HEMP USERS PREPARE TO FIGHT DEA RULE

SAN DIEGO (AP) - The energetic 60-year-old woman with cropped white hair
and sea-green eyes doesn't fit the usual profile of a drug pusher.

But inside Gertrude Spindler's cozy condominium, there's trouble cooking.

The Drug Enforcement Administration is steeling itself to put Spindler out
of business and make sure she keeps her wares away from would-be buyers.

There's no meth lab in Spindler's bath tub, nor an Ecstasy ring in the
garage. She's using a family recipe to create her Alpsnack snack bars that
include hempnuts. And under a recent DEA ruling, she may as well be selling
heroin.

Hempnuts come from hemp, an industrial plant grown outside the United
States that is related to marijuana. Fiber from the plant long has been
used to make paper, clothing, rope and other products. Its oil is found in
body-care products like lotion, soap and cosmetics.

Entrepreneurs like Spindler argue the nuts and oil from hemp are among
nature's best sources of essential fatty acids. Twice a day, she swallows a
sp oonful of raw hempnuts, which she says improves - no pun intended - her
joints.

"I hate chemicals. I like natural things," Spindler said. "God has given us
those natural things and we should use it."

But the DEA objects. In October, the agency declared that food products
containing even trace amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol or THC - the
psychoactive chemical found in marijuana - were banned under the Controlled
Substances Act.

It ordered an immediate halt in the production and distribution of all
goods containing THC that were intended for human consumption. It gave
until Wednesday for all such products to be destroyed or removed from the
United States.

DEA spokesman Will Glaspy said the agency simply is upholding the law.

"A lot of people did not understand the law. The clarification says if a
substance contains THC and is intended to enter the body then it is an
illegal product," Glaspy said.

Hemp and marijuana, as the DEA sees it, are different parts of the same
plant, he said. And THC in any amount is an illegal drug.

The ruling has galvanized hemp-product manufacturers, who contend the DEA
violated the law by failing to hold hearings or accept public comment
before issuing its declaration.

The Hemp Industries Association, which represents U.S. hemp product
manufacturers and Canadian hemp exporters, has challenged the ruling in the
federal court and asked for a stay of the deadline.

Meanwhile, association members are continuing to produce and sell their
goods, arguing that since the DEA did not issue a standard to measure THC
levels they will follow standards set by Canada: By that scale, the THC is
so negligible it could be considered undetectable - and certainly far below
any level that would produce a "high."

"There is no such thing as a true zero in nature. It's like how the
government allows trace levels of arsenic in water or alcohol in orange
juice," said David Bronner, an association member who is chairman of Dr.
Bronner's Magic Soap, an Escondido-based company.

Association members argue that hemp is not marijuana, just as field corn
used for livestock feed is not the same as sweet corn eaten by humans.

"But it's part of this whole drug warrior ideology where they just
associate anything that looks like cannabis to drug culture," Bronner said.
"They're making it a drug-war issue."

So far the DEA has not taken enforcement action against people continuing
to produce hemp food products, Glaspy said. What will happen after
Wednesday remains to be seen.

In the United States, hemp is a $100 million industry, mainly in textiles
and cosmetics. The food product sector was worth $5 million last year, but
has been doubling in size for the past three years, Bronner said.

Spindler launched her one-woman Alpsnack business last year. She produces
1,500 bars a month and sends them to distributors in six states. The threat
of being shut down worries her.

"It hurts. But I have some very strong feelings that it's going to work.
It's going to be settled," she said.