Hemp-Food Firms Fight U.S.

[nabraxas]

Hemp-Food Firms Fight U.S. Ban, Deny Marijuana Link

By Caroline E. Mayer

Washington Post Staff Writer

Sunday, January 13, 2002; Page A01

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."