HEMP TODAY, GONE TOMORROW?

I'm a naughty boy. If the DEA gets its way, I'll be one pretty soon, that is.

You see, yesterday I went to my local health food store and purchased --
you might want to remove any children from the room and cease reading if
you have a heart condition -- hemp. To be more specific, it was a bottle of
hemp-seed oil, containing all those wonderful omega 3 and 6 fatty acids
that otherwise would have to be consumed by too many mouthfuls of cod liver.

Right now, hemp seeds and oil are perfectly legal for human consumption,
which is nice because a squad of DEA agents swooping down from the rafters
to arrest me and confiscate my salad dressing is none to pleasant a thought.

Unfortunately, as I warned a few months ago, it may not remain legal much
longer. Better hide that salad dressing, after all.

The latest word on this comes from Roberta Rampton in the Jan. 4 edition of
the Canadian agricultural weekly Western Producer. Seems our good friends
at the U.S. Department of Justice plan to announce -- by bureaucratic fiat
- -- a new set of administrative rules which will place hemp products in the
hands-off category.

Whatever for?

Citing concern that the ever-growing use of hemp products is "confounding
our federal drug control testing programs," retiring federal drug czar Gen.
Barry McCaffrey announced his perturbation with pot's nonpsychoactive
botanical cousin in a June 10, 2000, letter to Hawaiian Congresswoman Patsy
T. Mink. Because these products "are of significant concern," explained
McCaffrey, "we are discussing an appropriate solution within the
Departments of Justice and Treasury."

As for the so-called appropriate solution, according to the Drug Reform
Coordination Network, the DEA wants to stretch its interpretation of a
63-year-old law to include hemp products in the Controlled Substances Act.
The new rules will bar "'hemp' products that result in THC entering the
human body," says DEA. "In this manner, it will remain clear that the only
lawful way THC may enter the human body is when a person is using a
federally approved drug or when the person is the subject of federally
approved research."

If these proposed rules goes through, Canadian and other foreign suppliers
of hemp food products will be stopped at the borders, and hemp consumers
will be forced to eat birdseed on the sly for their daily dose.

This is for our own good of course. The new rules are being enacted, says
DEA, "to protect the public health and safety. ..."

Pardon me while laugh my socks off.

While marijuana contains about 5 percent THC by weight (some varieties have
twice that much and more), hemp -- the near-beer of the cannabis family --
contains less than l percent and is cultivated solely for industrial or
food purposes. Because the presence of THC is so slight, it's easier to die
of smoke inhalation toking on hemp than it is to get high; the trace
amounts of THC render hemp effectively nonintoxicant. As a result, it's as
big a threat to "public health and safety" as lettuce.

Regardless, DEA and its bureaucratic overling, DOJ, are pressing forward
with banning any products made from hemp that humans might ingest.

The other pretext for barring hemp, as McCaffrey stated, is that hemp
products are mischievous gremlins for drug testing. Nonsense, of course.
The trace amounts of THC that might accrue in subject's system should hold
no sway in testing. The standard dose of hemp oil is about 1-2 tablespoons
per hundred pounds of body weight; a July 2000 study published by the North
American Industrial Hemp Council, conducted by Leson Environmental
Consulting of Berkeley, Calif., had participants ingest three times that
dose (the amount was so large researchers commented that "Even hemp food
connoisseurs rarely consume such quantities.") Despite the heightened dose,
study participants fell beneath the THC threshold that would trigger a
positive on most drug tests. Similar studies have yielded the same results.

So much for McCaffrey's "green herring," right? Not quite.

The drug warriors in this country don't care about reality. Banning hemp
products is a symbolic victory over the cannabis culture sprouting up in
America. While it may be hard to round up street-corner, dorm-room and
night-club pot sellers, it's pretty easy to stop an 18-wheeler from Canada
with the words "Hemp Products 'R' Us" emblazoned on the side.

Unfortunately, it won't be easy to put an end to this idiocy. Several
federal agencies have to approve of DEA's new rules before they to go into
effect. DOJ has already signed off. The departments of Commerce, Customs
and Treasury have yet to do so. But don't hold your breath. If this
administration has proved anything in eight long years it is that it his no
compunction about running roughshod over the constitutional division of powers.

You say executive bureaucracies are not supposed to make law; that's the
prerogative of the legislature. Sure. But if you call it "administrative
rule," then it's just peachy, isn't it? Same goes for executive orders. As
presidential aide Paul Begala said in July 1998, "Stroke of the pen. Law of
the land. Kinda cool."

Who needs Congress?

The DEA's hemp ban is a clear breach of constitutional authority and should
be stopped. Yeah, it's a small thing to those of you who don't use hemp
products -- probably not worth your time to write an e-mail to your
congressman, urging him to put a halt to DEA's powergrab. But what are you
going to do when it's something you do care about?

People's ears and hearts get smaller as Big Brother gets bigger. What are
you going to do when no one listens to you?

Joel Miller is the commentary editor of WorldNetDaily.