One of the most precious things the pandemic took away from each and every one of us was our ability to gather together. This absence of community these past few years is something that feels more acute in the world of weed. After all, we’re the originators of puff, puff, pass. To truly love the cannabis plant often includes a strong and unselfish desire to share that love with others. Departed hash master Frenchy Cannoli knew this better than most. Not only was he aligning with other artisans at the top of their craft to present hash as the ultimate expression of what cannabis can be, but he was also a master of bringing people together to collectively enjoy the fruit of the farmers’ labor. At the recent San Francisco, California premiere of a film based on his life, a friend reminded me of the many times Frenchy gathered us all together around the hookah. He’d stand in the center and apply the hash to the foil above a hot coal while everyone lucky enough to secure a hose puffed together in a circle. In terms of smoking cannabis, the experience of joining a Frenchy hash hookah circle felt as ancient as it gets. We all gathered around a fire and, in this case, smoked pure fire in the form of traditionally pressed hashish. Within his extensive writings on the subject of hash, Frenchy speculates our relationship with the cannabis plant dates back to around 80,000 to 90,000 BC, the same time as the earliest use of fire. Hash, in the form of resin hand-rubbed from the plant or charas, is the oldest cannabis concentrate, and Frenchy believed humanity may have discovered its benefits even before the nutritional qualities of cannabis seeds or the many uses of the plant’s …
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Author: Ellen Holland / High Times
