5 Little Known Facts About Hemp
The hemp market is growing rapidly all over the world, and although many may still associate it with a more or less controversial psychoactive stimulant, it has a vast spectrum of other applications. In this article, we want to introduce you to five little-known facts about hemp. We hope that they will help you understand why the popularization of the cannabis industry can only be beneficial!
#1: Hemp is not just marijuana. It comes in many different varieties
When we talk about cannabis, we usually think of cannabis indica (cannabis or just marijuana). It is extremely popular for its hallucinogenic properties, making it one of the most widely-used light drugs globally.
But did you know that ‘cannabis’ is a whole collection of many plants and varieties? Among them, cannabis sativa is extremely popular. Using it, man has created a unique type known as ‘hemp’, which is bred solely for industrial and medicinal purposes.
Although both hemp and naturally-occurring cannabis contain the psychoactive ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), industrial strains tend to contain much less of it, in favor of a higher concentration of a substance you have probably already heard of. We are talking about cannabidiol (CBD), which is beneficial in mitigating the psychoactive effects of THC.
#2: Hemp is one of the fastest-growing plants. Man has been using them for 50,000 years
We all know how common a bamboo plant is. All thanks to the fact that it grows extremely fast. However, fewer people know that the second fastest growing plant on earth is cannabis, besides bamboo.
Cannabis is thought to have appeared on the soil around 28 million years ago on the eastern Tibetan Plateau. For 50,000 years, it has been used for the production of oil or fiber, which is essential for making clothes, paper and ropes. They were widely used by Chinese farmers, among others, and the remains of their work go back as far as 4,000 years.
Current archaeological research shows that cannabis in different parts of the world has different levels of THC concentration. The oldest ones, were characterized by significantly lower amounts of psychoactive substance.
#3 1 acre of hemp will provide more fiber and paper than growing cotton and forests
Our ancestors did not use cannabis in their daily lives by accident. Indeed, one acre of hemp can provide 2–3 times more fiber material than the same field of cotton. The same area can also yield 2–4 times more paper than a parcel of a forest of similar size.
The first use of hemp paper dates back thousands of years B.C., but it did not reach Europe until the 13th century.
#4 Hemp in the past was fully legal and used… to pay taxes!
Hemp was not outlawed in the United States until 1937. Before that, the plant and its products were perfectly legal and served as a legal tender, and farmers could pay their taxes using hemp.
As late as the 17th century, some areas of the current USA even “forced” farmers to grow hemp for industrial purposes. In the 19th century, marijuana became a common ingredient in many medical products and was sold in unlimited quantities in American pharmacies.
As the 20th century began, following the Mexican Revolution, Mexicans began streaming into the United States in large numbers bringing “recreational” use of cannabis with them . Combined with the Great Depression of the 1930s, widespread unemployment and fear of immigrants, hemp was eventually outlawed.
#5 Hemp market to be worth $27 billion in 2028
In 2021, the industrial hemp industry was worth nearly $7 billion. At current annual growth rates of around 22%, this suggests that the global use of hemp will generate a turnover of $27 billion over the next six years!
Hemp is widely used in medicine, the automotive industry and even construction. The range of applications is growing all the time, and we can only speculate as to what other solutions will emerge in the future!
We want to be a part of this breakthrough. Thus, we have founded HCX ecosystem, to support groundbreaking projects, R&D and NFT patents in the hemp industry.
