That's an awfully rosy picture you paint 3refs, but although the industrial hemp plant has many wonderful uses, providing a high (or even just relief from physical distress) is not one of them. The Cannabis plant that is useful for fiber, oil, etc. does not produce appreciable amounts of THC. Many of the people lobbying for industrial hemp in hopes of easier THC access are apparently oblivious to this fact.

The plant is difficult to distinguish from the other Cannabis, so if you legalize one, the argument is that will be difficult to fight the other, thus the generalized ban in the U.S. continues. Presumably in the places where growing industrial hemp is legal (Wikipedia says, "every industrialized country in the world, excluding the United States") they have this figured out...

~ Becky in Tucson