What is Hemp and How It's Different From Marijuana

Posted by CANNASaver on Tuesday, 20 September 2016 in Canna Blog

What is Hemp? Difference Between Marijuana

It is reported that the United States founding fathers were hip on hemp. George Washington grew industrial strain hemp crops that were used for the production of rope, thread, canvas, and many other industrial applications.  It's also been rumored that refusing to grow hemp in America during the 17th and 18th centuries was against the law!  You could be jailed in Virginia for refusing to grow hemp from 1763 to 1769.

Amazing how times have turned and today ladies and gents, let's take a look at this crop and shed some light on this animal, well actually plant.

Hemp is a part of the Cannabis sativa plant family. It grows very fast and has a very low level of THC with much higher concentrations of cannabidiol (CBD).  It has been said that hemp use dates back ten thousand years ago when it was first spun into useable fiber.  Modern day use after it's been refined include commercial items such as paper, textiles, food, fuel, and clothing to name a few. Hemp does not produce psychoactive effects.

There are many differences between hemp and marijuana with the most obvious being its use. Marijuana is used as a consumable and topical product for medical and recreational purposes. Hemp is used for industrial purposes. Hemp fibers are very strong and have many practical applications.  Marijuana has psychoactive effects (you feel stoned). Hemp does not have psychoactive effects. Hemp is a high-growing plant and produces CBD which has many of the same pain management benefits of marijuana without feeling stoned. Marijuana plants produce high levels of THC (the get stoned compound).

The biggest difference between marijuana and hemp is that research has shown, CBD acts to reduce the psychoactive effects of THC. That means what is extracted from hemp counteracts that which is extracted from marijuana, even though they are from the same Cannabis sativa plant family.

Hemp is hip!  It's a usable practical plant that has incredible benefits.  As states continue to legalize marijuana and countries open their borders, the Cannabis sativa family of plants has a great chance of becoming the new "cash crop" of the millennium.

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Cool quip from wiki: Hemp was made illegal to grow without a permit in the U.S. under the Controlled Substances Act passed in 1970 because of its relation to marijuana. Some states have made the cultivation of industrial hemp legal, but farmers in many states have not yet begun to grow it because of resistance from the DEA. In 2013, after the legalization of cannabis in the state, several farmers in Colorado planted and harvested several acres of hemp, bringing in the first hemp crop in the United States in over half a century.

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Way to grow Colorado! A state where new beginning flourish and new ideas come to life.

 

Enjoy the Now!

MrD.