Pubdate: Sat, 10 May 2014
Source: News, The (New Glasgow, CN NS)
Copyright: 2014 Transcontinental Inc.
Contact:  http://www.ngnews.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3343
Page: 8
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?330 (Hemp - Outside U.S.)

HUMBLE, HARDY PLANT OFFERS MUCH POTENTIAL

How attitudes can change. Pictou County is fortunate to a medical 
marijuana production plant on the horizon, with Vida Cannabis 
refurbishing the former Clairtone building in Stellarton for the 
operation. With recent changes in laws regarding medicinal uses, such 
an industry would have been unthinkable a decade ago.

Much has changed all over. In fact, earlier this week a 
business-oriented conference was held in Vancouver - Canada's first 
medical marijuana, industrial hemp and alternative medicine 
investment conference.

It is indeed a growth industry. The GreenRush Financial Conference 
attracted investors, industry exhibitors and pharmaceutical industry 
reps interested in the huge commercial potential.

And while the medical use of marijuana is still debated in the health 
community - with plenty of skeptics amid testimonials from those 
using it for treatment - there is no doubt about the value of the 
plant's humble cousin, industrial hemp.

Lacking the THC that gets people high, hemp has a long history of 
providing staple products. Going back a century and more, hemp was a 
common crop for farmers: growing some was a civic duty, to provide 
fibre needed for ropes in ship rigging.

For a period of time, however, this plant got tangled up in the 
reefer madness aimed at marijuana and hemp got sidelined.

But cooler heads have prevailed. We can now go to a local store and 
buy breakfast cereal or milk substitutes with hemp as an ingredient. 
This versatile plant yields components for a number of healthy food 
products with its essential oils and proteins. It can also be the 
basis for fuel, wax or skin products. The fibre can be used for such 
products as cloth, or pulp and paper.

With vast, vacated farmland acreages in this province growing over in 
scrub, this is a cash crop that should be considered.

Naysayers might cite the possible drawback of people mistaking it for 
marijuana and raiding fields. That would be short-lived. As thieves 
get only a raw throat and headache, rather than a high, word would get around.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom