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Friday, January 9, 2003

Hemp Madness Infects Government Drug Enforcers

Ann Woolner, Bloomberg News

NEW YORK CITY, New York — Open the plastic bag and a musty smell wafts up from brownish green matter. This is stuff the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration doesn’t want you to have.

You can get it, anyway, if you know where to look. And if things go as they should, someday soon it will become a lot easier to find.

This is hemp protein powder, the latest food product made from the hemp plant. Not as tasty by itself as hemp granola or snack bars, it’s fine added to other food, like soups, shakes and, perhaps, brownies.

There’s nothing mind-altering about any of it, and if you think there is, you’re confusing hemp with its twin, marijuana. Same species. Different strain. One gets you high. The other gets you healthy.

Nonetheless, the DEA has been in court for two years now arguing that hemp food products should be as illegal as marijuana if they contain even a benign smidgen of marijuana’s psychoactive ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC.

To the DEA, it matters not that hemp foods have too little THC to have effect. Nor does it matter that they are healthy sources of protein, fiber and omega-3, a hard-to-find essential fatty acid.

“The DEA has never said,” government lawyer Daniel Dormont argued in court in September, that “anyone can get high from them, or that they pose a harm to people.” All that counts is whether they contain detectable THC.

The Bagel Argument

THC levels are so low that hemp seeds have less hallucinogenic potential than the popular and legal opiate, poppy seeds.

“What’s stopping the agency from outlawing the poppy seed bagel tomorrow?” 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Alex Kozinski asked the DEA lawyer at oral arguments.

Taken to court by the Hemp Industries Association, the DEA has so far lost each of three preliminary rounds. The same three-judge panel that heard arguments in September about whether to kill the hemp ban altogether had temporarily blocked the DEA from putting it into effect two years ago.

In allowing sales to continue pending a definitive ruling, the judges don’t seem to fear that hemp-crazed youth will ruin their lives with HempScream ice cream.

“Did you take into account the objections of people who might say this (ban) doesn’t make a lot of sense?” Chief 9th Circuit Judge Mary Schroeder asked Dormont.

He acknowledged the policy is unpopular and said the agency balanced that against its view of the law.

Judge Betty Binns Fletcher asked the beleaguered DEA lawyer, “What possible policy does the DEA have for saying that these substances have any capacity for harm?”

Not Promising

No, it doesn’t sound promising for the DEA’s war on hemp. The only real question is whether the Hemp Industries Association will win by a 2-1 vote or 3-0.

“We’re not going to win on a technicality,” says Adam Eidinger, association spokesman. “We’re going to win outright.”

We can only hope that, when that day comes, the DEA will quietly mutter, “Oh, never mind,” and not waste any more tax money on lawyers by appealing.

For this isn’t merely a domestic matter. It has stirred a trade flap with Canada, as if we needed another one.

Canada allows hemp food possession, even with intent to distribute, as long as it contains no more THC than 10 parts per million. Up north, the DEA’s attempted ban offers another chance to laugh at Americans.

A Bit Humorous

“It’s sort of a — let’s face it — a humorous subject,” says Andre Lemay, spokesman for Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. While the United States tries to outlaw edible hemp, “We actually encourage people to grow it.”

Canadian-grown hemp provides the raw material for hemp foods eaten there and here.

A Canadian company whose very existence depends on distributing hemp food products to U.S. markets, Kenex Ltd., filed a complaint against the U.S. under the North American Free Trade Agreement in 2002, alleging $20 million in damages. The case is on hold until the 9th Circuit Court rules.

Likewise, the survival of California hemp and flax food maker Nutiva could be at stake. Sixty-five percent of Nutiva’s sales come from hemp products, according to founder John Roulac.

While places like Whole Foods (in which I own stock) and independent natural food stores sell hemp foods, Roulac says some retailers have rejected them because of their shaky legal status. Even so, Nutiva sales have surged 50 percent in recent months, boosting revenue this year $750,000, says Roulac.

Tipping Point?

“We’re really at the tipping point,” he says. “We need a clean break with a court ruling.”

Or do they?

Sales of HempPlus Granola, made by Nature’s Path of British Columbia, soared 104 percent in the second quarter last year, when court developments generated news about the DEA controversy, says spokesman Kevin Greenwood.

The publicity brought new customers, and longtime users stocked up in case the granola was outlawed, says Greenwood. The company’s hemp products bring in millions of dollars annually, he says, declining to give specific numbers for the privately held company.

Certainly legitimate businesses would lose sales if forced to give up their hemp food products.

Ah, but would the more daring hemp eaters and suppliers actually quit if the DEA wins?

Marijuana has been illegal since 1937, and yet government figures say almost half of 2002’s high school seniors smoked it.

Maybe prohibition is exactly what the hemp industry needs. Canadian hemp lords would smuggle the stuff through Windsor. Street dealers in the Bronx, in South Central Los Angeles and in suburbs across the U.S. would have a new product to peddle.

“Hey kid,” the pusher would say, sidling up to an innocent youngster in a schoolyard.

“Want a hit of essential fatty acids?”

For more informaton, contact:

Ann Woolner
Tel: 404-507-1314
E-mail: awoolner@bloomberg.net