It's easy to be confused about the differences between Hemp and marijuana. But the more you learn about Hemp, the more you will find what a really cool thing it is. It's not just for potheads! (And to reassure you, the staff at Robbins Pet Care are not potheads.) Here are some facts about Hemp we hope you will find interesting:

You cannot get high from smoking Hemp

Though Hemp and marijuana are varieties of the Cannabis sativa plant, smoking marijuana will make the user high, and smoking Hemp will not. Hemp contains less than one percent of the active ingredient THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), the substance that gives pot smokers a high. Marijuana plants, on the other hand, contain 10 to 20 percent THC.

A little about Hemp

The Hemp plant is the most versatile crop in the entire plant kingdom and has shown its uses throughout history. The first book was written in China on Hemp paper, and the U.S. was founded on Hemp. George Washington was the largest Hemp farmer in the world during the late 1700s and Thomas Jefferson called on farmers to "plant Hemp seed, not tobacco." Hemp was even considered legal tender for almost 200 years in the United States. You could pay your taxes with Hemp!

What happened to it?

It's a booming industry in other countries, for instance, Canada. Here in the U.S., it has been outlawed as a crop since 1937. It is legal to buy products made from Hemp, but not to grow it as a crop. In brief, there were technological advances at the turn of the 20th century that would have made Hemp products very economical to produce. The U.S. Department of Agriculture even repeatedly stated that Hemp was on the verge of becoming America's number one farm crop. In the 1930s, however, key American industrialists (such as DuPont, Hearst Paper Manufacturing Division and Kimberly Clark USA) proclaimed it to be a threat to their own economic survival. A massive propaganda campaign (Hearst media) demonized cannabis in the eyes of the public, and the power of government was used to cripple and eventually exterminate industrial uses of hemp. The Marijuana Tax Act passed and was signed into law in December, 1937, outlawing Hemp in America.

It's unfortunate as Hemp has much to offer. Over 25,000 products can be manufactured from hemp, including paper products, foods, building products, fabrics, diapers, insulation, carpets and most importantly, its potential as a sustainable, non-polluting biomass energy.

Other useful facts about hemp--

Hemp as a crop

• Hemp is an easy crop to grow and will yield from three to six tons per acre on any land that will grow corn, wheat or oat.
  
• Hemp produces twice as much fiber per acre as cotton.
  
• Hemp can be harvested twice a year and, in warmer areas such as southern California, Texas, Florida and the like, it could be a year-round crop. Hemp has a short growing season and can be planted after food crops have been harvested.
  
• Hemp is easy on the soil, sheds its lush foliage throughout the season, adding mulch to the soil and helping retain moisture. Hemp is an ideal crop for the semi-arid West and open range land.
  
• Hemp naturally repels weed growth and has few insect enemies. Few insect enemies and no weed problems means Hemp requires no herbicides and few or no pesticides. Less fertilizer use results in less runoff into waterways and groundwater; therefore, less water pollution. Growing cotton, by contrast, currently uses fifty percent of all agricultural chemicals in the United States.
  
• Hemp will grow in any state in the US and most of Canada.
  
• Hemp stems are 80% hurds (pulp byproduct after the hemp fiber is removed from the plant). Hemp hurds are 77% cellulose -- a primary chemical feed stock (industrial raw material) used in the production of chemicals, plastics and fiber. An acre of full grown hemp plants can sustainably provide from four to 50 or even 100 times the cellulose found in cornstalks, kenaf, or sugar cane -- the planet's next highest annual cellulose plants.
  
• The Hemp plant reduces soil erosion thereby controlling mudslides and saving mountains and rivers.

Hemp as an energy resource

• Farming only 6% of continental US acreage with biomass crops (i.e., cornstalks, hemp, waste paper) would provide all of America's gas and oil energy needs, ending dependence upon fossil fuels.
  
• Hemp is Earth's number one biomass resource; it is capable of producing 10 tons per acre in four months. Biomass can be converted to fuel in the form of clean-burning alcohol, or no-sulphur man-made coal. And instead of creating sulfur-based smog and acid rain as by-products, it produces oxygen instead.

Hemp as building materials

• One acre of hemp produces as much cellulose fiber pulp as 4.1 acres of trees; ideal for producing pressed board, particle board and for concrete construction molds.
  
• Hemp fiberboard is far stronger than similar wood products, and can replace almost every item used in building a house. (Except electrical wiring and glass windows.)
  
• Practical, inexpensive fire-resistant construction material, with excellent thermal and sound-insulating qualities, can be made by heating and compressing hemp fibers to create strong construction paneling, replacing dry wall and plywood. William B. Conde of Conde's Redwood Lumber, Inc, near Eugene, OR, has demonstrated the superior strength, flexibility and economy of hemp composite building materials compared to wood fiber, even as beams.
  
• Hemp has been used throughout history for carpet backing. Hemp fiber has potential in the manufacture of strong, rot-resistant carpeting -- eliminating the poisonous fumes of burning synthetic materials in a house or commercial fire, along with allergic reactions associated with new synthetic carpeting, which may outgas volatile toxic fumes for months or even years, endangering human health.
  
• Plastic plumbing pipes (PVC pipes) can be manufactured using renewable hemp cellulose as the chemical feedstocks, replacing nonrenewable coal or petroleum-based chemical feedstocks.
  
• Hemp oil can also be used to produce paint, varnish, ink, lubricating oils and plastic susbstitues. For thousands of years, virtually all good paints and varnishes were made with hempseed oil and/or linseed oil. (In 1935, two years before being outlawed, 116 million pounds of hemp seed were used in the United States to produce paint and varnish.)

Hemp as paper products

• Trees must grow for 20 to 50 years after planting before they can be harvested for commercial use. Hemp, on the otherhand, can be harvested within 4 months after it is planted.
  
• Fewer caustic and toxic chemicals are used to make paper from hemp than are used to make paper from trees.
  
• Hemp produces 4.3 times as much pulp fiber per hectare than trees.
  
• Hemp paper lasts 4 to 5 times longer than paper made from trees.
  
• Hemp paper does not yellow with age like acidic paper made from tree pulp.
  
• Hemp paper products can be recycled seven times, while white paper made from wood pulp can only be recycled three times.
  
• All types of paper products can be produced from hemp: newsprint, computer paper, stationary, cardboard, envelopes, toilet paper, even tampons.
  
• If the hemp pulp paper process of 1916 were in use today, it could replace 40 to 70% of all pulp paper (from trees), including corrugated boxes, computer printout paper and paper bags.

Hemp as a fabric

• Hemp is softer, warmer and more water-resistant than cotton, and has three times as much tensile strength.
  
• Hemp withstands heat, mildew, insects, and is not damaged by light. Oil paintings on hemp and/or flax canvas have stayed in fine condition for centuries.
  
• Hemp is more abrasion resistant than any other natural fabric, more absorbent than cotton, and as breathable as linen.
  
• The earliest known woven fabric was apparently of hemp, which began to be worked in the eighth millennium (8,000-7,000 BC).
  
• Until the 1820s in America (and until the 20th Century in most of the rest of the world), 80 percent of all textiles and fabrics used for clothing, tents, bed sheets, and linens, rugs, drapes, quilts, towels, diapers, etc. -- and even the US flag, "Old Glory," were principally made from fibers of cannabis hemp.
  
• From 70-90% of all rope, twine and cordage was made from hemp until 1937, when it was then replaced mostly by petrochemical fibers.

Hemp as a food

• The Hemp plant has been used since the beginning of time as one of the world's most nutritious plants, second only to the Soybean.
  
• Extracting protein from hemp is less expensive than extracting protein from soybeans.
  
• Hemp protein can be processed and flavored in any way soybean protein can. Hemp oil can also be used to make highly nutritious tofu, butter, cheese, salad oils, and other foods.
  
• Hempseed is the highest of any plant in essential fatty acids.
  
• Hempseed oil is among the lowest in saturated fats at 8% of total oil volume. The oil pressed from hempseed contains 55% linoleic acid (LA) and 5% linolenic acid (LNA). Only flax oil has more linolenic acid at 58% , but hempseed oil is the highest in total essential fatty acids at 80% of total oil volume. These essential fatty acids are responsible for our immune response.
  
  LA and LNA are involved in producing life energy from food and the movement of that energy throughout the body.
  
  Essential fatty acids govern growth, vitality and state of mind. LA and LNA are involved in transferring oxygen from the air in the lungs to every cell in the body. They play a part in holding oxygen in the cell membrane where it acts as a barrier to invading viruses and bacteria, neither of which can thrive in the presence of oxygen.
  
• Hemp oil is NOT intoxicating.