Forum tackles confusion between hemp, marijuana
The line distinguishing hemp and marijuana can be blurry at times.
The Hemp Industry Forum held at the Innovation Place in Regina on Wednesday afternoon tried to make that line clearer.
“We’ve spent the last 20 years trying to clearly draw a line between the two,” said Garry Meier, president of the Hemp Production Services Inc.
The main difference between marijuana and hemp is the Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content, said Meier. THC is the chemical in the plant responsible for the high or the psychological effects of cannabis.
Meier said the Government of Canada regulates hemp to ensure there is less than 0.3 per cent of THC present in the plants.
This THC content is used as the defining factor between industrial hemp and any other cannabis products. Industrial hemp must have less than 0.3 per cent of THC, and anything with more than that is considered marijuana.
Larry Holbrook, chief research officer for CanniMed Therapeutics Inc., said another difference is that medical marijuana growers only use the female cannabis plants, whereas hemp growers use both the male and female plants.
“The medical part of it is not in the plant at all in one sense,” Holbrook said.
“It’s only the female (plants) you want. There are these flower buds ... the chemical, the medical stuff you want is in these.”
Hemp is still a controlled substance under Canada’s Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, despite the lower THC content. The Industrial Hemp Regulations, however, allow individuals or companies with a licence to grow industrial hemp for commercial purposes.