Is it hemp, cannabis, or marijuana?
That depends on who’s talking about the enigmatic plant that’s legal in some forms (for now), but will face new restrictions in others this fall.
The confusion doesn’t surprise Nick Johnson, author of the book “Grass Roots,” which examines the history of the cannabis plant and its use both as an industrial raw material and as a drug.
“It’s one of the world’s oldest domesticated crops,” Johnson says about cannabis. “And it’s also incredibly enigmatic. We still don’t understand everything about its biology and why it does what it does, how it creates the compounds and molecules it creates.”
Cannabis “has more than 480 components,” according to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), but U.S. regulators focus on just one: THC, the compound linked to the drug’s infamous psychoactive effects.
Federal laws define legal hemp differently from illegal marijuana based on their THC levels. As long as a plant contains less than 0.3% of a form of THC (with a much stricter limit coming into effect later this year), it’s considered hemp, not marijuana. And while marijuana is in the process of being reclassified as a Schedule III drug, instead of the more restrictive Schedule I, hemp is not a controlled substance.
Despite the different policies, qualities, and uses, the plants are more similar than different.
“Botanically speaking, both hemp and marijuana belong to a single species: Cannabis sativa,” says Kelly Vining, an associate professor at Oregon State University who studies hemp genomics. In general, Vining says, taxonomists consider hemp and marijuana subspecies of Cannabis sativa.
But legal definitions of hemp are under intense debate, both in Congress and across the United States. A new federal law will drastically limit the amount of THC (and similar compounds) in final products, rather than focusing on the plants—aiming to close a loophole in the 2018 Farm Bill that gave rise to a multibillion-dollar industry of THC beverages.
Critics say the new law needs to be revised, warning of catastrophic effects on THC beverage makers and companies that use other cannabinoids—compounds found in cannabis—like CBD, or cannabidiol.
The changes in definitions are just the latest twists for hemp, an ancient commercial crop that was later banned. Here’s a brief guide to its history:
Hemp was once an important crop in the US
A staple crop in colonial America and the early days of settlement, hemp was used to produce everything from ropes and sails for ships to clothing for enslaved people, as well as twine for baling cotton and other produced goods.
“Hemp was cultivated in New England as early as 1629,” according to a history of hemp published by S.S. Boyce in 1900.
Colonies like Virginia rewarded farmers who grew hemp and penalized those who didn’t, he noted.
There was one thing hemp wasn’t used for, says Johnson, author of Grass Roots.
“No one smoked marijuana in George Washington’s time,” he says, seeking to clarify a common misconception. “They grew hemp. They didn’t smoke it—they didn’t drink it. They didn’t use it in any psychoactive way.”
The origin of “cannabis as a drug”
Indigenous peoples of North and South America didn’t use cannabis as a drug before colonizers like Britain and Spain introduced those varieties of the plant, according to Johnson. Varieties of the plant grown for psychoactive use emerged much earlier and on another continent: in the Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan.
Compared to the towering hemp plant, prized for its long, strong fibers, this Asian version of cannabis was short and bushy, valued for other reasons. To protect itself from intense solar radiation at high altitudes, Johnson explains, the plant developed a “sunscreen” for its flowers: the THC resin that coats the buds.
The British encountered the plant in India, where locals had been growing cannabis for psychoactive purposes for thousands of years. The spread of the variety to the Western Hemisphere was driven by an event that might seem unlikely: when Britain abolished slavery in the Caribbean in 1834, it brought indentured Indian workers to labor on Caribbean plantations.
“That’s when there’s a mixing between the free or formerly enslaved Black populations and the new populations of indentured servants,” Johnson says. “The Rastafarian tradition has its roots there.”
The new variety of cannabis spread to the mainland, along with its status as a drug or medicine for pain relief and other uses. In 1851, a cannabis extract was listed in the United States Pharmacopeia, a reference used by doctors and pharmacists.
Despite their distinct evolutions, cannabis plants use a common mechanism to create the much-discussed cannabinoids like THC and CBD, says horticulture professor Vining.
“Both are synthesized by the same biosynthetic pathway in plants,” she says. “There are different enzymes that convert precursor molecules into subsequent molecules that are cannabinoids, including THC and CBD.”
But not every cannabis plant can produce high levels of these cannabinoids. Farmers have cultivated hemp for centuries, Vining notes, selecting plants that offer great size and strong fibers—and not THC or other cannabinoids.
The beginning of cannabis crackdown in the US
The first widely recorded cannabis ban in the US occurred in 1915 in El Paso, Texas, despite concerns from doctors and pharmacists who cited its medicinal use. The El Paso Herald reported: “It’s manufactured by the principal drug manufacturers of the country and is frequently prescribed, as it is a valuable sedative.”
Federal regulation of cannabis began with the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, reflecting a shift in terminology from “cannabis” to “marijuana,” widely attributed to authorities’ aims to link cannabis to racial and ethnic groups, portraying marijuana as a scourge among Mexicans and Blacks.
Even stricter restrictions on cannabis in the US came in the early 1970s, when President Richard Nixon approved its inclusion on the Schedule I drug list, alongside heroin, which have no accepted medical use and high abuse potential.
Nixon did this “against the unanimous recommendation of his drug commission, which advocated decriminalization,” as NPR’s Cokie Roberts reported in 2019. “Later, his advisor John Ehrlichman said Nixon wanted to target anti-war protesters who smoked marijuana and disrupt Black neighborhoods with criminalization.”
While other Schedule I drugs are known to pose fatal risks from overdose, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) states: “No deaths from marijuana overdose have been reported.”
A new definition of hemp in the US is on the way
As President Trump’s reclassification order suggests, public opinion on marijuana has softened across political lines since the 1970s. Many states have legalized marijuana for recreational or medicinal use, and cannabinoids like CBD have gained recognition from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other institutions for their therapeutic properties. But researchers say the federal marijuana ban hinders studies on potential health risks and benefits, even as its use spreads. The 2018 Farm Bill was a symbol of that shift in perspective, as politicians sought to differentiate hemp from marijuana. These changes also give lawmakers political cover to discuss easing regulations, says Adam Smith, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, a legalization advocacy group.
“We’re not really for marijuana, but we won’t stand in the way of this other thing that’s different,” Smith says about the political calculus. “But it’s not different, right? They’re all cannabinoids.”
The new, more restrictive rules regulating cannabis—and defining hemp—are set to take effect in November. From that date, a final product containing more than 0.4 milligrams of any form of THC or “any other cannabinoids that have similar effects” will not be considered hemp—and therefore will be illegal.
Hemp-based beverage companies, which built an increasingly popular market since the 2018 Farm Bill allowed some hemp-derived THC products, say the change would ban currently available low- or moderate-potency drinks, with 2 to 10 milligrams of THC per package. And other hemp companies say the new law would also effectively ban some non-intoxicating cannabinoid products, like CBD, if they contain traces of THC.
Beyond the THC debate, Vining of Oregon State University says easing rules on hemp has helped pave the way for studying more uses for the plant, from its nutritious seeds to its fibers, which can be used in “hempcrete,” a building material.
“There are many uses for Cannabis sativa beyond use as a drug,” she says. “And they have been used throughout human history.”
Source: npr.org by Bill Chappell