The True Meaning of Hemp: WWC Advocacy and Debunking Myths
Ada Lambert | April 20, 2023
In 2015, N.C. passed a law that would change the trajectory of agriculture — the legalization of industrial hemp. Two years later, applications were accepted and farmers were permitted to begin growing hemp on their land. This marks a new beginning for hemp production in the state since it was banned in 1937.
Jill Lieberman, an adjunct professor at WWC, runs a company in Asheville called Adapt Public Relations. In 2015, Lieberman and her business partner Blake Butler launched HempX, a campaign targeted towards educating the public on the many uses of industrial hemp.
“In 2015, we were approached by a company that was distributing an energy drink called Canna energy that came from Colorado,” Lieberman said. “It had a five finger leaf on the can and it was being taken off the shelves in certain counties in western North Carolina because law enforcement thought it had marijuana because of that leaf.”
Due to misinformation on hemp, Lieberman and Butler were tasked with increasing awareness on its uses and debunking false information about the plant. This decision was made in acknowledgment of their extensive knowledge on politics and government.
“We did two things,” Lieberman said. “We staged an event that fall of 2015 at Highland brewing where we had hemp advocates and vendors and educators from all across the country come to Asheville, and just had a two-day event where people came and could ask questions.”
Panelists discussed the difference between marijuana and hemp, as well as why hemp had been classified as a drug (despite being unable to experience euphoric effects from it) and educated the public on its uses.
“Then we also started going to Raleigh and meeting with legislators and other hemp advocates and farmers who were down there lobbying the General Assembly to get industrial hemp legalized in the state, and it was successfully legalized in 2015,” Lieberman said.
Since hemp was illegal for so long, there was not widespread knowledge on how the plant could be utilized. Though the stigma around hemp has significantly decreased, educators who advocated for its legalization in the past have faced pushback. In 1996, a school teacher was fired for inviting hemp advocate Woody Harrelson to come talk to her fifth grade class. The teacher filed a lawsuit against the county that resulted in a large settlement in her favor.
Despite this case, hemp has not previously been discussed in schools widely even though there were no laws or regulations against teaching about it. This could be attributed to the stigma surrounding hemp and its relation to marijuana.
In addition to this, there are not many records of hemp being used historically. Lieberman mentioned that it had been used for rope and sails in both World Wars, but that was usually the extent of its purpose. As research and experimentation advances in the hemp industry, companies are beginning to understand how pliable hemp actually is.
Different brands all over the country are beginning to incorporate hemp into their products in recent years as there has been more research on the topic.
“The fashion industry has started to become a lot more environmentally aware and looking at sustainable processes in their supply chains because they are one of the fashion industry's biggest polluters in the world,” Lieberman said. “There have been some companies that have been really environmentally conscious, but even some higher fashion brands like Eileen West and Stella McCartney have started using hemp and some of their clothing lines and experimenting with it.”
On top of sustainable uses in the fashion industry, there have been efforts to use hemp to curb other forms of pollution.
“BMW uses it in door panels of their electric vehicles,” Lieberman said. “It's very breathable and it can also absorb a lot of environmental airborne toxins. It’s also being used in what they call hempcrete for construction in houses and in commercial properties, which is a pretty exciting proposition because it helps keep your house warmer in the winter or cooler in the summer, so you use less fossil fuels or electricity.”
With the increasing amount of hemp use, people are becoming more aware of the potential reasons for all of the resistance against it.
“I am not a conspiracy theorist, but when you start researching it and find out all the ways that we can utilize it in so many different industries, from fashion to fuel to fiber to construction, you can see why big business wouldn't want it to be legalized because it could mean industrial agriculture start coming after their market share — and same with the pharmaceuticals,” Lieberman said.
Eliot Ward, WWC sophomore, was on the Campus Conservation Corps (CCC) Crew last year when the school was growing hemp. The school decided to discontinue the crop this year due to expenses and labor.
“I think it was just too expensive and too much work because we had to have the entire Land Stewards Crew and CCC doing it, which was like 150 people,” Ward said. “It was just a lot. I don't know what other exact reasons are that they aren’t growing it this year, other than they didn't make a lot of money off of it last year.”
Part of Ward’s duties on the crew was to tend to the hemp and prepare it for use.
“There was like a week or two where they had cut it at the stock, and then hung it up in bundles in a couple of different barns to dry out,” Ward said. “Once it had mostly finished drying, our job was to come in and get a bundle and then clip off the bud basically from the stems. And there was some that had mold on it, so you would throw that stuff away — basically just separate the stems from the actual hemp itself.”
Through this experience, Ward learned about hemp and found that some of their previous knowledge on it had been incorrect.
“They're completely different plants,” Ward said. “That's one thing I didn't know until I was part of the whole process. I thought that there was something that you did to marijuana that would isolate the CBD, but it's actually just two different plants. I can understand where the confusion comes from because it looks, smells and tastes like weed.”
For Lieberman, hemp has been an essential part of her daily routine ever since learning about the multiple health benefits it provides.
“I take the oil, and I put the seeds in smoothies for breakfast,” Lieberman said. “Then I take — I use a cream for pain when my knee hurts or what have you, and I take a tincture at night for sleeping.”
In terms of the future, hemp could provide sustainable alternatives for harmful pollutants to the environment. Lieberman believes that hemp will be a game changer in this regard.
“There currently is so much attention on global warming, so I think that anything that can be done to help mitigate that is going to be very appealing to everybody: to the government, to scientists and to consumers, so I do think that works in hemp’s favor,” Lieberman said.
Despite this, there are still limitations that have to be considered in terms of the amount of information on hemp.
“The other thing that we need is a lot more research to be done,” Lieberman said. “Again, because it was illegal for so long, there's still a lot of unknowns, and so there is more research happening now, but we need even more. It does have huge potential, we just have to kind of temper our expectations that it's going to take some time.”
From Lieberman’s perspective, unlocking hemp’s full potential will take a lot of effort— but with enough advocacy and widespread knowledge, it could make a huge impact.
“We really need leaders who champion the use of hemp and the research for it and people in the business world who are willing to back that research, but also are willing to be in it for it,” Lieberman said. “It's a long game, and it sounds cliche, but it really does have the potential to change the world.”