WHAT ABOUT BANANA PEELS?

On a technicality -- the agency failed to give enough advance warning or
allow public comment before imposing the rule -- a federal appeals court
Monday overturned a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration ban on the sale of
food containing hemp.

The 2-1 ruling by a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
therefore did not decide the actual constitutionality of the attempted ban,
which will doubtless return. It is just as likely to be eventually upheld
- -- unless some court, somewhere, finally decides to read the Ninth Amendment.

Hemp is the rope-like fiber from the same family of plants which create
marijuana. The plant has long been an important commercial product in
manufacturing rope, clothing and sailcloth. Oil from the hemp seed is used
in cosmetic as well as industrial applications, and hemp seed can be
processed into a host of foods, including energy bars, waffles, milk-free
cheese and breads.

America's drug police, of course, live in terror that legitimizing any such
products might lead to creeping tolerance of the cultivation of the plant.
But last year, demonstrating a level of absurdity rarely seen since the
fairy-tale king attempted to banish all the needles in his kingdom, DEA
attorney Daniel Dormont told the appellate court that the agency banned
food made with hemp because "there's no way of knowing" whether some such
products may actually get consumers high.

All this is like the BATF busting a housewife for possession of the amount
of alcohol in an untaxed bottle of vanilla extract.