HEMP MYTHS
& REALITIES
HEMP MYTHS
& REALITIES
Surely no member of the vegetable kingdom has everbeen more misunderstood than hemp. For too many years, emotion-notreason-has guided our policy toward this crop. And nowhere have emotionsrun hotter than in the debate over the distinction between industrial hempand marijuana. This paper is intended to inform that debate by offeringscientific evidence, so that farmers, policymakers, manufacturers, and thegeneral public can distinguish between myth and reality.
Botanically, the genus Cannabisis composed of several variants. Although there has been a long-standingdebate among taxonomists about how to classify these variants into species,applied plant breeders generally embrace a biochemical method to classifyvariants along utilitarian lines. Cannabisis the only plantgenus that contains the unique class of molecular compounds called cannabinoids.Many cannabinoids have been identified, but two preponderate: THC, whichis the psychoactive ingredient of Cannabis, and CBD, which is anantipsychoactive ingredient. One type of Cannabisishigh in the psychoactive cannabinoid, THC, and low in the antipsychoactivecannabinoid, CBD. This type is popularly known as marijuana. Another type is high in CBD and low in THC. Variants ofthis type are called industrial hemp.
In the United States, the debate about the relationshipbetween hemp and marijuana has been diminished by the dissemination of manystatements that have little scientific support. This report examines indetail ten of the most pervasive and pernicious of these myths.
Myth: United States law has always treatedhemp and marijuana the same.
Reality: The history of federal drug lawsclearly shows that at one time the U.S. government understood and acceptedthe distinction between hemp and marijuana.
Myth: Smoking industrial hemp getsa person high.
Reality: The THC levels in industrial hempare so low that no one could get high from smoking it. Moreover, hemp containsa relatively high percentage of another cannabinoid, CBD, that actuallyblocks the marijuana high. Hemp, it turns out, is not only not marijuana;it could be called "antimarijuana".
Myth: Even though THC levels arelow in hemp, the THC can be extracted and concentrated to produce a powerfuldrug.
Reality: Extracting THC from industrialhemp and further refining it to eliminate the preponderance of CBD wouldrequire such an expensive, hazardous, and time-consuming process that itis extremely unlikely anyone would ever attempt it, rather than simply obtaininghigh-THC marijuana instead.
Myth: Hemp fields would be used to hidemarijuana plants.
Reality: Hemp is grown quite differentlyfrom marijuana. Moreover, it is harvested at a different time than marijuana.Finally, cross-pollination between hemp plants and marijuana plants wouldsignificantly reduce the potency of the marijuana plant.
Myth: Legalizing hemp while continuing theprohibition on marijuana would burden local police forces.
Reality: In countries where hemp is grownas an agricultural crop, the police have experienced no such burdens.
Myth: Feral hemp must be eradicated becauseit can be sold as marijuana.
Reality: Feral hemp, or ditchweed, is aremnant of the hemp once grown on more than 400,000 acres by U.S. farmers.It contains extremely low levels of THC, as low as .05 percent. It has nodrug value, but does offer important environmental benefits as a nestinghabitat for birds. About 99 percent of the "marijuana" being eradicatedby the federal government-at great public expense-is this harmless ditchweed.Might it be that the drug enforcement agencies want to convince us thatditchweed is hemp in order to protect their large eradication budgets?
CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE -->Written by: David P. West, Ph.D., for the North American IndustrialHemp Council.This report is the first in a series of white papersproduced by: North American Industrial Hemp Council, Post Office Box 259329, Madison, Wisconsin 53725-9329; Tel: (608) 224-5135;
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