HEMP-FOOD MAKERS FIGHT US BAN

Healthy Hemp Sprouted Bread. Hemp Plus Granola. Hempzel Pretzels.
Hempseed Energy Bars. Hemp Chips. Hempsi Hempmylk.

Those products, now beginning to appear on store shelves, contain
what is being promoted as the latest nutritional wonder -- one rich
in protein, vitamin E and two essential fatty acids.

But federal drug officials have a radically different view of the
hemp seeds and hemp oil that are being added to ice cream, candy,
salad oil, waffles and beer. To the Drug Enforcement Administration,
hemp and marijuana come from the same plant, so one is as illegal as
the other.

Food manufacturers say their products contain little, if any, of the
hallucinogen found in marijuana -- certainly no more than the amount
of opiate found in a poppy-seed bagel. Nonetheless, the DEA has
ordered any food containing hemp off store shelves by early next
month. Soaps, cosmetics and clothes made with hemp may still be sold
unless and until there is evidence that the hemp in such products can
be absorbed by the body.

The DEA's order, issued Oct. 9, is the latest twist in an ongoing
battle between drug-control advocates and a growing number of
farmers, entrepreneurs and drug-reform advocates such as "Cheers"
actor Woody Harrelson who want to legalize industrial hemp.

The amount of food products containing hemp is small, accounting for
only about $5 million in sales a year, with most products sold in
health-food stores. Locally, hemp products can be found at Fresh
Fields/Whole Foods, Yes Organic Market, My Organic Market and Takoma
Park/Silver Spring Food Co-op.

Hemp-food makers note that soy foods, considered a fringe food for
health enthusiasts only a few years ago, have become mainstream, sold
in widely different forms such as soy milk and tofu turkey. In 2001,
sales of soy food products totaled more than $3.3 billion, according
to the Maine consulting firm Soyatech.

It is no wonder then, that the hemp industry is fighting the DEA
order, which takes effect Feb. 6.

The Hemp Industries Association, which represents product
manufacturers and Canadian exporters of hemp seed, has asked the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to issue a stay pending a
ruling on its petition to overturn the DEA's order. A decision on the
stay is expected any day.

Meanwhile, the largest exporter of hemp seed to the United States (it
is illegal to grow industrial hemp in most of this country), Kenex
Ltd. of Canada, is to notify Washington tomorrow that it intends,
under the North America Free Trade Agreement, to seek compensation of
at least $20 million as a result of the DEA's action.

"The level of THC [tetrahydrocannabinol, the hallucinogenic substance
found in marijuana] in hemp seeds is minuscule," said John W. Roulac,
founder and president of Nutiva, whose California company sells hemp
bars, chips and cans of shelled hemp seeds.

Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), said the DEA's decision "is the kind
of thing that undermines the credibility of the so-called war on
drugs. There is no basis for the complete prohibition. The amount of
THC in these food products are so infinitesimally small -- are
addicts are going to carry around barrels of pretzels? . . . This is
from the same administration that says it's okay to have more arsenic
in water than it is to have hemp in cereal."

DEA officials say the issue is simple: The ban is required by law.
"Many Americans do not know that hemp and marijuana are both parts of
the same plant and that hemp cannot be produced without producing
marijuana," DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson said in a statement
announcing the ban.

Under the 1970 Controlled Substances Act, the DEA said, it has no
choice but to ban food with hemp seed.

In that law Congress "expressly stated . . . that 'any material,
compound, mixture, or preparation which contains any quantity of THC'
is a . . . controlled substance" that is illegal, according to the
Federal Register notice announcing the ban.

Will Glaspy, a DEA spokesman, said that although poppy seeds may
contain trace amounts of opiates, they are allowed in food because
Congress specifically exempted them from substance-abuse laws.

Glaspy said the DEA had been considering the issue for about a year
before the announcement. "The fact of the matter is we are here to
enforce the laws of the U.S. Yes, there are other matters going on in
the rest of the world, but the American public expects us to continue
our duties," he said.

The Family Research Council, a nonprofit organization whose mission
is to promote and protect marriage and family, pushed for the ban. In
a paper written in December 2000, the council's vice president of
policy, Robert L. Maginnis, said "hemp has become a stalking horse
for the drug legalization movement."

Maginnis contends that hemp-food products can produce a false
positive on drug tests, which the hemp-food industry disputes. Even
so, both sides acknowledge that some Americans have been able to
successfully fight some positive drug tests by saying they had eaten
hemp products.

At issue in the dispute over hemp foods is the difference between
marijuana and industrial hemp. According to the DEA, "hemp and
marijuana are actually separate parts of the species of plant known
as the cannabis. . . . The marijuana portions of the cannabis plant
include the flowering tops (buds), the leaves and the resin of the
cannabis plant. The remainder of the plant -- stalks and sterilized
seeds -- is what some people refer to as hemp."

The Family Research Council and industry officials agree there is a
key difference. Industrial hemp generally has less than 1 percent
THC, while marijuana plants can have as much as 30 percent.

"The difference between the two plants is like the difference between
field corn and sweet corn -- it's the same species but different
varieties," said David Bronner, chairman of the hemp industry
association's food and oil committee.

Over the past few years, hemp products have become increasingly
popular, with its annual sales now about $25 million. Clothing and
body products such as soap and cosmetics account for most of the
sales.

Food is becoming the fastest-growing segment, as Roulac's sales show:
In 1999 his company sold $211,000 of hemp-food products. Last year,
sales surpassed $445,000. Meanwhile, sales of Hemp Plus Granola, made
by Nature's Path, has grown by more than 30 percent a year.

Sales have been spurred by the discovery -- and promotion -- of
hemp's nutritional value. The packaging on Healthy Hemp Sprouted
Bread claims, "This amazing shelled hemp seed is one of the most
nutritious plant foods available with a rich source of protein,
dietary fiber, minerals, vitamin E, iron and a near-perfect
composition of the essential fatty acids, Omega 3 and 6."

Cynthia Sass, a registered dietitian at the University of South
Florida and a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, said
hemp seed has some "positive nutritional values; it's a good source
of essential fatty acids that we can't produce ourselves and need to
consume. It's also high in protein." However, she noted, there are
other ways to obtain the same nutrients -- fish and flax seed for the
fatty acids and soybeans for the protein.

As a result of the DEA's announcement, Harrelson said his plans to
bring a hemp-milk product to market has been interrupted. "Why
proceed when we think we're going to be thrown in jail?" he said in a
telephone interview.

Harrelson and other hemp proponents note that this is not the first
time the DEA has tried to block the sale of hemp products. In August
1999, U.S. Customs officials, on the advice of the DEA, seized a
shipment of hemp birdseed from Canada because it contained traces of
THC. The shipment was released two months later.

As a result, makers of nonfood hemp products are worried about what
the DEA might do next. That is one reason why Bronner is leading the
fight against the food ban -- even though his company, Dr. Bronner's
Magic Soaps, does not make a food product.

The DEA did not rule out that possibility in its Federal Register
notice: "DEA will assume (unless and until it receives evidence to
the contrary) that most personal care products do not cause THC to
enter the human body and therefore are exempted."