cannabisnews.com: Bakery Breathes Easier with Looser Hemp Policy










  Bakery Breathes Easier with Looser Hemp Policy

Posted by CN Staff on February 06, 2004 at 20:30:50 PT
By Chuck Haga, Star Tribune  
Source: Star-Tribune  

Nervous about inhaling a slice of the "Healthy Hemp Sprouted Bread" at the French Meadow Bakery in Minneapolis? Don't be. The feds have been told to back off.The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled Friday that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) was wrong to establish rules that defined certain natural hemp products as controlled substances when used to prepare food for human consumption.
Five years ago, French Meadow introduced a bread made with hempseed, which can contain nonpsychoactive trace amounts of THC -- the element that makes its cannabis cousin marijuana an illegal drug."We're very happy," said Lynn Gordon, founder and president of French Meadow, which had sold the bread at natural-foods stores and other retail outlets throughout the country until the DEA issued its warnings.Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak was among supporters who backed French Meadow and its hemp industry allies, proclaiming a "Healthy Hemp Bread Day" last year."And he said he ate it every day," Gordon said."We continued to bake it locally because we have our cafe, and that was our main venue for selling it," Gordon said."Many retailers have started ordering again, and this decision should have a great impact."It's been hard for us. We had to put so much energy into persuading retailers to keep stocking it."The DEA had announced plans to ban foods made with hempseed and hemp oil last April, but the Appeals Court stayed the order at the request of a hemp industry association.The Appeals Court had stayed an earlier form of the proposed rule in 2002.Adam Eidinger of Vote Hemp, a grass-roots advocacy group in Washington, D.C., that promotes hemp food, fiber and other products, said that Friday's decision was "huge" for the U.S. hemp industry."Companies that are selling hemp products are going to be able to attract more investment, and a lot more stores are going to be selling the products," he said. "The DEA from now on can't harass us or tell the public that these products are illegal. They've been shot down."Trace amounts of THC found in some hemp products "are not nearly enough to get you high or cause you to fail a drug test," Eidinger said, just as eating a poppyseed muffin "doesn't mean you're on opium."French Meadow's coarse hemp bread "makes great grilled cheese sandwiches," Gordon said, "and we use it for our hemp eggs Benedict, with organic poached eggs and a sauce we make with watercress and avocado."Complete Title: Minneapolis Bakery Breathes Easier with Looser Hemp Foods PolicySource: Minneapolis Star-Tribune (MN) Author: Chuck Haga, Star Tribune Published: February 7, 2004Copyright: 2004 Star Tribune Contact: opinion startribune.com Website: http://www.startribune.com/ Related Articles & Web Sites:Vote Hemphttp://www.votehemp.org/Cannabis News Hemp Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/hls.htmHIA Vs. DEA Hemp Ruling in PDFhttp://freedomtoexhale.com/hempruling.pdfMakers of Hemp Foods Win Legal Victoryhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18311.shtmlAppeals Court Rejects DEA Bid To Outlaw Hemp http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18310.shtml

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Comment #10 posted by FoM on February 09, 2004 at 14:09:23 PT

schmeff 
And maybe own a bird or two!
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Comment #9 posted by schmeff on February 09, 2004 at 14:01:58 PT

cannabis/hemp seeds look alike...and taste great!
I am munching a bag of Hemp Crunch (toasted/salted hemp seeds-hempoilcan.com), and I have often thought that these are the self-same little bugers that get people put in jail if the cops find them in the ashtray or carpet of your car.They look EXACTLY alike. Because guess what. They are one and the same. All the different breeds of dogs are still dogs...all the different strains of marijuana/hemp/laughing grass are still cannabis. The seeds I'm eating don't have the tiger-striping I've seen on the seeds of hybridized recreational/medicinal varieties, but otherwise look just like the seeds of south of the border cannabis available during the '70's for $25-$35 oz.My understanding is that cannabis seed has little or no THC, what trace amounts are detectable come from a "contact high", as a result of being enclosed in the flowering bract of the plant, the part of the plant that has the highest concentrations of 'resin'. The resin is sticky and tiny amounts adhere to the seedcoat. To appease the prohibitionists, the food and fiber producers do their best to "wash" it off...again, with 'hemp' the THC is miniscule.Congress exempted hemp stalks, seed & oil ("hemp"=low THC varieties of cannabis-bred for strong fiber and/or high oilseed content) from the CSA, but not hemp itself, which is illegal in the US to grow. All hempseed must be sterilized before entering the country, but I can buy sterilized cannabis seeds at the feedstore to feed the birds. By the pound. And they look exactly like marijuana seeds. Because they are.So if you live in one of those totalitarian, facist locales where finding a seed in the carpet of your car gets you a ticket to the GreyBar Hotel (and who doesn't?), I advise you to use the birdseed defense.Or better yet, get a bag of Hemp Crunch and stash it in your pantry. The Ninth Circuit Court just gave you some law you can live with.
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Comment #8 posted by FoM on February 08, 2004 at 19:37:31 PT

mayan 
Thank you! I just saw your link. That page has a lot of details.
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Comment #7 posted by FoM on February 07, 2004 at 10:55:20 PT

Max Flowers 
I understand what you are saying and I wonder too about growing hemp since the seeds aren't illegal? I love these kinds of questions. Does a cannabis seed have a smiley face on it to distinguish it from a hemp seed?
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Comment #6 posted by Max Flowers on February 07, 2004 at 10:51:54 PT

FoM I'll take a shot at that
Hemp and "marijuana" (moderate to high-THC strains) are two varieties of the same plant, Cannabis sativa, which have just evolved (and been bred) at the two extreme ends of the spectrum of THC containing potential.Regarding sterilizing seeds, my immediate thought is: why would that be necessary now to prevent people from growing the hemp seed, if they have just ruled that hemp is not such a big deal? How does this affect the situation now regarding the growing of hemp here in the US?
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Comment #5 posted by mayan on February 07, 2004 at 04:29:18 PT

FoM...
Supposedly the heat from the sterilization process does affect the vitamin content. Here's some detailed info...DETAILED HEMP SEED INFO:
http://www.chii.ca/hemp-seed/hempseed.html
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Comment #4 posted by FoM on February 06, 2004 at 21:53:55 PT

Virgil
This produces many questions. What is the name of the Hemp Plant and Cannabis Plant? Does sterilizing the seeds reduce the quality of the seeds for cooking or making bread etc.?
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Comment #3 posted by Virgil on February 06, 2004 at 21:26:05 PT

It shows you how little information there is, FoM
How much could the average person know when there is a line of defense consisting of lies and demonization and then an informational blockade, when we do not know. You know that if you and I wonder about these details, the average person would not have a chance of knowing.There have to be different strains of industrial hemp as China is researching different strains for the most appropriate natural resources. My feeling is that the plants are taller with narrower leaves and look different that the indicas and sativas we think of with recreational varieties. But the main thing would be that they have almost no THC. Even then the seeds would be made sterile before being imported. I do wonder what the seeds themselves look like. I think we shall soon see.
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on February 06, 2004 at 21:13:31 PT

Are Seeds The Same?
I never understood this. What is the difference between hemp seeds or seeds from cannabis?
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Comment #1 posted by VitaminT on February 06, 2004 at 21:04:21 PT

Hemp is not a controlled substance
Therefore Hemp is Legal.
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