Did you know that cannabis is more than just marijuana? It is a plant with multiple species including both marijuana and hemp. The latter is used to create everything from food to textiles and medicines. Apparently, it’s also a great plant for creating those giant, walk-through mazes that are popular every fall. Yes, you read that right. You have tried of the corn maze. Now, how about a hemp maze?

An enterprising grower in Zumbrota, Minnesota has turned one of his hemp fields into a walking maze. Guests are invited to visit the farm, work their way through the maze, and enjoy some of the property’s other offerings. When all is said and done, owner Ted Galaty hopes you will come out knowing a little bit more about industrial hemp.

It Won’t Get You High

We have done such a poor job of educating people that few know the difference between marijuana and hemp. Again, both plants are types of cannabis plants. Both contain more than a hundred cannabinoids along with terpenes and other valuable compounds. The big difference with industrial hemp is that it will not make you high.

Cannabinoids are compounds in cannabis plants that affect certain receptors in the human brain. CBD and THC are two of them. Hemp contains a lot of CBD but very little THC. On the other hand, marijuana is heavy on the THC. This is why marijuana gets you high but cannabis does not.

Lots of Practical Applications

The marijuana plant is used mainly for medicinal and recreational use. As for hemp, it has tons of practical uses. On the medical and health side of things, CBD oil can be extracted and broken down into individual cannabinoids and terpenes. Those individual components can then be added to other ingredients to make medicines, health supplements, and so forth.

Houston’s CedarStoneIndustry says that processors typically use a commercial hemp oil extraction machine, designed around one of three different extraction options, to get the valuable oil. Once extracted, the oil is distilled to separate cannabinoids and terpenes.

Other types of applications do not require any type of extraction or distillation. For example, the fibrous portions of the hemp plant can be cleaned and processed to create fibers. The fibers are spun together to create threads, and the threads can be utilized to make fabrics.

Educating the Public

Getting back to the Minnesota hemp maze, Galaty’s main purpose is not mere entertainment. He hopes to educate the public about how valuable industrial hemp is to the American economy. It has so many applications throughout industry, medicine, and manufacturing that the brevity of this post really doesn’t do it justice.

Right now, people hear the word ‘cannabis’ and immediately think about getting high. They don’t realize that hemp is a type of cannabis plant. They also don’t realize that hemp medicines and health products don’t contain THC. Therefore, they are not psychoactive. But even that is not the half of it.

It took an act of Congress and the president’s signature in 2018 to legalize industrial hemp across the country. Along with that, CBD products were also legalized. In the years since the 2018 Farm Bill, the CBD marketplace has exploded. It is all because of the incredibly versatile hemp plant, a cousin of marijuana.

If you live anywhere near Zumbrota, you might want to check out the hemp maze. If nothing else, you will be able to tell your friends you went walking through a cannabis field and didn’t come out stoned. That may be enough to spark a discussion that will let you share what you learned.