HEMP MAKES THE LIST OF BUREAU'S BANNED BUZZWORDS

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms may be loose on language, but
it's getting tough on drugs.

In a reversal of an earlier label approval, the agency has told Frederick
Brewing of Maryland it can no longer call its popular dark ale Hempen Ale.

The beer is made with hemp seeds, like those used to grow marijuana. The
seeds are sterile, however, and contain no THC, the psychotropic substance
that gets users stoned.

Mostly, the seeds are a gimmick, though brewers say they do add body to ales.

ATF had approved Frederick's pot-leafed label in 1997. It quickly became
one of the brewery's most popular beers. Last spring, however, the agency
did an about-face.

In a little publicized order, the agency said that while brewers could
continue to use hemp in alcoholic beverages, they could no longer advertise
that fact. That includes any reference to word "hemp" in a brand name.

According to the order, brewers were forbidden to use "depictions,
graphics, designs, devices, puffery, statements, slang, representations,
etc., implying or referencing the presence of hemp, marijuana, any other
controlled substance, or any pyschoactive effects."

Al Spinelli, general manager of Frederick Brewing, said the brewery was
permitted to continue produce the ale until it runs out of packaging
materials that it had purchased before the ban. He said Hempen Ale should
be completely off the shelves sometime this summer.

Frederick - which had been recently purchased by a holding group called
Snyder International - didn't put up a fight. "Our position is that Hempen
Ale is not in our long-term portfolio, so I can't say it really bothered us
a lot that they came down with this ruling," Spinelli said.

An attorney familiar with the case said, however, "If someone wanted to
challenge the policy, I would be extremely confident they could challenge
it on First Amendment issues. You look at what the regulators are doing,
and I say it's flatly illegal. But it'll cost you six figures to beat it."

So why did ATF reverse itself?

Complaints from a single consumer group, a agency spokeswoman said. "There
was a feeling that the labeling could be interpreted that this was liquid
THC," she said.

Outsiders accuse the agency of giving in to anti-drug zealots.

Larry Lesterud, who makes Hemp Ale for Humboldt Brewing in California,
believes the crackdown was prompted by the White House.

Last year, his shipment of hemp seeds was halted at the border, he said, by
the Office of National Drug Control Policy - the White House drug czar.

"They're just trying to starve the country out of hemp products," said
Lesterud. He said he can still legally bottle his Hemp Ale as long as he
doesn't sell it across state lines.

"This is the White House saying we don't want hemp in America. They're
really quite fascist about it."