Marijuana, hash and hash oil Page 1 of 1

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Marijuana, hash and hash oil

Marijuana, hash and hash oil are illegal drugs that can harm your health
and be addictive. They can increase your risk for certain mental illnesses,
and can sometimes cause long-lasting or permanent damage to your
mind and body, too. Learn more about the harmful effects and risks of
using marijuana, hash and hash oil.

On this page
• What is the difference between marijuana, hash and hash oil?
• How does marijuana, hash, or hash oil affect people?
• Short-term effects
• Long-term health risks
• Addiction and withdrawal
• Using marijuana for medical reasons

What is the difference between marijuana, hash, and hash

oil?
Marijuana, hash and hash oil are different products from the Cannabis sativa plant (cannabis).

• Marijuana consists of the dried leaves and flower buds of the plant, and sometimes the
seeds and stems as well. The colour can vary from green to grayish-green to brown.
Marijuana smoke is noted for its pungent smell. It is usually smoked in hand-rolled cigarettes
(joints, spliffs), in pipes or water pipes (bongs) or wrapped in cigar tobacco (blunts).
Sometimes it is cooked with food, too.
• Hash (hashish) is made from Cannabis plant resin that is collected and compressed. The
colour can range from blond to brown to black, and may be soft and pliable or firm and
brittle. Hashish that has a lot of leaf material in it can also be green. Hash is generally
smoked but may be eaten like marijuana.
• Hash oil (cannabis oil) is produced by extracting resins from Cannabis plant material. Hash
oil is usually a thick, sticky liquid and can range in colour from gold, to red, to dark brown. It
is usually smoked as well.

Cannabis products contain the psychoactive substance known as delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol

(THC), a hallucinogen (/health-sante/addiction/terms-vocabulaire-eng.php#hallucinogens),as well
as hundreds of other substances that can affect your brain and body. Hallucinogens can cause
people to see, hear or feel things that do not exist. While THC can make people who use cannabis
products feel euphoric ("high"), it also has a number of harmful effects as well.

The amount of THC in marijuana and cannabis products varies widely:

• marijuana-1% to 20% or more

• hash-2% to 30%
• hash oil-generally 10% to 20% (but concentrations of THC as high as 70% have been
reported; hash oil is considered the most concentrated form of THC)

The amount of THC in cannabis products depends on:

• how the cannabis plant was grown (light, soil and growth conditions)

http://www.healthycanadians.gc.ca/health-sante/addiction/marijuana-eng.php 2014/07/16