Cannabis: The Great Divide
When someone says there is a divide amongst people in this country, sadly, it comes as no surprise. There are obviously people that are for cannabis and people that are fundamentally against it. However, for the past several years there has been a “cold war” brewing inside the cannabis industry. The two sides in this battle are medical marijuana and consumable hemp. Part of the reason for this could simply be misconception and miscommunication. Which, let’s be honest, that’s where most conflicts of large groups start. With that said, we should first clear a few things up.
I’ll start by saying, they’re both the cannabis plant. Period. To the average person, when you say the word marijuana, people immediately think of Cheech and Chong or Willie Nelson. When you say the word hemp, they think of pirate ships with hemp made ropes and sails. In both cases, those people are very right and very wrong at the same time. These are somewhat accurate stereotypes, but like most stereotypes, there is more than meets the eye. For many years now, citizens of states with medical marijuana programs have been using cannabis products to treat conditions without the intention of getting stoned (though some most certainly do). Due to that fact and the fact that many states don’t have operational medical marijuana programs, hemp derived products such as CBD have emerged on the market.
According to the latest data from the Marijuana Policy Project, the total medical marijuana patients in the U.S. are 2.3% of the total population, with .62% of Louisiana citizens participating in the program as of August 2022. This is compared to a Gallup poll from 2019, showing 14% U.S. citizens reported using hemp derived CBD products. With the science always evolving, the market has shifted away from CBD only products and into products of other cannabinoids such as CBN, CBG, and multiple forms of THC. This is where things get tricky.
When any industry has established itself and brings on major investors, that industry tends to fiercely fend off any threat to its market share. The medical and recreational marijuana industries are no different. Most people that use marijuana are using it to get its most active chemical compound, THC (aka Delta-9 THC). Marijuana is a federally illegal substance, making it hard for the average, law-abiding citizen to get their hands on. Since the federally legal hemp industry has shifted into making legally produced Delta-9 THC products that can be shipped right to your door or bought over the counter, you can see that this may ruffle the feathers of marijuana company investors.
I say all this not to take a shot at the marijuana industry, but to illustrate that an all out cannabis civil war isn’t necessary. We’re both going for the same goal. That goal is to help people take control of their own bodies without taking medications that they feel are not good for their long term health. The pharmaceutical industry and the doctors that prescribe their products are absolutely necessary for humans to be healthy. However, when sales quotas and shareholder meetings dictate what people put into their bodies, things are sure to go off the rails.
Consumable hemp products are constantly changing the non-cannabis users perceptions of cannabis in a positive way due to its availability and low costs. Unfortunately, marijuana policy has been used as a political talking point and hemp has basically been ignored for so long that consumable hemp has become the Trojan horse of marijuana. It makes people understand that cannabis is really just another tool in the tool box instead of the devil weed that the architects of the “Just Say No” campaigns would have us believe. Consumable hemp drives people to the medical marijuana programs and the medical marijuana programs drive people to consumable hemp. It’s far past time that these two warring sides embraced each other. Why can’t we all just get along, man?
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