Mind you, this info is not from personal experience but....
Years ago for the right price (I'm told), one could get their hands on any number of hemp products in The States. But hashish was a bit harder to find in quantity since it had so far to travel. The effect was usually superior due to it's concentration of.....happiness.
Cocaine changed all that. Then came the D.E.A., the international war on drugs, and tighter security within military circles. Importing anything became much riskier. So the people up and down the supply chain just followed the money.
The U.S. hemp industry has picked up some of that slack and Canada has finally found a way to make herself useful by producing (I'm told) some really outstanding foliage but the tradition of refining it's just not very entrenched.
Europe doesn't have the same land resources and is closer to the traditional production centers so I understand there's a higher degree of availability of refined hemp and less access to raw material.
As far as the quality debate goes, some people prefer Jamaican pipe dreams, some burn midnight oil. It's all good (so I'm told)
