I've traveled many places but one thing I did notice is Europe smokes more hash than grass. The big exceptions being the Netherlands and maybe Portugal. I smoked hash in Spain and had some college buddies smoke hash in France. Why is this?
I'm sure there is a better expert than me to answer. I'm in the US and only been to Europe a couple of times. But I had always heard it was because hash is more traditional in Europe/the middle east. The tradition starting because of the fact that back in the day when they had poor quality plants, it was better to make more potent concentrated hash thank smoking low quality bud. Hash is also easier to store, transport, etc
Pretty simple, most of our cannabis, on the continent, comes across from Morocco, or over from Afghanistan, two of the world's largest hashish producing areas... As said above, it is easier, and cheaper (more per consignment), to transport that way, and it has been the traditional method of smoking. France has a sizeable Arabic population, and therefore we smoke what they smoke. However, this is changing, more people are growing their own both indoors and outdoors. In Morocco, if you ask for bud, they look at you rather strangely, as for them, the finished product is the hashish, not the bud itself. The exception to this is of course the Netherlands and the UK. In the UK, the quality of the hashish was always pretty questionable, and few people choose to smoke this 'soapbar' as it is called. We tend to prefer indoor grown dank, as the climate isn't great for outdoor grows; or stuff imported from Holland.
There is always MORE grass than hash, it's just so rare in North America. Otherwise, Hash is still generally uncommon, but just more so than North America.
Had polm once in Aberdeen, stuff nearly blew my head off...Never have I smoked such potent stuff, except for in Morocco... Over here, you have to know someone who has a grow, or you keep a few plants. The police don't tend to worry in the countryside too much...If they come and its there, they'll do you; but other than that, they won't go out of their way, unless its big time.