MARIJUANA COUSIN IN CONTROVERSIAL BODY SHOP DEBUT

LONDON (Reuters) - The hemp plant, known as marijuana's respectable cousin,
debuted Friday as the latest fashionable ingredient in environmentally
friendly beauty products -- but not without controversy.

Bath and body care products retailer The Body Shop announced a five-product
line formulated with hemp seed oil.

``Ignorance confuses hemp with marijuana, even though you'd need a joint
the size of a telegraph pole to get any kind of buzz,'' The Body Shop
founder Anita Roddick told reporters.

``It's a valuable eco-plant which we'll keep on promoting.''

Ian Low, director of Hemcore, which has grown hemp in Essex northeast of
London for the past six years, said the amount of psychoactive ingredient
in the plant was negligible while the benefits for agriculture and the
environment were huge.

``The whole of the plant is useful. It's a rotational crop which is fully
grown to 16 feet in only three months, requires virtually no attention,
doesn't use pesticides and enriches the soil,'' he said.

Although the European Union approves the growth of 12 types of hemp seed in
Britain, it said last month it may cut aid amid concern that public money
was being used to legitimize the cultivation of marijuana.

``Hemp needs subsidies more than any other crop. The policy-makers
shouldn't knock it,'' Low said.

A versatile material first used in textiles in about the 28th century B.C.,
hemp today is used in more than 25,000 products.

But Conservative member of Parliament Ann Widdecombe criticized the products.

``It's about making a joke of drug-taking and is wholly irresponsible,''
she said.

``I keep thinking there are real conspiracies afloat -- it doesn't make
rational sense that the benefits this plant can supply are being
vilified,'' Roddick said.