SEIZURE: FOR THE BIRDS

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has flexed its 'zero tolerance' muscles in
an effort to protect Americans from THC - the psychoactive component of
marijuana - by halting a truckload of sterile, and, for all intents and
purposes, THC-free hemp seeds on their way to a birdseed manufacturer in
Baltimore.

Seventeen tons of seed have been sitting in a metro Detroit warehouse since
the shipment from Canada was seized in early August. Meanwhile, the
Canadian and United States hemp industries are left to wonder what impact
this action will have on their business.

Jean Laprise, owner of Kenex Ltd. in Chatham, Ontario, and producer of the
confiscated hemp seeds, is flabbergasted by this entanglement in an
otherwise smooth re-emergence of the Canadian hemp industry. Canada
endorsed the growing of industrial hemp almost a year and a half ago.

Since then, Kenex has been delivering shipments of hemp seeds, cosmetic-
and food-grade oil and horse bedding to customers across the United States.
U.S. Customs first demanded that Kenex turn over its records and recall
shipments as far back as 1998, or face a fine in excess of $500,000.

This is impossible, laments Laprise in a recent New York Times article,
because the products have been used. How can you recall hemp seeds, an
essential ingredient in the popular Nutiva hemp bar, that were already
consumed?

Conditions for release of the seeds, valued at $25,000, have apparently now
changed. According to Laprise, the DEA notified him last week that in
exchange for releasing the hemp seeds, Kenex must pay a seizure cost
between $5,000 and $10,000 and sign a 'hold harmless' agreement, which
basically says the government agencies did nothing wrong and they can’t be
sued at a later date. But even then, Laprise says Kenex has no guarantee
future shipments will not be stopped at the border.

"Those are unacceptable conditions that we are being forced to accept,
under protest," Laprise says. The DEA gave the orders to U.S. Customs
officials to seize the shipment, based on the notion that industrial hemp
seeds may be 'contaminated' with THC, the component necessary to get high
from smoking marijuana. Canadian grade industrial hemp is regulated to 0.3
percent THC; commercial pot generally has 8 percent to 20 percent THC.

In a statement, the DEA asserted the U.S. Controlled Substance Act of 1937
defines hemp as marijuana. Hemp advocates maintain that sterilized hemp
seeds are specifically excluded from Schedule I classification of marijuana
in the Controlled Substance Act.

Industrial hemp seeds are also specifically highlighted in NAFTA as a legal
U.S. import, hemp advocates say.

Industrial hemp has been imported for years from such countries as Britain,
France, Germany, the Soviet Union, and lately Canada. Because hemp
production is outlawed in the United States, importation is the only option
available to American companies that use hemp products.

This move by the DEA is raising a ruckus in government circles in Canada.
In a letter to Commissioner Raymond Kelley of the United States Customs
Service, Canadian Minister Douglas Waddel expressed concern: "The treatment
of this company, and in particular the lack of due process and the failure
by the U.S. to follow normal Customs procedures, are matters of particular
concern to Canadian authorities. Moreover, Canada considers this seizure
action to be contrary to U.S. NAFTA and WTO obligations."

Some hemp entrepreneurs worry this incident will stymie the industrial hemp
movement. Don Wirtshafter, founder of the Ohio Hempery, is quite disturbed
about what happened.

"The (DEA) has shaken all confidence in the hemp and the hemp food
industry," says Wirtshafter. "We were just at the point of success and they
knocked our legs out from under us."