cannabisnews.com: U.S. To Ban Food Made from Hemp U.S. To Ban Food Made from Hemp Posted by FoM on January 04, 2001 at 16:45:07 PT By Roberta Rampton, Winnipeg Bureau Source: Western Producer The United States Department of Justice plans to announce three new rules that will ban products made from hemp seed and oil. The rules could seriously affect the young Canadian hemp industry, which sees the U.S. as an important market."Do we have to go there again?" sighed Shaun Crew, president of Hemp Oil Canada, a hemp processor in Ste. Agathe, Man., who exports most of his production south of the border. Crew has dealt with anxiety about the U.S. market for more than a year as he fought his way through a series of border skirmishes.Lately, he's been shipping hemp across the border daily without problems.But some Canadian shipments of hemp were detained at the U.S. border last year as U.S. customs officials and the Drug Enforcement Agency tried to determine hemp's narcotic status.The flowers of female hemp plants produce resins that contain small amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol, a psychoactive substance that appears in larger amounts in marijuana.The resins stick to the hulls of hemp seed, but most can be removed through cleaning and dehulling the seed.Still, minute amounts of THC can remain in the seed and its products, although not enough to get high on.The U.S. government is concerned these trace amounts can interfere with workplace drug testing programs.Crew received a flurry of e-mails last week from U.S. hemp activists and processors who are trying to galvanize opposition to the ban to save their businesses.In the meantime, U.S. customers considering stocking hemp products or including hemp oil as an ingredient may be scared away.It's hard to market hemp when its legal status is uncertain, Crew said."That's the biggest damage this thing does. It's this roller coaster ride they put you on."The U.S. justice department set out its legislative schedule on Nov. 30.Included in the schedule is a plan to publish three rules about the status of products made from industrial hemp.The first rule will clarify that any product containing any amount of THC is a "controlled substance."The second rule proposes to make the wording of drug regulations clearer: Even if a product is made from hemp, it is a controlled substance if it contains any THC.The third rule will exempt hemp paper, rope and clothing, but disallows hemp products that result in THC entering the human body."In this manner, it will remain clear that the only lawful way THC may enter the human body is when a person is using a federally approved drug or when the person is the subject of federally approved research," said the department's notice, which appeared in the Nov. 30 Federal Register.Agriculture Canada's trade directorate is watching developments closely, said Ron Krystynak, deputy director for Canada-U.S. trade issues.Krystynak said the department knew new rules were in the works.But he said it's hard to assess the rules and their impact until they are published in the Federal Register.The announcement seems to throw into question Canadian exports of hemp seed and oil, said Krystynak, although he thinks hemp cosmetics won't be affected.The announcement declared only the justice department's intent, he said."The devil will be in the details."Once the proposed rules are published, there will be a comment period where affected parties, including the Canadian government, can state their case.The final rules that the government implements will then be published, he said.Hemp industry players should watch for the proposed rules to be published, he said. The Canadian government will consult with them once that happens, he added."I anticipate a lively comment period." Source: Western Producer (CN SN)Author: Roberta Rampton, Winnipeg BureauPublished: January 4, 2001Copyright: 2001 The Western ProducerAddress: Box 2500, Saskatoon, SK, Canada S7K 2C4Fax: (306) 934-2401Contact: newsroom producer.comWebsite: http://www.producer.com/CannabisNews Hemp Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/hemp.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #9 posted by The Weasel on January 09, 2001 at 07:12:50 PT how about Switzerland yo Dr. Ganj,you were complaining about the state of affairs concering THC containing products in the US and that you were looking for somewhere new to live (I know you wrote this as a joke, but here`s a serious answer to your question), SWITZERLAND. Switzerland has just greed (around Sep. 2000) that the laws surrounding cannabis products including marijuana, hashish and hemp will be relaxed this year. This should mean that there`ll be a few coffee shops opening there during this year.In the mean time the Swiss have to put up with another alternative called "duft-hanf" or smell-marijuana-bags. These "duft-hanf" bags are made of plastic and contain either 2 grams of marijuana buds costing 20 swiss franks (12.45 US Dollars) or 5 grams of buds costing 50 swiss franks (31.14 US Dollars). These bags are sold for the purpose of making holes in it and putting it in your cubboard so that it smells nice, it is punishable by law to consume or export the these bags, but there is nothing stoping you from opening those bags at home and rolling a nice joint.Here are a few more facts about "duft-hanf" or smell-marijuana-bags that you should know....- you have to be 18 years of age or older to buy one or more of these bags.- if you are caught smoking the content of these bags by the ploice, you will most likely get a warning.- if you are caught exporting the content of these bags by the police, you will probably get a small fine.- the THC content of the marijuana in these bags can get as high as 22%.- you can buy these bags in certain "hanf-ladeli" or marijuana-shops.- there are over 35 of these shops in the city of Basel (also known as Bale), alone.- in these shops you can choose between indoor, outdoor or green house grown marijuana.- the shops sell different strains of marijuana, the most common being Northern Lights, Super Skunk, White Widdow, Master Kush, Citral, California Orange, Skunk 11, Jamaican Red Hair, B52, Black Ice, Peace Maker, Jack Herer, Shiva Shanti, Afghani, etc.- if your are over 18 years old and have just brought one of these bags and not opened it yet, you can legally carry it about with you in the whole of Switzerland and not get into any trouble what so ever.so Dr. Ganj what do you think of this little pearl of a country, that is smack bang in the middle of Europe and doens`t seem to care at all if you have traces of THC in your blood or not?!?!take it easy,The Weasel [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by Dan B on January 05, 2001 at 10:43:07 PT: Thanks, kaptinemo... ...and good points made well. You are absolutely right about the officers. But there are a lot more enlisted folks, and (at least when I was in from 1986-1990) most were not at all pleased with either the military leadership or the country's leadership. Of course, those were the Reagan/Bush years...oh, wait...these are also the Bush years.Anyhow, you bring up some excellent points (as usual), and I appreciate them.Dan B [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by kaptinemo on January 05, 2001 at 04:52:17 PT: Dan, we almost did...a long time ago. Dan's comments caused me to re-visit a site that few know anything about...for a very good reason. Simply because the pols don't 'want you to get any ideas...'http://www.chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/butler1.html Many here have 'heard' me rail about the military connection to the WoSD; well, this is nothing new. The military has been used for even less worthy efforts as they are now.But fewer still know about the United States almost had a military coup backed by some elements in Big Business (who also were engaged in bankrolling Hitler; if you want to learn about *that*, I suggest you read the Elkhorn Manifesto at http://bcmagic.com/history.htm).In short, as I am always saying, the United States not immune to the forces of history. From the link:'General Smedley D. Butler was the most decorated soldier in American uniform; Commander of the Marine Corps school; and passed over for Marine Corps commandant only because of his increasingly anti-imperialist views. He was very popular with rank-and-file soldiers and veterans. He strongly defended the "Bonus Marchers", attacked by U.S. troops under General Douglas MacArthur and Colonel Dwight D. Eisenhower in Washington DC in 1932. In an incident whose history is suppressed today, Gen. Butler was approached by representatives of the Morgan Bank who wished him to lead a fascist military coup d'état against the Roosevelt government in 1932. He refused and went to the press. A Congressional investigation was eventually suppressed. (See Jules Archer, The Plot to Seize the White House for a recent, documented version of this cover-up, well-publicized at the time but virtually "blacked out" today!)' Needless to say, the Morgan Bank as well as the other banks in the Federal Reserve system - such as the Mellon Bank - were and are creatures of the petrochemical industry; in an very direct way, they are responsible for the destruction of the hemp industry in the US. What they attempted back then - and failed to do - was to implement the Corporate State by sheer force...which is the very definition of fascism. Instead, their plans were ruined by one of a 'few good men' who valued freedom and the oath he swore to 'preserve, protect and defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign...and domestic.'But to ask for a military coup now is to forget that many of our present military officers are a bunch of ticket-punching toadies just itching to ditch their BDU's and don corporate duds. Not all, but many. Too many. (Barry was a perfect example.) They know that the military gets 'used' in all kinds of matters where outright corporate seizure of a poor country's wealth would be looked upon for what it is: sheer piracy. So the American public has to feel justified in allowing the military to be used to accomplish the same thing. Which is why when you hear some Congresscritter or Senator or Prez mouth off about 'protecting American interests', always insert the word 'economic' between 'American' and 'interests', and the picture snaps into perspective. In short, we've got to be damned careful what we wish for; we might get it. [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by Dan Hillman on January 05, 2001 at 01:11:02 PT Orwell would have chuckled... The "Department of Justice", spurred by an enforcement agency (DEA) makes arbitrary rules supposedly instantly undoing thousands of years of traditional use of an economically useful plant. The DOJ proposes to imprison people because they sell a product that, in extreme circumstances, might interfere with "guilty-until-proven-innocent" drug testing schemes lauded by the DOJ itself.In Orwell's *1984* the government organization known as the "Ministry of Love" (MiniLuv) is responsible for the torture and interrogation of thought-criminals.George Orwell (1903-50) becomes ever more prescient as the years roll on...sometimes his fears seem almost quaint compared to the reality in DEAland. [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by Dan B on January 04, 2001 at 22:36:52 PT: No Constitutional Legislative Authority Since when does the Justice Department have the legal authority to just make up new laws and enforce them? This is not a legislative body, and I am appalled at their insolence and total lack of respect for not only the U. S. Constitution, but all of the world's citizens. Constitutionally speaking, these new rules must go through a legislative process in order to be enacted. Any other means by which new laws are enacted is unconstitutional on its face and should be disregarded by everyone. The only positive thing is that people will now know, once and for all, that the government's true agenda in the war on drugs is profits. Oil companies will lose profits if hemp is legal to grow and use. So will textile manufacturers. This has nothing to do with drug testing and everything to do with money.If these new "rules" (a shady way of saying "laws"--if they are enforced, that is what they are) are enacted, I can foresee a major worldwide shift against the U. S. for its deliberate measures to dismantle the agricultural economies of other countries. The attitude is that we don't grow hemp in the U. S., so it shouldn't be grown anywhere. Since big oil interests seem to have the most to lose from the production of hemp oil, it stands to reason that they are behind this push against hemp oil. Seems like big oil interests have castrated the politicians and are now holding their balls for ransom.I'll say this: if these new laws are enacted, and countries begin to unite their militaries against America to demand a reversal of these laws, I'll be the first to jump the border and fight against our inhumane, asinine, contemptful government. Of course, a greater hope would be that I could fight alongside the farmers in this country, and that we would have a miltary coup d'etat that would ultimately overturn this corrupt government. An even greater hope is, of course, that the laws are never enacted, and we continue to march forward peacefully toward renovating the system from within.Dan BP.S.--Check out Necessary Illusions by Noam Chomsky for some fascinating insight into the role of the media in shaping American thought (propaganda). This book was written in 1989 and is even more relevant today. Noam Chomsky's Necessary Illusions [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by Dr. Ganj on January 04, 2001 at 20:07:55 PT Hemp Oil With 1 micron/ml Of THC Is Too Risky? Now the DoJ REALLY looks pathetic. With the rest of the legal hemp world watching, they can only think that we Americans are the laughing stock of the world. We try and bully everyone around for cheaper fuel oil, we try to keep some drugs from entering our country-which of course will never work, and as a last desperate effort, we try to ban hemp seed oil-because it might cause false positives on drug tests-a test that in itself should be illegal! All I can say to the rest of the world is that I'm really sorry! I'm sorry that this country has people like Orrin Hatch, Dianne Feinstein, Janet Reno, and Barry McCaffrey. Even our own president is a mendacious hypocrite. All this is truly sad, and with George Bush coming into office, we can expect at least 4 more years of lies, and 4 more years of misery. It might be time for me to move. It's just too much to take. Should I wait until I get hauled away, and try to make an unreasonable bail and fight at trial? Or should I take flight soon to a country that doesn't incarcerate its citizens for having hemp, or hemp oil with a few molecules of the dreaded compound called THC? To live without fear of a bust is so alien to me. For all my life I have lived with the ubiquitous fear that my freedom shall end today-all because I love a beautiful herbal plant called marijuana. I only wish Canada were a little warmer. :-)Dr. Ganj http://www.ten-ham.com/Files/htm.files/index.htm [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by Richard on January 04, 2001 at 18:29:28 PT: Check out the related action alert Thanks, Martha, for all you are doing! Hemp Food Ban action alert [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by steve1 on January 04, 2001 at 18:13:23 PT this is really sad I almost cry at the stupidity of this. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by aocp on January 04, 2001 at 17:10:19 PT: You have got to be kidding! >But some Canadian shipments of hemp were detained at the U.S. border last year as U.S. customs officials and the Drug Enforcement Agency tried to determine hemp's narcotic status.Geez! Get a freakin' hobby! Follow the bouncing ball, narcs: IT IS NOT ENOUGH TO GET HIGH ON! Your pathetic and beneath contempt whining about how it messes with drug tests is/should be YOUR problem b/c YOU desire the test. All this demonstrates is your contempt for the innocent until proven guilty rule of thumb. It's enough to make me ill.>The flowers of female hemp plants produce resins that contain small amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol, a psychoactive substance that appears in larger amounts in marijuana.*Large* amounts, did you say? That's as in, enough to get you high? Just checkin'...>The resins stick to the hulls of hemp seed, but most can be removed through cleaning and dehulling the seed.No way! So that means there WOULD NOT BE ENOUGH THC to get high, right? I'm still with ya...>Still, minute amounts of THC can remain in the seed and its products, although not enough to get high on.Annnnnd we HAVE a winner, folks! Remember our slogan: "Hemp! Ya cain't git a buzz!">The U.S. government is concerned these trace amounts can interfere with workplace drug testing programs.I see. So this really isn't about the intoxicating effects of MJ at all, is it? No. It's really all about the gov't being too damn lazy to get it's own intrusive and Constitutionally-objectionable tests on the straight and narrow. Instead, the mighty mighty MJ thwarts them again and they have to piss off american AND Canadian farmers all in the name of still NOT catching a bunch of otherwise-law-abiding american citizens who like to get high in their living rooms and bedrooms. Are americans dumb, panicky animals or what? [ Post Comment ] Post Comment Name: Optional Password: E-Mail: Subject: Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message] Link URL: Link Title: