PANAMA RED was a good one back then?
THAI Sticks were stronger ?
Sure was, more over it was the theme of one of the greatest songs of all time:
Tahi Sticks were fairly common, but varied a lot. Some had opium. Expensive. Pressed hashes also, I tended to go for them, often the solvent used was pretty spotty.
I had a roomy from LA who would go down 'to help the cousins' at harvest time. Pressing bricks (kilos) with a homemade rig using a truck jack. They'd roll the plants up from the bottom, wrap it in heavy blotter paper, and press it flat in a wooden box with thick walls. They were then stacked loosely to finish drying before colored cellophane was wrapped over the lot for delivery (the cousins did that part). Hash was everywhere (cousins, again). He never smuggled, bought bricks from fairly random taxi drivers in the old neighborhood. He's cut the wrapper on one end and judge the flower distribution radially. That is the outside warps naturally have more flowers, he favored shorter plants (smaller big stems in the center).
Anyway, one night when several of us were having a 'brick party' (several guys buy a key together then break it up together, since it was so variable) we were making up lids from a desk drawer (basically a handful, matched by size with the rest to reach the expected number of lids), one of the guys still breaking up the brick (you break it up 'cross ways' end to end in slices like a loaf of bread to preserve distribution) had a 'what the hell???' moment and came up with a large (couple gram) hunk of hash! My roomy cracked up and explained that sometimes the guys running the wrapping and pressing would be passing a large pipe filled with the best to be had and someone would choke badly and burning stuff would go flying everywhere. He said it might even have been him or one of the cousins.
But yes, through different channels Panama Red (really red, with smallish seeds and small flowers) would come to town at a premium of course. Always in lids? Never bricks. Often a 'group buy' due to cost. Pressed hash from Morocco or similar happened from time to time, five bucks a gram. Not too potent by modern standards but 'in the day' it was a treat indeed.
Good memories.
Weekend regards to all, only one more day to go.......
OF