Simply put, industrial hemp is not marijuana. According to hemp activist and former HempWorld publisher Mari Kane, the confusion stems from the fact that marijuana and industrial hemp are different strains of the same species of plant. Where marijuana has been bred for its psychoactive qualities, hemp has been bred for its fiber and its seed content. And in breeding for these attributes, the level of THC is reduced, rendering industrial hemp useless both medicinally and recreationally. It might not get you high, but industrial hemp is a very useful natural resource.
Hemp fiber is employed in making everything from canvas and rope to clothing and textiles.
If you're up on your hemp history, you're already aware that drafts of our own Declaration of Independence were written on hemp paper, that Henry Ford built a car that was made from hemp fiber and ran on hemp-based fuel, and that during the World Wars, farmers were required to grow hemp used for supplies to aid the war effort. In fact, industrial hemp has been touted as the plant with 25,000 uses. That much utility makes it a hard natural resource to ignore. In recent years, the fashion industry has been leaping onto the proverbial bandwagon. Designers Calvin Klein and Gianni Versaci use hemp fabric in some of their clothing.