Booming Demand for CBD Is Making Hemp the Cannabis Cash Crop

ILLUSTRATION: Gabriel Alcala For Bloomberg Businessweek

The growing demand for CBD is making hemp the commercial cultivation of cannabis.

Although they are seen in some American stores, were carefully packaged they are presented in a way that would not be out of place in any mall. Otherwise, in Canada, you can order a pot by mail, and some of the world’s alcohol giants have settled there to develop weed beer.

That being the case, it is well known that the business of making people high is only part of the cannabis craziness. And it is that marijuana is still prohibited for recreational use in much of the world, and even medical access while expanding, is restricted in most countries. So players in the $ 340 billion global cannabis market are turning their attention to the least regulated cousin of weeds, hemp.

The CBD extends throughout the United States and expands throughout the world

It should be noted that cannabidiol is a non-intoxicating compound that can be derived from hemp and marijuana. Likewise, hemp and marijuana are both types of cannabis. Hemp faces fewer restrictions because it is generally grown with lower THC levels.

Also, hemp is a cannabis strain whose fibers have been traditionally used in textiles and ropes, and farmers can grow it even in countries with strict drug laws because they have different properties of marijuana. The most important thing for law enforcement officials is low in THC, the compound that drains it. Even so, it is necessary to highlight that companies are excited about their other defining characteristic: a higher concentration of cannabidiol, or CBD, a non-psychoactive chemical at the center of a welfare trend that is spreading throughout the United States and is expanding by all the world.

In this way, researchers estimate that the CBD market in the United States could only be worth almost $ 24 billion by 2023. In Canada, legal cannabis sales can reach $ 4.7 billion at that time, an increase of about $ 570 million last year. In addition, the annual sales of CBD could be higher than those of marijuana, due to a large number of products in which it can be used.

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Source: Craig Giammona and Bruce Einhorn | Bloomberg