I don’t remember the name of the novel, or the exact time frame. The detective in question, though, had to lean hard on some kind of hotel employee. Apparently, said employee had the reefer madness. The detective accused him of smelling like sweet smoke, smoking something sweeter than tobacco, “something cured with honey.”
So the question, hopefully not arouse the ire of mods: historically speakin’, was marijuana ever cured with honey, or was it just pulp fiction license?
I had a friend who did this, a couple of years ago. It does get done and probably did happen in the past.
In Heinlein’s fantasy short “Our Fair City”, a reporter and his cameraman are sneaking into a sleazy hotel where someone is being held against his will. The elevator operator sees them, assumes that they are private detectives working a divorce case, and attempts to block them from entering. The reporter claiming instead that “We peddle marijuana. The camera is the hay mow” (ie: the stash, in modern parlance). The operator then takes them to their floor (charging a steep fee for the special service) and advises them not to put it the stuff in a camera as “It makes people nervous”.
I’ve always found this scene to be an interesting view of the seamy side of the 1940s.
He wrote several more things in the same seamy setting. Check out the short story “The Magic Mirror” if you are interested.
“Honey oil” is one of the many slang terms for hashish oil, a high-THC extract of the marijuana plant. Hashish often does have a pungent, sweet smell and taste which is notably different from marijuana itself. Sometimes a regular cigarette is dipped in hash oil and smoked. As far as I know, actual honey is not used in the process of making hashish oil, but I don’t know for sure.
I’m pretty sure that the term has been around a long time. Recently I have heard it used to describe another drug, ketamine.
The story you describe sounds vaguely familiar to me as well. I’m thinking Raymond Chandler.