This article was originally published on The Fresh Toast, and appears here with permission.

Smoking hemp is one of the fastest growing trends on the cannabis scene. And law enforcement can’t tell the difference between this stuff and marijuana. 

One of the main arguments in favor of legalizing industrial hemp was that a person couldn’t get high on it even if they smoked a field of the stuff. The media has even suggested that if the general population decided to start raiding hemp crops across America in pursuit of a buzz, all they would get is a headache.

When Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell took it upon himself in 2018 to legalize hemp in the United States, the idea was that the plant would only be used as processed fiber and wouldn’t be something the consumer would gravitate toward in plant form. They certainly wouldn’t smoke it, right?  

Well, it turns out that not only are people smoking hemp, it is becoming one of the fastest growing trends on the cannabis scene. 

Consumers are buying up hemp flower with rabid enthusiasm in states where it is legal and are using it for a few reasons. Firs, the herb, which contains only 0.3% THC and does not get the user high, is being purchased as a way to cut high-THC strains to make them less potent, one report shows. 

RELATED: Colorado Marijuana Users Think Stoned Driving Policies Are Out Of Touch

Some of these people, however, perhaps looking for fast-acting relief from conditions like anxiety and insomnia, are also buying up hemp buds rather than edibles, tinctures, oils and vapes. There are even those hemp-CBD customers who are merely smoking this non-intoxicating flower for the enjoyment of hitting a joint when marijuana isn’t an option.

Photo by vjkombajn via Pixabay 

It’s just one of the reasons that cannabis industry experts predict that smokable hemp could swell into a mighty beast.

“Smokable hemp is a very small part of the hemp and CBD marketplace, but it seems to be the one that’s growing most rapidly,” Jonathan Miller, general counsel for U.S. Hemp Roundtable, told New England Public Radio.

Continue reading this article on The Fresh Toast.

Benzinga's Related Links:

• COVID-19 And Marijuana: Can Cannabis Municipal Bonds Help Government Budgets?
• Why Are Psychedelics And Mining Companies Merging In Canada?

Photo by Jason Ogulnik/EyeEm/Getty Images