Hemp Flower vs Marijuana
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Hemp Flower Vs Marijuana : What's The Difference?
There seems to be a lot of confusion over exactly what the difference is between the newly popular hemp flower vs marijuana flower with high levels of THC. As cannabis and hemp flower experts, we thought we should clear the air, pun intended! By the end of this brief article, you will clearly understand the nuanced differences between the two flowers and be smarter than all of your uninformed stoner friends. So just what is the difference between hemp vs marijuana, or cannabis?
Let's start with CBD hemp flower. Technically speaking, hemp flower is, at this point, a legal definition. The 2018 farm bill defines hemp as, "any part of the cannabis plant containing less than .3% THC." I'm paraphrasing, but you get the point, as I'll save you all the technical jargon.
If you're paying attention, you will notice the word cannabis, in the definition of hemp. I think you will see where I'm going with this. Technically speaking, hemp and cannabis are the same plant. With the big difference being: hemp contains minute amounts of THC, while cannabis will get you high AF!
At this point in the game, you could not tell the difference between hemp and marijuana, especially if you're smoking DLO hemp buds! It looks the same, tastes the same and grows the same. This however, that was not always the case. To explain this a bit further, let's take a trip back to the origin of hemp and see why all this became so confusing.
The Origin of Hemp Flower
Industrial hemp - the one they make hemp seed oil from and the one your hippie grandma used to secretly grow - is a lot different than cannabis. It's in the same genus as traditional "wacky tobacky", but it's structure as a plant is much different. Old school hemp grew pole straight with airy wispy buds and was definitely not a good look to smoke. In fact, those who smoked it, usually teens who found it growing in the wild and thought they scored, were disappointed with no high and a headache to boot! You see the THC levels were so low it would not get you stoned and even the CBD and terpenes are extremely low in traditional industrial hemp.
After the first farm bill in 2014, hemp producers and breeders understood that smokable hemp could be a thing, but not with those airy terpless buds off of the industrial hemp plant. So many wise breeders began to cross industrial hemp with selected low THC cannabis strains, to attempt to lower the THC level, while adding a desirable bud structure and some terpenes (flavor). We love to talk terpenes and the "Entourage Effect", so check out our article on that if you are curious how important terpenes are.
Then these hemp breeders took these low THC cannabis and hemp crosses and selectively crossed them again and again. They began to back cross them until the desired level on THC was reached (which is less than .3% THC). So at this point modern hemp is intertwined with cannabis. Just a side note on the .3 THC level. It is so low, less than 1%, so you do not feel any of the effects of the THC. Interesting to note, non-alcoholic beer is usually .5-1% alcohol! That's twice as much as hemp flower buds, but I digress.
Although hemp strains began with industrial hemp genetics, that origin is barely noticeable. They look a lot more like their cannabis mom, than their hemp dad. That's for good reason, as nobody is trying to smoke flavorless airy hemp buds.
For us at Dreamland Organics, we aim to grow hemp buds that will fool your marijuana smoking stoner friends, as they probably think all hemp bud is low quality trash. Show them our organic buds, or even better, let them smoke them and watch as they say hey, "This is kinda fire!".
What Does Hemp Flower Look Like?
The CBD hemp flower of today looks and smells just like cannabis, if you're getting it from the right farm, because basically it is. The only difference is it won't get you stoned, only chill you out. Those original hemp/cannabis crosses have been back crossed so many times with low THC cannabis, that you usually can't tell they came from industrial hemp at all.
Todays hemp flower is more like marijuana than actual industrial hemp. A good smokable hemp flower should look pretty close to cannabis, though in our experience THC flower tends to have more trichomes, the crystals you see on the outside of the bud.
Hemp Flower vs Marijuana : Do They Smell The Same?
That's good news for us all and I hope that all makes sense. People ask me all the time, does your CBD hemp flower taste and smell just like cannabis flower? The answer is yes! I dare anyone to show one of your THC flower smoking friends one of our hemp buds and see if they can tell it's a hemp nug. I betcha they won't.
In fact I betcha they could even smoke it and not realize it was not cannabis. Our terpenes are so prominent, the entourage effect just might convince them they are actually high!
Take the DLO challenge and laugh as your stoner buddies act all high off our hemp flower. You can quietly laugh to yourself knowing that hemp is cannabis and no one will be the wiser. I hope this little journey was fun and you now know the difference between CBD hemp flower and marijuana or the THC cannabis flower. It's a nuanced difference mostly revolving around the level of THC. That's pretty much it!
Stay blessed ya'll and put some respect on your lungs. Whether hemp or cannabis, always smoke organic, high quality buds. Life is too short to put trash in your body.
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