very different from the demure resinous hashish strains,. From the latter the highly desirable waxy dream grease was collected in season like the rare vintage it was. The very best hashish was commandeered by the local dignitaries and only a little of this primo grade hashish ever left the region where it was made . The very finest hash was collected from high altitude plants and was worth? its weight in gold

This legendary hashish from the Himalayas was sought after by kings and princes who prized the high energy effects of this, the finest hashish in the world superior in in every way to anything most modern day pot fanciers could cobble together from a novelty strain of marijuana from their basement light garden But with careful attention to detail and an eye for excellence ,some semblance of this wonderful old style hashish can still be made at home, in small batches for the occasional special occasions.

This is not marijuana, this is real hashish.

We also learn from Dr Sumachs Treasury of Hashish that the ancient golden age societies of China, Greece and Rome were familiar with high end hashish and valued the imported article as a powerful medicine and aid to the work of imagination management. Real hashish has always been the plaything of kings and whom he was friendly..: the artists and poets at his court, But we learn, hashish could also be wielded asca terrible tool of tyrants-

The traveller Marco Polo wrote the story of the ? Old Man of the Mountain - a prototype Taliban Commander in what is today, modern Syria? Marco Polo describes how the Old Man, in his mountain lair used hashish to indoctrinate a stealth army of Assassins to wage a devastating guerrilla war to destroy the enemy occupiers in his country : one family at a time .

Dr Sumach shares that the French General Napoleon brought hashish back from Egypt in the early 19th Century . At first, this curious Arab drug was a salon novelty to induce fanciful frolics but a French Empire hashish craze soon spread to their own artists and poets writers and scientists. Some of the most ambitious ideas novels, plays and inventions of that century came about during hashish inspired jam sessions. Paris was awash in hashish once the students got wind of it. The intellectual overdrive associated with Hashsih soon gave way to old fashioned debauchery,

The British posh set experimented with the potent Hashish of their colony of India and, unlike the French, displayed a certain restraint , and turned it into the respectable Cannabis indica ( aka hashish ) based medicine that endured as a frat house favourite until drug prohibition in the 20th Century brought all that chemical exploration to an end.

For the time being ,that is

Exotic places like Lebanon, Morocco, Algeria .Iraq Iran and other zones of the alcohol abstaining Muslim world embraced hashish culture and developed their own speciality hashish products for their own cultural use. In a world that still smoked tobacco on the street , nobody made much note of some hashish mixed in. Curious beatnick travellers in the 1960s encountered excellent and cheap hash in many places on their off road voyages exploring multicultural novelty . They loved hash: , It was cheaper than drinking and nobody who smoked hash started a fight

These early culture pioneers brought hash back home to America . This super smoke created a instant market for high quality, reasonably priced imported hashish amongst the urban hippies who were more accustomed to hotboxing ditchweed and indulging in the occasional joint of Mexican bunk, Real hash was legendary , the stuff of hippy fairytales as the dangerous game of bravado hash smuggling soon became more trouble than it was worth. The hashish cartels took over all aspects of the market as making artisan grade hashish had no future in organized crime.

The demand for potent, cheap old world hashish exploded, throughout the western world during in the 1960s and 70s . This sudden market change in drug production and use patterns was quickly targeted by the planetary drug catchers who mobilized to crush it out. Hashish, since it was easier to conceal and more profitable to sell was the primary goal of eradication. The artisan hash makers scaled back and delivered their wares to local markets, their brush with international sales at an end.

The original War on Drugs mandate was aimed at these hashish producing nations in order  to block the flow of, at first, bulk hashish shipments from the Middle East to Europe and American markets . All this seemed to do was dry up Classic hash markets,, raise the prices. drop the quality and stimulate the domestic homegrown pot industry. Old style classic hashish for the most part, disappeared abruptly from International commerce by the 1980s . Imported quality hashish was once again as rare on the black market in 1995 as it had been in 1965

Today, most young pot smokers have never even seen real hash. much less have any idea how its made and what its special virtues are all about.
For anybody who is interested in the ubiquitous i cannabis phenomena that is a fixed aspect of modern life , they will greatly enjoy reading Dr Sumachs A TREASURY OF HASHISH and find out for themselves what
hashish was, what hashish is and where hashish might be going in the near future.

One thing is for sure- hashish not going away anytime soon

Dr. Alexander Sumach, THC is the pen name of Canadian artist/ activist Roddy Heading who self published a series of underground best-selling books about the cannabis phenomena that was exploding onto the North America social frontier in the 1970s.

Apart from his work as a DIY cannabis book pioneer he has been a busy commercial cartoonist and cinema animator working for Sesame Street, The National Film Board of Canada and numerous animated TV commercials. He has done syndicated comic features His cartoons and short stories have appeared in major Canadian and European publications as well as in several left of mainstream American magazines.

In his "straight" non-cannabis career, Dr Sumach was an early promoter of visionary popular science themes, selling the Metric System, vegetarian nutrition and what would eventually become world class rock 'n' roll acts to an unsuspecting public.

In the 1990s, Dr Sumach was summoned to Oittawa, the Nations Capitol to explain what hemp was all about to the Canadian Senate. He was able to convince a reluctant Canadian Government to pass laws legalizing Industrial Hemp. This progressive legal precedent passed unanimously in the Canadian House of Commons This bold initiative gave Canada a 25-year head start in the hemp business over its envious neighbor, the USA. As a result Canada is now the second largest producer of hemp in the world, and the only nation in the western hemisphere that grows Industrial Hemp. Dr Sumach has written extensively about the hemp industry in Canada since its first experimental farms and has lectured about hemp and marijuana at Colleges and Universities across Canada. He has appeared as a guest on numerous TV and radio shows to enlighten the public about the versatile cannabis plant and its many incarnations in modern life.

Dr Sumachs delightful hand lettered profusely illustrated books about marijuana, hashish and industrial hemp were wildly successful in spite of being technically against the law in Canada. Dr Sumachs books. constantly reprinted and distributed by the hippy subculture helped inspire a multi billion dollar cottage marijuana cottage industry in Canada and the USA. After 40 years on the job, Dr Sumach is still one of the leading lay experts concerning all things cannabis in North America, His books are as well received in Europe as they are in North America. Dr Sumach has done a lot to made sense about cannabis - in an entertaining, informative and timeless way.

He also designed and helped market a successful Marijuana Culture Board Game Trafficking (1983) that has enjoyed several reprints.

Dr Sumach is an self taught economic botanist and lifelong straight edge vegetarian gardener. He continues to create new projects in his studio in the small Southern Ontario town of Niagara on the Lake, down river from Niagara Falls where he keeps busy identifying and documenting post Ice Age archeology sites.

Feature writer illustrator for Popular Press Hemp Magazines, Documentary films, Hemp Industry reference books, Canada, USA, Europe (1990-2000)

Hemp Commerce and Farming Report Saskatoon
Hemp World Magazine Van Nuys CA
Hemp Life Magazine Amsterdam
Journal of the International Hemp Association Amsterdam
Cannabis Culture Magazine - Vancouver
High Times Magazine - New York
Hanf Magazine - Germany
Contributor to "The Great Book of Hemp"
Fellow of The International Hemp Association, Netherlands
Member: Hemp Industries Association. USA
Member: Hemp Trade Alliance, Canada

CINEMA TELEVISION
METRIC/ METRIQUE 1975
Animated, 12 minutes, National Film Board of Canada
Writer, designer, character voices, studio partner Toronto
SESAME STREET, CANADA 1977- 1982
Animation design and production numerous TV segments
Mammoth Pictures Toronto