[Interview] Mila: How I became the Queen of Hash

Mila Jansen was born in the Netherlands and has traveled all over the world. She is best known as the Hash Queen, the Queen of Hash. The release of her autobiography is an opportunity for her to look back on the journey that recently earned her a place among the 100 most influential cannabis personalities in the High Times rankings. A book that reads like a journey through the Himalayan mountains and the twists and turns of life.

After finishing your book, which describes your life from your late teens to the present day, from Amsterdam to Malana and Goa, via France, the USA, Kazakhstan and the UK, my first reaction was: wow, what a trip! You've never taken the easy way out, fallen in love several times, had several children too, almost died a few times and you've always kept moving forward. What's your secret?

You can only go forward! Looking back takes a lot of time, something I don't have today. I'll save that for when I'm old and can't travel as easily.

Not that I don't go back to my favorite memories, I do quite often in fact.

With the memories of my children growing up in the Himalayas, I feel very lucky to be thinking back to that time.

But in this life, we can only go forward. You can see it as a river, always flowing, sometimes very turbulent, other times calm, like the different phases of our lives.

Have you ever thought of giving up?

Not really. Even when I was living in Mussoorie and realized that I was the pillar on which all the children were leaning and there was no way I could collapse or give up.

It just made my mission clear. Go! Live! Enjoy!

In French, they say that curiosity is a bad habit, which I don't believe. And I'd be really curious to know what Goa was like back then, before it was known. There are a few descriptions in your book, but I imagine it as a peaceful place, with lots of human interaction, and total freedom as long as no one is put in danger. Was it something like that? Can you tell us why it became so well known? Do you miss Goa? Are there other places today that resemble the Goa of the 1970s?

Goa was indeed very peaceful, life went slowly, you walked from Calangute to Baga, there were no buses, no motorcycles for hire, nothing. At best, you could manage to hop on the back of a plough. It was like arriving in paradise, after the monsoon, with flowers and green rice paddies everywhere.

We cooked simply with fruit from the market on Saturdays. Cheap fish straight from the fisherman, who we helped to haul in the nets.

Of course, we all loved the place, and told all our friends about it. I think it was just word of mouth.

It took several years before there were any articles about it. Lonely Planet is one of the culprits. I've heard that the owner of the guide feels bad now, most of the beautiful places he wrote about have become tourist factories with big hotels.

There are probably still places like Goa on the east coast of India, or perhaps Thailand, the Philippines or Indonesia in South America.

I've always been attracted by new places, the way people live, what their beliefs are, their habits.

So one day you had a stroke of genius: automate trichome extraction using centrifugal force, and then add water and ice to make the process easier and more efficient. You've also created special bags for capturing trichomes, with several sizes of sieve. In short, all the tools you need to make a hashish quality. That's how you came to earn the title of Queen of Hash. Do you also have a crown and a castle?

In fact, I describe in the book how I based the Pollinator on the workings of a tumble dryer. It really was a sudden inspiration. All of a sudden, I imagined the raw material turning. In the same way as I did by hand.

And this is indeed the reason for my nickname of Hash Queen, a queen without a crown and without a real castle. I don't really need one. And what trouble a castle would have caused me!

It wasn't your first business, but probably your most profitable. What's the moral behind this? Keep going until it works?

Most of my businesses have lasted a few years. But yes, the Pollinator Company has been around for 24 years. And it's still going. I suppose that's the reason, but I've had to leave several businesses for external reasons. Like my tailoring business in the Himalayas, which was a great business with the women of the region, but my visa was denied after 14 years of living in India. It wasn't really my choice.

Did you meet Frenchy Cannoli there or later in the USA? You probably know that he organizes workshops in authorized countries where he teaches how to make hash with water-based extraction. Have you tried his hash yet? Does it correspond to what you experienced in India? Has the modernization of the process improved its quality?

Frenchy was also in Goa, I think in the early 70s. I don't remember running into him there, but we were at the same parties at the time. We realized it one day. And yes, I like his hash, which reminds me of the old Manali I used to smoke there, but much cleaner I think, he does it in a different way. He doesn't rub the heads with his hands like the locals do. He's built his own machine, which I haven't seen yet. A good friend!

You also created the Dab- A-Doo, the first cannabic cup for concentrates. What's the key to the success of these events?

The Dab-A-Doo is quite popular and I think the secret is that only people who like hash or concentrates come. It's a meeting place for people with common interests, to spend time together and make friends from all over the world.

Do you consider yourself an activist? Do you have any advice for French people who are desperate to see legalization, or at least decriminalization, happen?

Maybe I'm just a lazy activist. I won't be organizing a march or collecting signatures, but if it happens, I'd love to be a part of it! I think it's a way of raising awareness, and I hope it all works out in the end.

If I look at the world today and all that has happened in recent years, it's moving in the right direction, and we can hope that our own countries will follow suit.

France and the Netherlands aren't doing much, and even though the Netherlands has its coffeeshops, it's not making much headway. Only more and more rules to limit your freedom with cannabis.

The only advice I have is that people should follow their hearts!

What are your future projects? Will you be coming to France soon?

What are my next projects? For the moment, I'm busy promoting my book, and I'll certainly be coming to France for a book signing!

One love, Mila

Mila, How I Became The Hash Queen, available on Amazon.