difference between industrial hemp and marijuana

Although industrial hemp is a cousin of the psychotropic dagga (marijuana), it is cultivated in totally different ways:

Typically the industrial strains have less that 1% THC(tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive compund found in marijuana), while smoking-grade cannabis has anything from 5 to 25%. Smoking industrial hemp will give you nothing more than a headache.

It is easy to see just by looking at a field what the intended use of the crop is.

If it is being cultivated for seed, there will be more space between plants leading to more flowers,
but there will also be male plants in the field order to pollinate the female flowers. This will produce
flowers full of high-protein and EFA-rich seeds at harvest time.

If it is being grown for fibre, there are over 200 plants per square metre. This forces the plants to
compete to for sunlight and grow straight up, often up to 3 or 4 metres high in 4 months. This will
produce the desired long, strong fibres in the stalk.

If it is being grown for its psychoactive value, the plants are well spaced out and generally kept to a
shorter shrub shape, with many flowers. All males would be eradicated from the field to prevent
seeds, as THC production slows down once the flowers have been pollinated, and smokers do not
want seeds in their cannabis.