My roommate was wondering what the difference is between industrial hemp, used for making ropes and stuff, and the shit that you smoke… are they different species/genuses/same plant with different names?
Thanks…
They’re both the same species, * Cannabis sativa*.
Supposedly hemp grown for fiber has virtually no appreciable
THC content, though I find that hard to believe. To my own Weltanschauung it makes little difference because I think both drug-hemp and fiber-hemp should be legal.
Fibre-hemp is legal in Canada. I used to drive past fields of it when I would run between Winnipeg and Brandon (Manitoba.) The plants are huge, btw - they must be 10-12 feet tall.
I don’t think the farmers made a lot of cash off of it, however. Apparently it’s quite dificult to harvest (no machines are made to harvest plants that tall, I guess.)
Unca Cecil covered this topic in great detail in Triumph of the Straight Dope. The text to the column is posted at: Is hemp (nonpharmacological marijuana) the answer to our environmental problems? – but in order to see Slug’s priceless illustration you’ll need to buy the book.