Hemp is Cannabis sativa L. grown for fibre, seed and cannabinoids rather than for intoxication. Botanically it is the same species as the drug plant; the line between them is drawn not by biology but by a single number — the concentration of delta-9 THC.
In the United States, the 2018 Farm Bill (codified at 7 U.S.C. § 1639o) defines hemp as the plant and any part of it — seeds, derivatives, extracts, cannabinoids — with no more than 0.3% delta-9 THC on a dry-weight basis. Anything above that ceiling is marijuana, a controlled substance. The European Union uses the same 0.3% figure for the varieties farmers may grow with support.
This definition is why hemp is treated as an ordinary agricultural crop in much of the world while its high-THC twin stays tightly controlled. Hemp's uses are correspondingly broad: long bast fibre for textiles and composites, woody hurd for building materials, seed for food and oil, and flowers for CBD. Almost every other entry in this Atlas ultimately hangs off this one botanical-legal definition.
A 0.3%-THC fiber crop in France is hemp; a 5%-THC flower crop is cannabis, though both are C. sativa.
- Cornell LII — 7 U.S.C. § 1639o (2018 Farm Bill hemp definition, <=0.3% THC)
- European Commission — Hemp (0.3% THC, EU agricultural crop)
