From business owners to renowned activists, reporters and farmers, to scientists, the pioneers of the American hemp industry gathered in Loveland, Colorado for the Third Annual North Colorado Hemp Expo.

 Hemp is a cousin of cannabis, just without the chemicals that create the high. It has a multitude of uses, such as building material, clothing, biodiesel fuel and abundant cannabidiol (CBD) medicine.

CBD has been shown to help slow down or even stop the spread of cancer, along with many other benefits for ailments like anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), psychosis and seizures.

According to Patients for Medical Cannabis in 2006, researchers in Italy found that, cannabidiol kills cancer. CBD stimulates what is known as the Caspase Cascade that kills the cancer cells by breaking down proteins and peptides in the cancerous growth. Despite the limited scientific knowledge we have, it is supported by countless testimonies.

Throughout my trip in Colorado, I met plenty of intelligent and successful people who used medicinal cannabis as well as CBD to help treat their cancer, along with many other ailments. When I was talking with a bus driver about my grandmother, he revealed to me how after getting diagnosed with colon cancer and going through chemo, he used 1 gram of THC and CBD suppositories to give himself an appetite, alleviate the pain and assuage other side effects associated with chemo. He told me only two days ago that the doctors had given him the holy R-word in cancer treatment: remission.

Then, a store owner named Joel told me how CBD had helped him with his epilepsy, reducing the amount of seizures he had from four-a-day to four-a-year. Another cancer survivor, Patrick, told me how his pain was so horrible that he couldn’t sleep, yet upon the use of medicinal cannabis he was able to get four hours of sleep—so he was strong enough to bring joy to the people suffering with him and even had parties to celebrate life in order to combat the crippling spiritual depression of cancer and the side-effects of chemotherapy.

With all the people I met, they had one decisive conclusion: Without the use of cannabis and hemp, they wouldn’t have been alive to share their stories.

I call for Ohio citizens to legalize the hemp industry statewide. Not just a passive movement, but one that is alive and on fire. With legalized hemp farming in Ohio, it can be revitalized, as hemp is valued at $100,000 an acre.

It would also bring better well-being to the environment and ourselves by creating effective, life-saving medicines that can replace or be used alongside ineffective or dangerous pharmaceutical alternatives.

Dylan Webb is an opinion columnist for The Kent Stater. Contact him at [email protected].