Hemp vs. Marijuana: What’s The Difference Between Hemp & Marijuana?

I’m Jessica with Ministry of Hemp, America’s Leading Hemp Advocate.

Today we’re going to talk about hemp and marijuana. With the legalization of both of these industries, there’s a lot of information popping up, and with more information comes more MISinformation.

So today we’re gonna talk about how they are both similar and totally different! Let’s get to it.

HEMP VS. MARIJUANA: WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE? 

Classification

Cannabis is a family of plants with two primary classifications – indica and sativa. While marijuana can be a member of either the indica or sativa families, hemp is only a member of the cannabis sativa family.

Composition

Cannabis contains a variety of different cannabinoids. The two most dominant are tetrahydrocannabinol, known as THC, and cannabidiol, known as CBD. While both have been shown to have benefits to the human body, THC, has psychoactive effects, which means you “get high,” while CBD does not.

While hemp contains 0.3 percent THC or less, marijuana is abundant with THC, different strains can contain anywhere from 5-35 percent THC.

Usage

Marijuana is grown for medicinal and recreational purposes. Due to its psychoactive properties, marijuana is usually consumed by smoking, vaping or in edibles.

Hemp, on the other hand, has over 25,000 possible applications such as dietary supplements, skincare and body products, clothing and fabric, and even paper, construction, and fuel!

Legality

Hemp is legal to purchase in all 50 states and is legal to ship in the U.S.

Marijuana, however, is not legal in every state at this point. It’s still illegal in many states, some have only legalized medical marijuana, and some states have both legal medical and recreational marijuana.