Pubdate: Tue, 11 Dec 2001
Source: Denver Rocky Mountain News (CO)
Copyright: 2001, Denver Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.rockymountainnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/371
Author: LANCE GAY

BAN ON TRACE ELEMENTS OF HEMP IN FOOD

Federal drug agents are taking a potshot at the burgeoning popularity of 
hemp-based energy bars, salad dressing and chips, ordering stores to strip 
shelves of products that contain even trace amounts of psychoactive 
ingredients by Feb. 6.

The hemp industry says that the new Drug Enforcement Administration rules 
are killing the $5 million-a-year sales of hemp-based food products, and 
are contrary to more than 60 years of government policy, which sought to 
distinguish industrial hemp from marijuana.

"This is totally opposite policy,'' said Don Wirtshafter, founder of The 
Hempery in Guysville, Ohio, which sells hemp food products, oil and clothing.

He said his company already has lost three major accounts because of the 
DEA actions, and claimed the federal decision has dampened a flourishing 
market for hemp foods, which began to flourish five years ago.

A DEA spokesman said the rule is only "more of a clarification" of existing 
U.S. policies on hemp usage.

Under the rule, agricultural uses of hemp in birdseed and animal foods is 
permitted, and hemp is allowed in clothing or rope.

But the DEA rule puts hemp for human consumption in a class of illegal 
drugs that includes heroin and LSD if it is found to contain any amount of 
tetrahydrocannabinols, or THC, the psychoactive ingredient of marijuana.

As an interpretation, the DEA said its rule on hemp for human consumption 
went into effect when it was published in the Federal Register Oct. 6. But 
the agency is giving health food stores and the industry "a grace period" 
until Feb. 6 to remove the products from shelves, after which stocking the 
products will be illegal.

In a statement issued with the rule, DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson said 
"many Americans do not know that hemp and marijuana are both parts of the 
same plant and that hemp cannot be produced without producing marijuana."

The industry says that removing trace amounts of THC from hemp products is 
impossible, and noted the government allows bakeries to use poppy seeds 
that have trace amounts of opium.

"There's no such thing as a zero standard - just look at the debate over 
arsenic in water,'' said David Bonner, chairman of the Hemp Industry 
Association's food and oil committee.

Bonner said that hemp used for food products - basically the stems and 
seeds of the plants - are cultured from plants that have low levels of THC, 
and most of that is washed away during processing. "There's no psychoactive 
activity possible here," Bonner said.

Bonner, who owns a company selling hemp-based soap, said he's concerned his 
business will be affected because the rule is so broadly written that the 
DEA might try to show that humans are absorbing trace amounts of THC 
through their skin.

The industry has asked a federal appeals court in San Francisco to stop the 
DEA from enforcing the regulation pending a full hearing on the issue. The 
court is expected to rule this month.

DEA has been involved in a long-running battle with the hemp industry for 
several years. In 1991, the agency ordered the U.S. Customs Service to 
confiscate 20 tons of birdseed imported from Canada because it was found to 
contain trace amounts of THC. The DEA spokesman said the new rule clarifies 
that sales of hemp products not consumed by humans are approved.

Former drug czar Barry McCaffrey also urged the DEA to ban hemp on grounds 
that members of the U.S. military were contending at court-martial that 
their positive urine tests for marijuana were caused after they ate 
hemp-based foods. The industry says the government adjusts its testing 
program to accept trace levels of opium caused by poppy seeds, and could do 
the same for hemp.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom