HEMP FOOD INDUSTRY WINS 3-YEAR BATTLE

The hemp food industry declared victory Monday in its three-year
battle over the federal government's effort to ban sales and
consumption of bread, protein powders and other food products made
from the psychoactively benign botanical cousin of marijuana.
Federal officials declined to appeal a February ruling by the U.S.
9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejecting the Drug Enforcement
Administration's attempts to block sales and consumption of hemp foods.

"It's a great legal victory," said John W. Roulac, chief executive
of Nutiva, a Sebastopol, Calif., producer of hemp protein powder and
nutrition bars.

Boosters say that hemp seeds and oils contain only trace amounts of
tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the intoxicating ingredient in
cannabis, but are loaded with omega-3 fatty acids and other helpful
nutrients.