BUSH ADMINISTRATION PUSHES FOR HEMP FOODS BAN

They're nutritious and full of fiber.

Yet because cereals, snack bars and other foods made with hempseed and hemp
oil contain trace amounts of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, the
Bush administration has been trying to ban these products - increasingly
popular with health enthusiasts - for about a year.

The products will remain on retailers' shelves for now after a U.S. Appeals
Court in San Francisco said last month that it would review a federal
ruling that such products are illegal. Under a 1970 federal law known as
the Controlled Substance Act, marijuana is listed as a controlled
substance, along with heroin, ecstasy, LSD and other drugs of abuse, said
Will Glaspy, a spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration,
whose ruling would prohibit the sale of hemp products. "There seems to be
an increase in food products with hemp lately," he said, "and the agency
wanted to clarify what the law says."

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco issued a stay of the
DEA ruling, which would have gone into effect April 21. The ruling has been
under challenge by the Hemp Industries Association, an Occidental,
Calif.-based trade group that contends there is no evidence that hempseed
and hemp oil can be abused or that the food products pose a health or
safety risk. It could be a year before the court finishes its review of the
DEA decision.

Manufacturers of hemp products have been lobbying to stave off the
government's effort, which they say could have an adverse effect on the
fledgling industry.

"I just don't get it," said Steve Levine, president of the Hemp Industries
Association. "I mean, there's more opium in poppy seed bagels than there is
THC in these foods."

Flower buds of marijuana plants typically contain 5 percent to 25 percent
of THC by dry weight, Levine said. By contrast, the hemp harvested to make
foods and other products has buds with 0.3 percent THC content.

Industrial hemp growers, who supply seed and fiber, breed varieties of the
marijuana plant, Cannabis sativa, with sufficiently low THC levels that
they produce no psychoactive effect in humans, manufacturers say. "No one's
getting high on this stuff," said David Bronner, president of Dr. Bronner's
Magic Soaps in Escondido, Calif., which makes products containing hemp. "I
feel this is very much a culture war kind of thing, declaring all things
cannabis to be bad and comparing it to crack and heroin."

Hemp's long, tough fibers have been used to make ropes, paper and other
products for more than a thousand years. For food companies, the appeal of
hemp is that it's a relatively cheap source of fiber with a high
concentration of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, which are thought to
reduce the risk of heart disease.

The DEA's Glaspy said the agency has no evidence that hemp foods are
causing health problems or are especially habit-forming. Yet the law is the
law, he said, and ought to be clarified as soon as possible.