WIDDECOMBE ATTACKS RODDICK FOR USING HEMP, COUSIN OF MARIJUANA

An old staple has been rehabilitated in the pursuit of new products, says
Tony May

Body Shop insisted it was not selling "dope-on-a-rope" after its launch of
a range of skin products based on hemp oil ran into heavyweight criticism
from former Home Office minister Ann Widdecombe yesterday.

The Conservative MP accused Body Shop founder Anita Roddick of "making a
joke of drug-taking" as she handed out cannabis seeds at the product
launch. She said Ms Roddick was being "wholly irresponsible" in introducing
the Hemp range because they were produced from the Cannabis Sativa plant -
a relative of marijuana.

The move was also criticised by the Parents Against Drugs group. Joan
Keogh, its spokesman, said: "What they are doing is legal, but youngsters
will put two and two together and come up with five."

But the fuss was a gift to Body Shop's PR department which was quick to
extole the virtues of the "misunderstood cousin of marijuana".

Ms Roddick said hemp was one of the most enviromentally friendly, easily
grown and versatile natural products, but had been hit by a smear campaign
to protect American cotton growers and by its association with the drugs
culture.

The plant contains only a fraction of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in
marijuana, and is not a pot plant as it grows 15 foot high. You would need
to smoke a joint the size of a telegraph pole to get high.

Although its growth in the UK was compulsory under George III Nelson's navy
used its fibres to make rope - industrial hemp from Cannabis Sativa seeds
can now only be cultivated under Home Office licence owing to the cannabis
ban.

Like any retailer, Body Shop needs to introduce new products to keep sales
moving - the group's worldwide sales were down 1 per cent in the first half
of this year once new store openings and expansion were stripped out of the
calculation. It had a poor Christmas following aggressive competition in
the US and economic turmoil in Asia and analysts have cut their profit
forecasts for the current year.

Hemp is stuffed full of essential fatty acids and between 1000 BC and late
last century it was used around the globe for paper (the American
Declaration of Independence was written on it), textiles (Rembrandt and Van
Gogh painted on it), medicines and paint.

Now it will appear in Body Shop in packs coloured oatmeal and brown with a
cannabis leaf imprint.

Every week the hemp oil trucks will roll in from farms on the Continent to
the group's factory in Littlehampton, Sussex, for processing alongside
other exotic raw materials such as bananas into ranges of soaps, hand
protectors and lip conditioners.

Ms Roddick said she would not encourage anyone to break the law, and had to
use imitation plants at the launch to avoid being arrested with a real one.

In a reply to Miss Widdecombe, the Body Shop founder said: "With all the
current problems our farmers face, I'd expect political leaders like you to
support hemp growing.

"Do you honestly believe the sight of a hemp plant will drive Britain's
youth to drugs? If so, no doubt you will urge the British Legion to drop
their Poppy Day appeal in case everyone starts taking opium."

She urged the former Tory minister to smear her face with the new hemp
cream which was ideal for "older skin like ours".