THE CASE FOR HEMP

The federal government's attempts to persuade Americans to stop using
illegal drugs have long been weakened by the outright silliness of some of
its methods.

For example, the ubiquitous TV ads showing an egg frying with a voice-over,
"This is your brain on drugs," only made millions of perfectly sober people
giggle. Most Americans know full well that the health danger of being a
full-blown heroin or crack addict is infinitely greater than, say, the risk
of smoking a joint once in a while.

Now, a federal appeals court has taken a welcome move to prevent the Bush
administration from further damaging the government's credibility in the
war on drugs.

On Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San
Francisco temporarily blocked the Drug Enforcement Administration from
enforcing a ban on food products containing hemp seed or oil.

The ban, which was to go fully into effect March 18, would have taken the
anti-drug cause to new levels of ridiculousness. It would have classified
hemp as a "Schedule I controlled substance" -- the same as marijuana,
cocaine and heroin.

Hemp contains trace amounts of THC, the active substance in marijuana. But
hemp's THC quantities are so tiny that it's literally impossible to get
high by eating food containing hemp. These THC levels are also too small to
interfere with drug tests.

Hemp food products are a small but fast-growing sector of the natural foods
industry, with annual sales of about $5 million. Products include pretzels,
chips, energy bars, bread, salad dressing, cereal, cooking oil and ice cream.

Why ban them? Look at a much more common ingredient in baking -- poppy
seeds. They contain trace amounts of opiates. But the DEA has not tried to
ban poppy seeds, and instead has negotiated with growers a set of standards
for opiate content in their seeds.

The DEA should stop its chest-thumping and settle the appellate court
lawsuit, which has been brought by hemp food manufacturers. It should sit
down to negotiate a reasonable set of standards for hemp's THC content.
Then it should go to the root of the problem by lifting the U.S. ban on
hemp cultivation.

Canada allows both the farming of hemp and its use in foods, under a set of
sound, science-based regulations overseen by that country's agriculture and
health authorities. There's no reason why the United States shouldn't do
the same.