Hemp versus marijuana

I’m sure we have all heard the pros and cons of marijuana and how it works on the body.  There are a lot of marijuana users out there and some proponents of its use that will say that it’s perfectly safe for use and that it has been used for hundreds of years with no ill effects.  Well let’s go over some of those statements and try to help separate fact from myth and see how well you know marijuana.

 

True or False: Marijuana and hemp are the same thing. Answer: Both true and false.

“How can the answer be both?  It’s really simple that it’s true.” 

Ok let me explain this a little bit.  Hemp is the name for the fiber found inside the cannabis plant and marijuana is the name of the flower found on the cannabis plant. The marijuana plant doesn’t have the same high fiber content as the hemp plant.  And as the breeding of the marijuana plant has continued, the cannabis flowers of today are much more potent and of higher quality buds than what have been used throughout history as medicine.  This could be one of the reasons marijuana has been considered illegal because the potency has increased so much more than in the past and growers continually work to increase the potency.

True or False:   Hemp and marijuana have the same levels of THC.  Answer: False

“How is that possible as you just stated that they are from the same plant?  If they are from the same plant it stands that they both have the same THC levels.”

Well as much as that might seem to be the case it’s not.  The hemp plant and the marijuana are from the same plant but the hemp plant contains very little of the psychoactive chemical THC.  As I stated before the marijuana plant was bred specifically for the THC levels, anywhere from 5-30 percent.  It’s that difference that makes one legal and the other not so much.  Hemp is the plant that has the medical uses more so than the actual marijuana plant and it’s not as likely to cause some of the side effects that marijuana does.  In essence, hemp doesn’t give you the high that marijuana does.

True or False:  You can grow the marijuana plant and say it’s hemp and it be legal. Answer: False

“False?  That doesn’t sound right.  How is someone going to know if it’s the real thing or not?”

Hemp is typically grown up, not out, because the focus on hemp is the stalks which are used for various materials, even carpentry, just like bamboo.  Marijuana plants generally need warmer, humid environments in order to produce the desired quantity and quality of the THC buds.   And if you think you can grow hemp and hide marijuana in with it, it won’t work either as hemp is grown in rows one to two inches apart but marijuana is really short and needs 18 inches or more room to grow out.  You also risk cross pollination and making the marijuana plants sterile.

 It also goes back to a book published in 1971 called The Species Problem in Cannabis by Ernest Small a Canadian researcher.  He drew an arbitrary line, which is used by law enforcement types, that states that a 0.3 percent THC level in a sifted batch of cannabis flowers is what makes the difference between hemp and marijuana.  U.S. laws have defined hemp as any part of the Cannabis Sativa plant that contains no psychoactive properties, meaning if your stash is seized and you claim it’s hemp, it would be tested to verify that fact. 

These are the 3 biggest things that make a difference between marijuana and hemp and why one is considered legal and the other not so much.  So, yes the cannabis plant can be beneficial for medicinal purposes but if not used properly can be addictive and can cause all the problems that you hear about on a regular basis, like the lack of the ability to focus.  It’s just that one chemical ingredient that makes the difference.