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Reader Debate
The Detroit News
615 Lafayette Blvd
Detroit, MI 48226

Tuesday, March 25, 1997
Restaurant uses hemp oil and seeds in exotic dishes

By Cathy Hainer / USA Today

At the Galaxy restaurant in Manhattan, patrons are inhaling chef Deb
Stanton's food. Some even may be tempted to smoke it.

That's because Stanton is one of the few chefs cooking with hemp. Stanton
cooks with hemp seeds and a flour made from milling them and with hemp oil.
Galaxy's menu includes Granny Smith hempcrusted apple pie, made with the
flour; soba noodle salad made with hemp oil; and chocolate bananas Foster
with hemp seed brittle.

Hemp seeds and oil don't produce the "high" of their cousin, marijuana.
Both come from the cannabis sativa plant, but marijuana derives from the
plant's buds; hemp seeds are, well, the seeds. Hemp seeds and oil are
perfectly legal, says Galaxy owner Denis Cicero. "The seeds are
coldpressed, and that process removes the tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC,
the psychoactive ingredient." Advocates say there are no risks with eating
hempenhanced dishes.

But doubts remain. Although hemp seeds are supposed to be sterilized,
"people who eat these dishes could test positive in a drug test," says
Rogene Waite of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

No metro Detroit restaurants seem to have caught the trend, but creative
cooks can concoct their own dishes the People's Food Coop and the Pure
Productions hempclothing store, both in Ann Arbor, stock hemp oil, and the
coop also sells hemp cheese.

Copyright 1997, The Detroit News

NOTE: Speaking of Ann Arbor, many (thousands of) reform minded folks, and
at least a few MAPers, will be at the Diag at UofM at Noon, Saturday, April
5th, for the 26th annual event. I plan to pass out leaflets for the
HempNation Constitutional Challenge.