Hemp is related to marijuana, but it is not the same thing.
Industrial hemp could be the ‘Cinderella crop’ that turns around the economy, not only locally, but provincially and nationally as well.
It has incredibly vast applications to a range of products and industries beyond the chemical that recreational users of its sister plant, cannabis sativa, take advantage of.
In speaking with County of Barrhead deputy reeve Bill Lee after he attended a convention in Drayton Valley last week, it blew my mind to learn hemp can be incorporated into such dissimilar products as concrete blocks, luggage, body armour, car parts and cosmetics.
Even better is the fact that it can sequester more than five times the amount of carbon in the air than trees can.
Take that greenies!
Seriously though, while I’m not a proponent for the legalization of marijuana, I do feel that rules and restrictions should be lifted in an effort to allow interested Albertans a chance to take advantage of this industry.
It would be foolish not to.
I’ve written plenty about our need to diversify our economy and like Lee, I agree that any opportunity to put money back into farmer’s pockets — or anyone else’s pockets for that matter — ought to be taken advantage of.
Sure, hemp does contain miniscule amounts of tetrahydrocannabol (THC) and it looks fairly similar, but if you know what you’re looking for, you can tell the difference.
For one, the plant’s leaf has between three to five points to it whereas regular cannabis has seven.
Hemp also contains a higher concentration of the medical component cannabidoil (CBD) that can be used to treat a variety of ailments without any of the associated issues that come with THC usage.
Let the Americans have their coal.
We’ve still got one of the world’s largest oil deposits and our pipelines are getting approved.
It will be years yet before we are ‘weaned’ from our fossil-fuel dependency and while there is still money to be made, we are also working on back-up plans.
We’ve all seen the giant windmills and solar panels.
In the meantime, like Lee suggests in the story on Page 10A, the opportunities are there for those who want to be leaders.
