Cannabis sativa is prominently known as the origin of marijuana, the world's most widely used illicit recreational drug. The plant is however also vitally useful as a viable source of stem fibre, healthy seed oil, and medicinal elements, all of which are going through extremely promising research, potential technological applications, and economic prospects.
Now, despite its ability for harm as a recreational drug, marijuana has a distinct potential for making available new products to benefit society and for bringing about extensive employment and immense profits. misconceived policies, until recently, have hindered proper research on the beneficial attributes of cannabis, but there is now an uprising of societal, scientific, and political backing to reappraise and take away some of the hurdles to usage. Unfortunately, there is also a corresponding scarcity of objective analysis.
But regardless of whether it is legal and easy to buy marijuana or not, the fact still remains that some countries are beginning to lessen and in some cases lift off the ban on cannabis because of some its minor benefits which we will be exploring.
Biomass
Biomass, as we all know, is gotten from living organisms, both plants and animals alike. Usually, on an industrial scale, the biomasses from plants are economically viable. They are burned to produce heat or converted to biomass, and C. sativa is one of such plants.
Because of the increasing prices, risks, and damages to the environment that has risen from the use of petrochemicals, there is now a demand for a major shift towards biomass plants as an alternative source of energy.
Presently, most biomass is derived from wood logs, and this is a problem in terms of sustainability, as trees are a diminishing resource, hence the consideration of crops for biomass. But this too has it's own flaws because planting crops for biomass instead of food will make food scarce and very expensive. But perhaps a more viable solution will one that was proposed by Rehman et al. (2013) in which he explored the use of wild-growing hemp in Pakistan as a source of biomass---which will solve the dilemma of the ethical issues surrounding the use of plants for fuel.
BioGas
This is presently being produced (mainly methane) in some countries from various feedstocks, animal waste, crop residue, sewage sludge, and household organic waste. The use of maize as biogas has been a tradition long practised in Germany.
Considering the fact that a steam pretreatment of hemp straw greatly increases the conversion process of hemp into methane, there is, therefore, a huge potential for hemp to be used as a substitute for biogas.
Livestock feed
Because of the nutritional benefits of hemp seed, it is considered as a viable livestock feed, plus the fact that the negative effects of growing hemp as a crop is benign to both humans and the environment. The seeds can be used as livestock feed while other parts of the plants can be used for other medicinal, recreational or nutritional purposes.
Hemp solid fuel
Hemp can be incinerated directly for energy, but surprisingly, this aspect of hemp has been uncharted. It is also a potential feedstock for the manufacturing of solid biofuels such as briquettes and pellets. Because of the fact that this area of hemp has not been explored, it makes for a potential niche market, especially when they are made to be used as fuels for pellet stoves and boilers.
Ornamental use
Hemp has in the time past been grown for its decorative use. A very remarkable example of this was one developed by Ivan Bosca which had short branched cultivar panorama. It was commercialized in Hungary in the 1980s (Journal of the IHA 1994) and has been put forward as the only ornamental hemp cultivar available.
Of course, the project was not a success because several circumstances that prevented the private growing of cannabis as an ornamental crop was in place. The only problem is the costs a little bit higher than the rest of the best seed banks. Fast forward to this time where beautiful ornamental cultivars of opium poppy are widely and freely grown in home gardens across North American, which is very surprising considering that it is still illegal across that region.
Tall fibre cannabis sativa has been used in France as an ornamental maze, needless to say---if this is made legal---a lot of folks will definitely plant cannabis solely for its ornamental use.
As a Protective companion plant
Judging from the name, these rare species of plants basically, are grown with other plants to assist those others plants either in fighting off certain plant diseases, soil organism, or to provide symbiotic feeding relationship that is beneficial to the target plant.
A review that was done in (1997a) by McPartland, showed that when hemp is grown near cotton and vegetable crops, it protects them to a certain degree against pests, particularly nematodes, which leads to the reduction of these pests in the soil and also prepares the soil by making it less threatening for the subsequent planting of new crops.
In conclusion, it is evident that cannabis apart from the huge medical benefits being pushed forward as a potential reason for legalizing it by its advocates, it has a lot of potential outside the confines of medicine.
