THEY'RE DARN TASTY BUT YOU WON'T CATCH A BUZZ OFF HEMPBURGERS

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) 97 Rick Paul says the only thrill you'll get fro
m his
hemp muffins and burgers is from the taste.

The eye-catching dishes have proven extremely popular at Paul's 18-se
at
White Light Diner. But please, he asks, don't come in hoping for a bu
zz.

"Anybody who starts giggling after eating these muffins probably smok
ed a
(marijuana) joint before coming to work," Paul joked.

Paul started selling his unusual combination of food Tuesday.

The 59-cent muffins, available in three flavors, are made with hemp s
eeds,
which come from a non-potent relative of the intoxicating marijuana p
lant.

The burgers came from cattle that ate hemp-fortified feed. Paul says
they're
less greasy than typical burgers because they were ground with less f
at.

Some customers were a little wary.

"If they drug-test me, I won't show up positive, will I?" one city
firefighter inquired as he waited for his hemp burger.

Hemp-fed beef is rare since hemp production is illegal in the United
States.
It's legal to import specially certified seeds and hemp fiber for cer
tain
purposes, such as beer-making. The farmer who supplied the beef got h
is
grain from a brewery that couldn't use the seeds because they were gr
ound
too fine.

"It tastes so burgery ... it's the best burger I ever had," customer
Charlene Howard said.

A9 1998 Associated Press.

Checked-by: "R. Lake"