KNOW THE DIFFERENCE

Although the regular dialogue in the local media on industrial hemp is
appreciated, the physical distinctions between hemp and marijuana and the
result of cultivating the two together are often glossed over and lend to
misinterpretation of the facts.

Although the two look very similar as young plants, their distinctions
become very obvious as they mature. Hemp is tall and lanky with very few
leaves and fewer branches; marijuana is much shorter and very bushy.

Hemp matures much faster than marijuana (90 days versus 120 days). By the
time farmers begin harvesting hemp, the pot would have just begun to
develop its flowers, the only part of a marijuana plant that is of value
for drug use.

One of hemp's primary uses in cultivation is as a weed killer. Because hemp
naturally grows much faster and taller than pot and because hemp plants are
grown very close together -- 7- to 14-inch separation in row crops -- it
creates a canopy over the pot, blocking the light and killing marijuana
plant with all the other weeds.

Even if the pot did reach maturity, its value as a drug crop would be
greatly reduced because of cross-pollination. The hemp grown around the
world today has as little as 0.03 percent THC; marijuana typically has 14
percent to 24 percent THC.

The concentration of hemp pollen not only creates seeds, which decreases
the quality of the flowers on its own, but also generates a lower THC
marijuana plant on subsequent generations.

T.D. Ruth, Louisville