There are a lot of reasons why the Comedy Central animated series “South Park” has been on the air for so long. First and foremost, they’ve kept in strong since 1997 by keeping it real and topical. They evolve with the times, and focus on what’s trending at that given point.

Last season, they shifted their focus to the fictional Tegridy Farms, and made a new main character, in Stan Marsh. Tegridy is a marijuana farm, and their shifting to this topic is reflective of how big a boom these businesses are seeing. CBD, Hemp, so-called “pot stocks,” it’s a family of industries set to skyrocket. CBD Stocks could be a smart investment play this year.

For a broader view at the industry at large, you got to start at, pardon the obvious pun, grassroots level. Pure Hemp Farms is a premium grower of cannabis plants, established in 2015. That was one year after the Agricultural Act 2014 (farm bill) allowed the use of hemp on an experimental basis.  In 2018, the United States farm bill federally legalized hemp production and now they’re a firm that is very nicely positioned as more people have gone back to the Earth, so to speak, during this pandemic.

As has been well documented in mainstream media, individual farming is booming right now, as more of the population takes the social distance requirements outside. It’s important to distinguish that CBD and hemp are very different from marijuana in that they contain no psychoactive component.

In order for these products to be legal, they must not contain any THC (tetrahydracannabidol), the addictive agent in marijuana. With that in mind, you can feel safe and secure finding “growth” in this space. The multifarious healing powers of hemp and CBD have been well documented, and after a year like 2020, most of us could use some help easing our pains.

Yahoo Finance has a good list of 13 potential hemp stocks to buy right now, while Investment U has an article on the top three CBD stocks to watch in 2021. For further reading, the National Investment Council has more on the CBD and hemp revolution.

Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and SB Nation. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.