Help for those using hemp products

Working in Ann Arbor has definitely made me more liberal in my thinking.  With Ann Arbor hosting the annual Hash Bash (now in its 48^th year), marijuana is and typically has been viewed as perhaps more of an “acceptable” past time, even when recreational marijuana was illegal in Michigan.

 

According to Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, “hemp” is defined as “a tall widely cultivated Asian herb (Cannabis sativa of the family Cannabaceae, the hemp family) that is cultivated for its tough bast fiber and edible seeds and oil and that is often separated into a tall loosely branched species (C. sativa) and a low-growing densely branched species (C. indica).”  Hemp products do not produce anywhere near the levels of THC that marijuana does, with their levels being no more than 0.3%, and marijuana coming in anywhere from 5 to 35%.  Simply put, you’re not going to get high when you use industrial hemp.

 

Medically, industrial hemp products, such as CBD oil, are used to treat those suffering from pain, epilepsy/seizures, anxiety and depression.  A new law filed in Michigan on December 28, 2018, now protects those using industrial hemp products by excluding those products from the legal definition of marijuana.  The law defines industrial hemp as having “a delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol concentration of not more than 0.3% on a dry weight basis.” (See Public Act 642 of 2018, (2).)  A user of these products would not be required to have a medical marijuana card as the products are no longer considered marijuana thanks to the updated law.

 

Hopefully this change will make it easier for those suffering from various health ailments to obtain treatments, and boost the industry that supplies the product.  The new law, Public Act 642 of 2018 takes effect on March 28, 2019.