Weed, pot, hash, grass, hemp - all have been used as nicknames for marijuana. As studies increase, however, it turns out hemp and marijuana might not have as much in common as people think.
While technically a single species, Cannabis sativa - better known as marijuana - has evolved over the years to present two very different plants: industrial hemp used for its fiber and typical marijuana harvested for its hallucinogenic properties.
The question being debated is whether or not the agricultural benefits of hemp are enough to tip the scale in favor of legalizing production of the specific form of Cannabis sativa.
"The seeds and stalks of hemp can be used for a million different things - from making clothing to carpets, foods, lotions, medicines, paper and even fuel," said Patrick Greeson, greenhouse manager at the William A. Natorp Co.
A chemical analysis of marijuana shows the plant contains between three and 15 percent THC - the component that causes the mind-altering effects associated with the drug. Hemp, on the other hand, only has a .3 THC level, which makes obtaining a high from smoking hemp extremely difficult.
"If you tried hard enough you could probably get a bit of a buzz from smoking (hemp)," Greeson said, laughing. "You're probably more likely to get emphysema first, though."
Plants harvested as marijuana typically consist of big, bushy leaves and an abundance of buds - the parts of the plant anatomy typically smoked, said Margaret McMahon, associate professor of horticulture and crop science at Ohio State. Hemp plants, however, are distinguished by their long stalks used for their fibers.
"It's a good crop," McMahon said. "It has a deep root system and is good for the soil structure. It doesn't suck the soil dry like cotton."
Adam Eidinger, a spokesman for the group Vote Hemp in Bedford, Mass., said he estimated the current market for hemp products at more than $275 million annually and increasing.
According to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report, however, the market for hemp in the U.S. will remain small because of hemp's competition with other more-established raw materials and manufacturing practices.
Today much of the hemp sold in the U.S. is imported from Canada, which in 1998 legalized the cultivation of Cannabis sativa with less than one percent THC.
According to the Hemp Industries Association, the U.S. is the only industrialized nation not to permit the production of hemp.
Many fear legalization of industrial hemp will provide cover for marijuana fields because of the similar plant structures. Eidinger, however, said cross-pollination between the two specimens would have detrimental effects on the marijuana plants and therefore would deter marijuana growers from mixing crops.
"If the economy was right, it could be a wonderful crop. (It) could help solve some problems," Greeson said.
"Politicians don't want to grow it because they have a fear they'd be growing the THC type instead of the fiber type," McMahon said. "We just have to get off our ignorant horse here, throw blind passion out of it and just look at the facts concerning hemp."
Olivia Radcliffe can be reached at radclliffe.33@osu.edu.
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1 comments
As someone who has made a fortune selling pot since 1964, and has helped your kids stop being alcoholics and Republicans, I fear I will now have to retire with all my ill gotten gains, that I have not had to pay taxes on to support your illegal wars and the lazy cops who go after pot users instead of real criminals. There is so much misinformation going around on the issue that is really all about the culture war going on now on most major issues of the day. The right-wingers out there deserve to eat the crap they spill out their mouths as their kids now get high instead of drinking and smoking cig's. The people who really will hurt are the ones who have been making a killing off of the high prices they have been charging people for years for a plant that is so easy to grow that your grandma could grow it successfully in a flower box with alittle lite and water and fertilizer. Take the profit out of it and that will open the cops time to go out and find real bad guys who are molesting your children.
Stop feeding your face with fast foods and watching your waist grow like a pot plant, and read the facts available on the internet on the positive effects that common folks have reported with the use of cannabis and how it has changed their lives to the positive and how it just makes them just plain feel better. This issue won't ever go away no matter who you put in office as millions of common folk choose pot over pills now. How many times have you heard of a bar room brawl and when was the last time you heard of a pot room brawl? When was the last time you heard of someone who died from smoking to much pot? People wake up and smell the flowers, the voters won't stand by and let lazy cops bust us, and take our land, and make lazy lawyers take our hard earned money that supports the perverted legal system that makes money off the suffering of people who smoke or eat a flowers just to deal with lifes daily problems.