Why are People Smoking Hemp Now?

Why are People Smoking Hemp?

Thanks to the rapid growth of the cannabis industry, with the mainstream embracing the health benefits of CBD and with both medical and recreational marijuana use seeing huge strides in legislation in the last few years, one can only wonder what’s next? With the dawn of CBD in everything, from burgers to skincare products, it’s a veritable free-for-all when it comes to the next new cannabis trend. The latest one to raise a few eyebrows about its benefits, if any, is the increasing popularity of smokeable hemp.

Last year, with the passing of the 2018 Farm Bill which legalized hemp farming and effectively removed hemp from the Controlled Substance Act, the hemp-derived CBD market has more than boomed. But one of the unexpected outcomes of the bill’s passing, which, most likely, was overlooked by lawmakers, was that people would turn to smoking hemp.

But before we dive into the whys and hows, what is hemp exactly? Hemp is a strain of the cannabis sativa plant, specifically Cannabis sativa L. For thousands of years, it’s been cultivated for textile production. Its THC concentration is very minimal, at no more than 0.3 percent, but it does contain a significant amount of CBD. This is why most CBD products are derived from hemp.

In the last few years, according to Brightfield Group, a Chicago-based cannabis market research firm, the smokeable hemp market has become the fastest growing segment of the CBD market, with growth of more than 250 percent between 2017 and 2018, and is expected to continue growing as legislation involving marijuana’s non-psychoactive cousin becomes more clear.

Until recently, many of us have probably never thought smoking hemp would be a good idea. Just like CNN’s Harmeet Kaur, who recently remarked, “If you try to smoke hemp, you’ll probably just end up with a headache.” The thought of smoking hemp was probably the furthest thing from most people’s minds.

But that’s because, for most of history, hemp was only processed for its fibers. Unbeknownst to Kaur and many, smoking hemp flowers will not give you a headache, and can actually be a great way to reap the benefits of CBD quickly and effectively.

It’s also given hemp producers new opportunities because it doesn’t require extraction and is less expensive to produce. A survey done by Brightfield Group also found that 24 percent of CBD users in the US have used it to quit smoking.

Apart from helping people quit cigarettes, smoking hemp also allows a person to absorb CBD and other cannabinoids faster as opposed to taking it orally. With other CBD products that need to be orally ingested, whether in pill or oil form, they must first pass the digestive track before they can take effect, which also causes it to lose some potency during the process.

People are also mixing hemp with marijuana, as one would tobacco, which proponents call a ‘salad,’ as a way to temper its potency. It can also be used to enjoy the ritual of smoking without the addictive effects of tobacco and nicotine, and without the high of smoking marijuana. A hemp farmer from Burlington told NPR he smokes hemp flowers to relax. He said, “If I wanted to smoke pot but I don’t want to be high.”

Smokeable hemp is being sold mostly in the form of pre-rolls, which has increasingly been seen in smoke shops, natural food stores, and CBD retailers. Especially in Vermont. In fact, it’s become so popular in the state, stores are struggling to keep up.

Kelsy Raap, owner of Green State Gardner, a CBD retailer and cannabis garden store that cultivates hemp flowers specifically for smoking, told NPR, “It’s sold out. We keep having trouble keeping up with the demand.”

According to research, smoking hemp also allows users to benefit from something called ‘the entourage effect,’ wherein the benefits of CBD are heightened due to the presence of other compounds, such as terpenes and flavonois, which work together to deliver a better experience as well as better overall benefits.

With its surprising rise in popularity, industry stakeholders have become anxious to see how legislators will start regulating this new product. As of yet, it’s flown under the radar. It’s even being sold in states that don’t allow medical marijuana. Steven Turetsky, managing director of Shi Farms, a Colorado hemp producer told Hemp Industry Daily, “Most of the clients we sell to are on the East Coast, where smokable (marijuana) flower isn’t available.”

In Texas, legislators are grappling with this very issue. Recently, they passed the House Bill 1325. If the bill goes into implementation, it will allow for the statewide production of hemp. The downside? It explicitly prohibits the sale of hemp pre-rolls.

However, despite its benefits, at the end of the day, smoking anything can still be bad for one’s health, and researchers from the Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology at the Virginia Commonwealth University still caution against it. Justin Poklis, a researcher from the department told Cannabis Wire, “Anytime one burns plant material and then inhales the smoke, this would produce an inherent health risk.”