HIGH ON HEMP

Plant loses its drug image and proves a popular part of food, clothes and
cosmetics.

Hemp seed wholesalers are chipping away at mainstream mores around marijuana
by using its natural seeds in foods neither the health conscious or health
oblivious can ignore.

Chips, bagels, cookies, cheese and pie made with hemp seeds were selling
well at Lifestyle Market on Douglas Street throughout the Christmas season,
said managing partner Carmine Sparanese.

All of the hemp-based food products look and taste like the real thing.
That's because, according to suppliers and wholesalers, products made form
hemp are the real thing - a highly versatile natural source of protein,
fibre, vitamins, and essential fatty acids and amino acids.

Gone are the days when hemp seed was peddled by hippies smoking pipes and
wearing bad hemp suits, said Viteway's Paul Griffin and Canadian Hemp
Corporation's Richard Plotnikoff.

Hemp products can be found in everything from baked goods to body creams.
Sparanese said most of Lifestyle's clientele is educated about health issues
and hemp products.

The marijuana plant thriving in B.C. fields and basement grow operations
contains THC levels, a hallucinogenic ingredient, of 15 to 40 per cent.

Hemp is a genetically engineered hybrid of of the marijuana plant which
contains no more than 0.3 per cent THC. Engineers devised a way to get rid
of THC without losing the plant's high nutritional value.

"The biggest question or concern from people is about how hemp is grown,
whether it's organic. They take it to the next level all the time," said
Sparanese.

It's that kind of broad acceptance that will move hemp products from
shelves, he predicts.

Griffin and Marryianne Chalmers of Viteway Natural Foods went into business
together to create Uncle Paul's Whole Foods that sells bagels and hemp-seed
corn chips.

According to Plotnikoff, the chips are expected to be sold through Thrifty
Foods in the next two months.

Griffin said the challenge now is to convince the over-40 set that hemp is
not a hippie trend. Also, Griffin said those who tasted the porridge-like
dishes produced from hemp in the early days, have to re-educate their taste
buds.

Plotnikoff said hemp seed supporters such as Nell Newman - actor Paul
Newman's daughter who works for her father producing his personal line of
salad dressings - will help bring hemp products into the mainstream.

Plotnikoff is confident that in five years he'll be sitting on a
billion-dollar industry. Already he's sold all of his seeds for the year. As
more Canadian farmers pick up on the crop's advantages, he said the industry
is bound to take off across North America.

Because so many clients are looking for hemp seed and hemp seed cake - the
residue from hemp seed after it is pressed for oil - Plotnikoff said 27,215
kilograms of the stuff will be shipped to the U.S. in the next two months.

Hemp produces 250 per cent more fibre than cotton and 650 per cent more
fibre than flax. It takes only 90 days to grow and produces four times more
paper than trees.

The Canadian Hemp Farmers Association is on target for a hemp seed
processing plant to open in Chilliwack in time for this year's harvest.

According to Plotnikoff the association has already contracted 10,000 acres
in B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan to grow hemp. Almost 50 per cent of the
crops are organic.

Hemp bagels and corn chips in health-food stores are slightly more expensive
than no-name brands. A bag of hemp-seed corn chips costs $3.25, a six-pack
of bagels rings in at $3.30 and hemp-pot vegetarian pies are $2.25 apiece.