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Uses and Benefits
The uses and benefits of hemp are too many to list. This chart, courtesy of Cornell University and their study on hemp, shows you the many derivatives, over 25,000. Too many to even list on this busy illustration.
Source: Congressional Research Service, Hemp as an Agricultural Commodity, March 10, 2017
Three main categories have shown to be the most opportunity in the current hemp market: Medicine, Food, and Fibre.
1. Medicine
Hemp provides medicine naturally as it contains the compound cannabinoid, specifically cannabidiol (CBD). It can be higher in some hemp varieties than it is in marijuana strains. And the value of this is massive.
The Hemp Business Journal estimated that the CBD market will grow to a $2.1 billion market in consumer sales by 2020 with $450 million of those sales coming from hemp-based sources. That's a 700% increase from 2016. In 2015, the market for consumer sales of hemp-derived CBD products was $90 million, plus another $112 million in marijuana-derived CBD products which were sold through dispensaries – bringing a total CBD market to $202 million last year.
Wait, what? As I suspected all along. It’s cannabis. Marijuana. Weed. Err, HEMP. Tracing the origins of the word hemp back to the Greek “kannabis”, the Dutch “hennep”, the German “hanf”, and let’s not forget the English “hemp”, modeled more after the Dutch and German influence or vice versa. Kannabis, or Cannabis as it is now spelled as the norm, is still in clear association. That definition isn’t entirely accurate. Marijuana. Well both derived from the Cannabis Sativa L. plant, there is one key distinction. Its extremely low presence of delta-9 THC. No not the company Delta 9 Cannabis Inc. (TSXV: NINE), the compound. Health Canada has recognized 0.3% in dry weight as the maximum for hemp food ingredients. Fibre forms of hemp do not have a maximum as they are not consumed. Fibre forms? Yes! And medicine too! So, did my hemp protein way back when have medical properties too? Well no. The stalks and grain do not have medical properties. Its in the oil. CBD oil … you may have heard of it.
Fredericton, where $1 million will be allocated over 5 years towards various research initiatives involving cannabis. Research ranges from the economic impact of legalization to the psychosocial harm of chronic use. The New Brunswick Health Research Foundation provided $500,000 with private-sector partners chipping in the rest. Interestingly, private sector partners listed on the New Brunswick Health Research Foundation’s website are not names you may think of for cannabis research. Names such as Pfizer, Sanofi, Janssen (division of Johnson & Johnson), Merck, and other big pharma names. Perhaps this list is not exhaustive, or the “private-sector partners” mentioned in the press release are not cannabis sector companies, as immediately assumed. This hasn’t been confirmed as of the date of this publication. But seeing big pharma and connecting the dots (albeit very faint dots right now) to this press release, makes you wonder.