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| Hemp Hullabaloo and The Groovy Supe |
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Posted by FoM on March 14, 2002 at 17:13:38 PT By Joyce Nishioka of The Examiner Staff Source: San Francisco Examiner 
Hemp can't get you high. Nevertheless, while The City embraces hemp, the Drug Enforcement Administration is trying to ban it.Displayed outside The Body Shop's downtown store, advertisements with drawings of marijuana-shaped leaves tout hemp as the best moisturizer in the world. Another sign reads, "Hemp is hope, not dope." Health food stores stock cereals, bread, ice cream and oils containing hemp. An acre of hemp produces four times as much paper as an acre of timber, said Supervisor Mark Leno. "Hemp can make fabric that is sheerer than linen, softer than flannel and more durable than denim," he said. Nationwide, hemp products have annual sales of $25 million. Despite these benefits, the DEA, under former Arkansas Congressman Asa Hutchinson, has adopted a strict interpretation of a 1930s statute that prohibits goods containing tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. So far, the DEA is only going after food products. But while THC levels in marijuana are as high as 17 percent, the level in industrial hemp is about .01 percent. In other words, hemp isn't mind-altering. "The federal government has confused hemp with marijuana," Leno said. "Their position is not based on science at all. They should be reprimanded for what they are doing." Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals temporarily barred the DEA from enforcing the prohibition. Hemp activists had argued that by imposing the ban, the DEA would overstep its authority to regulate substances that have the potential for abuse. "Federal statutes don't make a distinction if a product is 99 percent loaded with THC or .001. Suffice it to say, this matter is being looked into," said Greg Underwood of the San Francisco division of the DEA. "It's an area of debate." Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, has been a strong opponent of the DEA's actions. Nationwide, the company's No. 2 bestseller is its hemp hand lotion, said Kenneth Isaacs, manager of The Body Shop in the Castro. Hemp is high in essential fatty acids, proteins and vitamin E, making it an ideal ingredient in food or body products, supporters said. The DEA hasn't given The Body Shop any warnings because the company's merchandise isn't ingestible. But the company is "concerned about what's next," Isaacs said, especially in regard to its hemp lip balm, which conceivably could be eaten. The company has collected 450,000 signatures in protest of DEA, said Isaacs. Ralph Bronner, vice president of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps, a company that is one of the biggest users of hemp oil in North America, has lobbied on behalf of small businesses that would be forced to shut down if hemp were banned. He said there has been no case of a person harmed by hemp, while thousands have died from alcohol and tobacco. "I've been waiting for the incredible evidence the DEA has, but all I get is that the leaves look similar to marijuana," Bronner said. "Even that isn't true. Industrial hemp is 8 feet high on stalks, and pot is small and leafy. All the DEA has to do is train agents -- Look down, that's pot, look up, that's hemp." Source: San Francisco Examiner (CA) Related Articles & Web Sites: FTE's Hemp Links The Drug Czar's View of Edible Hemp Manufacturers of Hemp Foods Gear Up for Fight Ninth Circuit Court Blocks DEA Hemp Rule Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
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