“Cannabis” vs “Marijuana” vs “Hemp”
& “Full Spectrum CBD”:
Let’s Remove the Confusion
I think as responsible adults and true advocates of the cannabis industry we all need to get on the same page about a few things. For instance, there is WAY too much confusion out there and every day I hear terms – terms which actually bear weight and meaning and have a clear definition by scientific standards – being thrown around willy-nilly by people who clearly have no idea what they are talking about. So I’m going to take a minute here to clear up a few of the misnomers and misconceptions that I keep seeing time and time again as this emerging industry gains momentum and popularity. Let’s start with the term “cannabis”.
Very recently I’ve actually had people try and correct me when I say “marijuana” instead of “cannabis” when referring to the legal medical and/or recreational markets in the US and Canada, which is just wrong. One thing we should all be clear about is that “Hemp” and “Marijuana” are both “Cannabis”. They are both from the family cannabis sativa. The major difference of course, is the potency or percentage of psychoactive THC in the plant. By international law, hemp is defined as having less than .03% THC and anything with more that that is considered marijuana.
So why is it that some people cringe at the word “marijuana”? Some people seem to think it’s a dirty word, most likely due to the vivid smear campaigns of the early and mid-1900s. After all, we’ve all heard of Reefer Madness, and although it’s a laughable concept now people took that stuff seriously at the time. It was ignorance and hysteria and racism and fear-mongering all rolled into one, a sign of the times I suppose. But things are much different now, and as things progress I think it’s time we all agree that “Marijuana” is not a bad word. In fact, it’s kind of a cool word.
With all that in mind, now we can say we know the differences between the terms Marijuana, Hemp, and Cannabis. Agreed? Agreed. Moving on….
These days there’s also a huge hype about CBD and other non-psychoactive cannabinoids that are found in cannabis plants. There’s CBD, CBD, CBG, THCA, THCV, etc, etc…the list goes on and on, and it seems every day they’re discovering and adding a new cannabinoid to that list (it’s up over 113 now!). So here I’m going to help try and navigate this confusing terrain as well, and let’s start by talking about “full spectrum”.
“Full Spectrum” is the term that is being used to describe a concentrate or distillate which is extracted from cannabis and contains all the active cannabinoids, and “Whole Plant” is all that plus they also retain some the other natural components found in the plant (oils, terpenes, flavonoids, etc). A full spectrum or whole plant concentrate can come from either hemp or marijuana, and obviously if it comes from marijuana it will have more THC present in the final solution. However, most of the full spectrum products that are being legally sold today come from hemp and contain higher amounts of CBD and other cannabinoids.
Keeping that in consideration, and contrary to many modern marketing campaigns claiming to sell “Full Spectrum CBD”, cannabidiol (CBD) is just one of many cannabinoids on the “full spectrum”. Then there’s what’s called “Broad Spectrum” extracts, and typically those still have all the cannabinoids present minus the trace amounts of THC, which have been deliberately removed through a scientific process. Broad Spectrum, as I’ve seen it, can also be any creative concoction and concentration of cannabinoids in a custom blend. For instance, it could be 50mg of CBD, 20mg CBN, and 10mg CBG, or any other such variation.
Now, I’m not going to go into specifics or details about the individual cannabinoids, we’ll save that for a different article or you can just Google it because there is a plethora of information available out there. But these are just a few of the terms that we should all get familiar with so we can talk intelligently about the subject, and these are the sorts of things that will help to further legitimize our industry and ensure its overall success. If you agree with me, then please spread the word and share your newfound knowledge with your friends and colleagues.
And if you have any questions or comments feel free to contact me at MarijuanaResumes.com
Cheers!
JR Hindman
Owner, Marijuana Resumes
https://marijuanaresumes.com
jrh@marijuanaresumes.com