Written by Wes Annac, The Culture of Awareness - http://tinyurl.com/ppmt8cd

Continued from Part 1

David P. West tells us that hemp’s among the most misunderstood plants of our time.

“Surely no member of the vegetable kingdom has ever been more misunderstood than hemp. For too many years, emotion—not reason—has guided our policy toward this crop. And nowhere have emotions run hotter than in the debate over the distinction between industrial hemp and marijuana.” (1)

David also explains the difference between THC, marijuana’s active ingredient, and CBD, the non-intoxicating cannabinoid that’s found in industrial hemp.

“Cannabis is the only plant genus that contains the unique class of molecular compounds called cannabinoids. Many cannabinoids have been identified, but two preponderate: THC, which is the psychoactive ingredient of Cannabis, and CBD, which is an antipsychoactive ingredient.

“One type of Cannabis is high in the psychoactive cannabinoid, THC, and low in the antipsychoactive cannabinoid, CBD. This type is popularly known as marijuana. Another type is high in CBD and low in THC. Variants of this type are called industrial hemp.” (2)

Hemp contains a lot of CBD and almost no THC, but most people who don’t know anything about it are too worried that legalizing it will lead their children to try to get high off of it. It’d feel pretty bad for anyone who tried to get intoxicated from hemp, because it seems silly and it wouldn’t work.

Parents don’t have to worry about their children seeing it as some new drug, and all we have to do is let them know about the difference between it and marijuana.

We can let our children know that these plants are related but one of them serves various industrial purposes and the other causes an intoxication that they’re best to stay away from – at least until they’re at an age where they can make their own decisions.

The fact that hemp and marijuana are so closely related has been used as a reason to keep the former’s enormous benefits from us, and it’s because of the close-mindedness of the public (and our elected officials) that it hasn’t yet been legalized.

If we can understand the difference between the two related plants, we can bring an end to the close-mindedness and open up to the idea that this plant might actually help us out of the industrial and economic mess we’re in.

David West explains why hemp isn’t intoxicating.

“Myth: Smoking industrial hemp gets a person high.

“Reality: The THC levels in industrial hemp are so low that no one could get high from smoking it. Moreover, hemp contains a relatively high percentage of another cannabinoid, CBD, that actually blocks the marijuana high. Hemp, it turns out, is not only not marijuana; it could be called ‘antimarijuana.’” (3)

CBD actually prevents a THC induced high, and what dismal traces of THC are left in the industrial hemp plant are rendered useless by this compound. This alone should reassure scared parents that nothing about the hemp plant will intoxicate them or their children or even change their consciousness in the tiniest way.

This plant is as harmless as the trees we use for wood and paper, and it can actually make stronger and more durable paper than what we receive from trees. Not to mention that it grows much, much quicker than any tree ever will, and it can be harvested three times a year (as opposed to waiting seventy years for a tree to grow into maturity).

Footnotes:

Concluded in Part 3 tomorrow. Head here to read the full article.