The Romans have been using it since the days of Julius Caesar, but not to get high. Both Washington and Jefferson grew it. Now that several states have legalised the use of marijuana for some recreational and medical purposes, one of the biggest untapped markets for the cannabis plant itself – at least one variety – could be used as a building tool. The most sustainable building material is not concrete or steel – it is fast-growing hemp. Hemp structures date to Roman times. A hemp mortar bridge was constructed back in the sixth century, when France was still Gaul.

Now a wave of builders and botanists are working to renew this market. Mixing hemp’s woody fibres with lime produces a natural, light concrete that retains thermal mass and is highly insulating. No pests, no mould, good acoustics, low humidity, no pesticide. It grows from seed to harvest in about four months. A strain of the ubiquitous Cannabis sativa, the slender hemp plant is truly weed-like in its ability to flourish in a wide variety of climates, growing as high as 15ft and nearly an inch in diameter. The plant’s inner layer, the pith, is surrounded by a woody core called the hurd. This is the source of the tough fibre, which can be used for rope, sails and paper.

There is enough of the material to build 5,000 homes in the United States (UK Hempcrete )

Hemp is typically planted in March and May in northern climes or between September and November below the equator. Once cut, usually by hand, plants are left to dry for a few days before they’re bundled and dumped into vats of water, which swells the stalks. Those dried fibres are then blended for a variety of uses, such as adding lime. This creates block-like bricks known as hempcrete. Industrial hemp contains a mere 0.3 per cent of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), the substance responsible for the buzz when smoking weed. The cannabis present at a reggae festival, for instance, contains as much as 20 per cent.

Getting a mature plant in just a few months – with less fertiliser than needed for industrial crops like corn and without chemical fertilisers or bug sprays – makes the potential for huge profit. As hemp taps water underground, its long roots circulate air, which improves soil quality – another boon for farmers looking to rotate crops. Battling the plant’s powerful drug connotation might be the toughest hurdle for farmers and builders and is possibly a more formidable obstacle during the Trump administration. The plant is still highly regulated.

This January, though, California legalised use of the plant in full. And the 2014 Agricultural Act legalised hemp’s cultivation for research purposes in universities in states where it has been approved by law. New York now funds a research initiative for as much as $10m (£7m) in grants towards hemp businesses, with participation in the pilot programme from institutions that include Cornell University. Still, in the United States special permits are needed to build with hemp and the requirements can vary by county and state. The first modern hemp house was constructed in 2010, in North Carolina. There are now about 50 such homes in the country. But not much hemp is grown here; a little less than 10,000 acres so far, enough for about 5,000 single-family homes. Cultivated acreage in Canada is double that and in China’s Yunnan province, 10,000 farmers grow it. Roughly 30 nations now produce hemp, including Spain, Austria, Russia and Australia.

Hemp was rediscovered in the 1980s across Europe, where cultivation is legal and France has become the European Union’s largest hemp producer. Hundreds of buildings across the continent use the substance as insulation to fill walls and roofs and under floors in wood-framed buildings. Manufacturers say it is ideal for low-rise construction, a product that is stucco-like in appearance and toxin-free. Its promoters also boast that it has a lower carbon footprint, requiring three times less heat to create than standard limestone concrete. More like drywall than concrete, hempcrete cannot be used for a foundation or structure; it is an insulation that needs to breathe, says Joy Beckerman, a hemp law specialist and vice president of the trade group Hemp Industries Association.

Hemp should not be used at ground level or it loses its resistance to mould and rot. Lime plaster coatings or magnesium oxide boards have to be applied to anything touching hempcrete or the lime will calcify it and lose its ability to absorb and release water. While that sounds like a lot of work, Beckerman points to the long-term pay-off.

The material is more environmentally friendly than its counterparts (UK Hempcrete )

“In many climates, a 12ft hempcrete wall will facilitate approximately 60C indoor temperatures year-around without heating or cooling systems,” she says. “The overall environmental footprint is dramatically lower than traditional construction.”

There still are not international standards for building with hemp or codes regulating how it should be used structurally or safely. ASTM International, a technical standards organisation, formed a committee to address this in 2017. Nonetheless, the use of hempcrete is spreading. A Washington state company is retrofitting homes with it. Left Hand Hemp in Denver completed the first permitted structure in Colorado last year. There’s Hempire in Ukraine, Inno-Ventures in Nepal. Israel’s first hemp house was constructed in March on the slopes of Mount Carmel. Down south, New Zealanders turned 500 bales of Dutch hemp into a property that fetched around $650,000. In Britain, HAB Housing built five homes with hempcrete last year. Canada’s Just Bio Fibre recently completed a house on Vancouver Island with an interlocking internal framed hemp-block inspired by Legos. It is a niche but growing sector of the cannabis market. In 2015, the Hemp Industries Association estimated the retail market at $573m in the United States.

“When I started Hempitecture in 2013 and presented the concept, venture capitalists laughed at the idea,” says Matthew Mead, the founder of Hempitecture, a construction firm in Washington. “Now there are over 25 states with pro-hemp amendments and legislation and the federal farm bill has its own provision supporting the development of research towards industrial hemp.”

Much like the “pot-repreneurs” who set up marijuana dispensaries a decade ago, before laws were definitive, a generation is pushing ahead despite uncertainties. Sergiy Kovalenkov, 33, a Ukrainian civil engineer who spent the last three years building hemp structures and consulting on projects in Ukraine, France, Sweden and Jamaica, is beginning a project in California. The hardest steps, Kovalenkov says, are paperwork, permits and seeds.

“Building codes vary from state to state, with regulations in terms of fire and seismic activities,” he says. “If we’re talking sustainable product, seeds cannot come from Poland or France. It has to come from California.”

Only one facility in the United States processes hemp stocks, in North Carolina. Kovalenkov’s firm, Hempire USA, has also devised its own fibre separation system. “The demand is going to be quite big in the next three to five years,” Kovalenkov says.

But what does a hemp house smell like?

“It smells like comfort,” Kovalenkov says, laughing. “It smells a little like lime. We’re using the stock. You cannot smell cannabis – it has nothing to do with smoking weed or cannabis plants. It’s an industrial agriculture crop.”

The New York Times