I don’t really have a great understanding of the terms and how they are different. Marijuana in my state is illegal, yet I see various products in the gas station that claim to mimic it. Help?
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At a base level, hemp is just part of the cannabis family of plants that can be converted into various products due to its fibers and seeds. THC is the compound found in marijuana that causes the psychoactive or “feel good” side of the “high” you get. CBD is the non-psychoactive side, and the second most prevalent ingredient found in cannabis, which takes some processing to collect.
THC is the main psychoactive compound in cannabis that people intake for recreational use. CBD is a different compound that does not cause a “high” but rather has great potential for medicinal uses such as relieving chronic pain.
Cannabis has a variety of different strains being grown at this point, each a little different from each other. Hemp is a form that tends to have very little THC in it and thus is useless for recreational use(which also tends to make it legal to grow in more areas), but has numerous other uses such as CBD, natural fibers for rope or clothing, or even using parts of the plant as a food source.
Obligatory not an expert.
In reality, all you need to know is that THC is the psychoactive substance in weed that gives you the high. I suspect this is what allows roadside drug wipes to test positive for cannabis.
CBD is a substance in cannabis that helps to counter the effects of THC. It also has some other health benefits like treating cancer and epilepsy. This is why there are some CBD shops opening up in some major cities.
CBD doesn’t have any way to make you high, so it also means that you won’t (generally) get arrested for using CBD oil (unless it has some THC in it).
We use hemp as bedding for my ferrets’ cages. It’s essentially weakened cannabis that doesn’t have the THC in it, or remnants of actual cannabis plants that the police have seized from cannabis farms in attics and the like. It might have some CBD in it – but this may vary between who you get it from.
There’s a plant species called Cannabis sativa, originating somewhere in central Asia. The flower buds of the plant have chemicals in them that affect animal brains, probably to deter insects from eating them, the stems have long fibers running along them, and the seeds are edible.
People domesticated Cannabis sativa and bred it to do different things.
– Some varieties have been bred to grow really tall stems with good quality fibers running the whole length so the fibers can be extracted and used to make fabric. Others have been bred to make a lot of seeds for food. These C. sativa varieties are called hemp.
– other C. sativa varieties have been bred to make a lot of brain affecting chemicals in the flowerbuds, because people like having their brain chemistry altered. Those varieties are often called marijuana or weed, and also get all kinds of goofy names like “kush” and “purple haze.”
THC and CBD are two of the more famous brain affecting chemicals found in C. sativa flower buds. THC (which is really a few similar chemicals) causes all the “high on weed” effects you’re familiar with, like increased appetite, happiness, confusion, and paranoia. CBD decreases the intensity of anxiety and psychosis and doesn’t generally make people high.
In 2018, Congress passed a law allowing farmers to grow and sell hemp so long as it doesn’t have too much of the most common type of THC (“delta 9”). Other types of THC (like “delta 8”) and other brain-affecting chemicals from C. sativa flower buds were suddenly legalized. Those are what’s probably in the gas station products you’re seeing.
Cannabis is a plant with many uses, this is also the Latin name for the plant.
Hemp is the traditional English name for this plant. However it mostly refers to varieties of this plant that are used for fiber. This fiber is used to make ropes, cloth, and traditionally paper.
Marijuana is the Spanish name for this plant. When people wanted to ban Hemp, they used the word Marijuana to make it sound Mexican and to convince racists that it’s bad.
The main guy who wanted to ban hemp was Harry Anslinger.
Many believe that the real reason was because of wood based paper. It’s one thing to ban a drug, it’s an extremely weird thing to ban a material used to make ropes, cloth, paper, and other items.
Today people use the word “chemical” to fear monger.
Everything is a chemical. Water is Dihydrogen Monoxide.
CBD and THC are chemicals that are naturally found in Cannabis.
THC can be used as a narcotic drug where it will impact the consciousness.
CBD does not get you high, but it’s believed to have medical effects.
The plants were cultivated by humans for centuries, if not longer.
People who made rope chose the biggest strongest plants that made good ropes. These plants are now referred to as Hemp and they have almost no THC so they cannot get you high or be used as a narcotic drug.
People who wanted to smoke drugs chose the plants that got them the most high. As a result these plants are weak, difficult to grow, but can be a powerful narcotic drug. These are usually referred to as marijuana today.
CBD can be found in both plant varieties.
CBD definitely has the potential to have good medical effects for some conditions, and research on this is still being done.
CBD is also a bit mysterious because the research on it is mostly recent and ongoing.
A lot of people exploit this mystery by claiming it can help too many medical conditions.
There’s also a lot of fraudulent products. Someone might buy regular cough syrup. Then put it in new bottles and call it “CBD cough syrup”.
If you want to try CBD, buy the plant parts or the oil and look for one that doesn’t make medical claims.
Unfortunately this is how a lot of alternative medicine operates.
I once personally saw a guy repacking melatonin as a “CBD sleep aid”.
Hemp is a family of plants. It’s known for its fiberous stalks, so it’s great for making string and rope.
Cannabis or Marijuana is a type of hemp that has been selectively bred to have high THC levels. Hemp is generally classified as less than 0.3% THC and anything over 0.3% is Cannabis.
THC is the chemical that gets you high.
CBD is another chemical found in hemp and Cannabis. It has some alleged health benefits. Although proper clinical studies on it are still in early stages. But most agree it isn’t harmful at least.
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