Hemp vs. marijuana. What’s the difference, and why do we care?

Although they look exactly the same, hemp and marijuana are two different plants.

Lacey White with Frogtown Hemp said they test their plants regularly to ensure they are not going over the limit of THC, or delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol.

“With a hemp plant, you’re looking at the genetics of the seed,” she said. “You’re wanting a high CBD content and a low THC content because you don’t want to get a high as if you would from a marijuana plant,” she said. CBD stands for cannabidiol, which hemp plants naturally produce.

If you are over the legal amount of THC in Georgia, the state requires the farmers to destroy their yield, she said.

“So we want to make sure when we see our flowers start budding, that we keep a really good, accurate eye on that,” she said.

Although they are not certified organic, they do practice organic farming, and White said growing hemp is much like growing tomatoes.

All of their products are natural, meaning they do not produce anything synthetic, such as delta-8. Although hemp plants naturally produce delta-8, it is only in trace amounts, so most delta-8 is manufactured from hemp-derived CBD.

Frogtown Hemp is a family farm, and White, her dad Bruce, and her sister Kelly work together to make their natural products.

“It’s not that hard to grow. It’s just real time consuming, a lot of hard work,” Bruce said.

Why is everyone talking about hemp?

President Donald Trump signed legislation Nov. 12 that bans most consumable hemp-derived THC products nationwide. The provision that caps hemp products at 0.4 milligrams of THC per package was passed as part of the bill that ended the government shutdown.

Medical cannabis has only been legal to possess in Georgia for the past decade, and hemp products did not become widely available until 2018.

In 2015, the Georgia General Assembly passed the Haleigh’s Hope Act to allow people to legally possess up to 20 fluid ounces of low-THC oil with their doctors’ recommendations, according to the Marijuana Policy Project.

However, the state did not allow for the production of medical cannabis until 2019 with the Georgia’s Hope Act. 

The 2018 Farm Bill passed through the U.S. Congress and allowed for the cultivation and sale of hemp products across the country as long as they were under the 0.3% THC concentration limit by dry weight. 

Joe Salome, the co-founder of The Georgia Hemp Company, said this change allowed them to produce gummies, oils and other products to meet consumers’ needs before medical cannabis was produced in the state.

The General Assembly passed legislation in 2024 to allow beverage companies to produce and sell THC- and CBD-infused beverages. However, earlier this year lawmakers passed a measure through the Senate to limit products to 0.3% total THC content and ban all beverages containing THC. The bill awaits action in the House, according to the AJC.

White said recent changes to Georgia law already put a strain on their business. It required changes to their product packaging, labels, and testing.

“We had to go through a lot to be compliant in Georgia, and that’s one thing that we’re very proud of,” she said. “We made those changes immediately. As a small mom and pop per se company, that was a lot of financial burden on us.”

The Georgia General Assembly will convene in January for its 2026 session, and the federal bill has a one-year implementation period. Hemp businesses have until then to figure out next steps and try to advocate for their businesses.

“I think we want sensible regulated cannabis, but we don’t want to keep out the success stories… What’s going to happen is a huge vacuum, and if we thought the black market was bad before, it’s going to be even worse moving forward,” he said.