By Jessie Weisner

Folium Biosciences clarifies difference between hemp and marijuana

Feb 7, 2019 | 4:30 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — Last week, Folium Bioscience, a Colorado-based hemp corporation, announced they’re building a facility in Medicine Hat.

The reaction to the announcement was mainly excitement, but there’s some confusion about whether Folium is similar to Aurora Cannabis, who announced they were coming to Medicine Hat last year. 

“We’re in the business of hemp,” says Kashif Shan, CEO of Folium. “We’re not in the marijuana business, and have no intention of going into that business.”

Folium Bioscience plans on building a facility in Medicine Hat in order to grow, purify and ship a variety of hemp products.

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“We have products that fall in the human wellness category,” says Shan. “Then products that fall in animal health, and then products that fall in the cosmetic space.”

When Aurora Cannabis announced their facility in April of 2018, they said they intend to grow more than 430,000 kilograms of marijuana a year.

However, Folium doesn’t grow marijuana, it grows hemp.

“There’s next to no THC in there,” says Keith Ahlm, owner of Westside Weed. “You can smoke a whole bunch of it if you want, you wont get any kind of head high or intoxication or level of impairment.”

“You can go out to our fields,” says Shan. “Smoke all you want and you will not have that effect.”

Folium’s products contain no THC, which is the psychoactive chemical in marijuana that gets you high.

Instead, their products contain CBD, a chemical they extract from hemp that has major benefits.

“CBD has applications across a massive variety of indications from pain management to epilepsy, forms of inflammation and it’s actually a neuron-protectorate for diseases like Alzheimers, MS and Parkinsons,” says Shan. “It’s also hugely effective in addressing anxiety and as a sleep aid, PTSD.”

Although the two crops look very similar, there are key differences. Marijuana features broad leaves and a bushy appearance, while Hemp features skinny leaves and it’s taller and skinnier.

You don’t smoke hemp either, but with marijuana, it’s a common way to ingest the drug.

At Westside Weed in Medicine Hat, they’ve stocked strains of marijuana with between seven and 27 percent THC.

“There’s different strains to try, all of them have unique effects,” sasy Ahlm “Some people are just after a good head high, you know it’s a feel good thing, somewhere to enjoying alcohol recreationally, some people are after medicinal benefits from that.”

Aurora Cannabis aims to begin operations in Medicine Hat in the first half of 2019, while Folium aims to open sometime in early 2020.