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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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US: Legal Challenge to U.S. Hemp Ban
Environment News Service
Friday 28 Mar 2003 SAN FRANCISCO, California March 28, 2003 (ENS) - Last week the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) issued its final rule on hemp foods, banning the sale of all hemp food products by April 21, 2003. The Hemp Industry Association and several hemp food and cosmetic manufacturers have petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to block the DEA rule. The organizations contend that the final rule is "virtually identical" to a DEA interpretative rule issued in October 2001 that was never enacted because of a stay issued by the Ninth Circuit in March 2002. "The DEA's charade of supposedly protecting the public from safe and nutritious hemp food is finally going to end," according to David Bronner, chairman of the Hemp Industry Association's Food and Oil Committee. "The hemp industry is optimistic that the court will ultimately invalidate the DEA's rule, as one of the prime criteria in granting the Stay was whether the hemp industry is likely to ultimately prevail on the merits of the case," Bronner said. According to the industry, hemp foods has grown from $1 million to $6 million annual retail sales. Hemp seeds are a source of protein and have the highest content of essential fatty acids of any oil in nature. Hemp seed is exempted from the Controlled Substances Act because it only contains trace amounts of the active ingredient in marijuana. Poppy seeds, which have trace amounts of opiates, are similarly exempted. The DEA's decision to ban hemp foods is based on the concern that a flourishing hemp industry could provide cover for illegal cultivation of marijuana. But it seems to have little public support - some 115,000 public comments were submitted to the DEA against the ban. The United States is the only major industrialized country that prohibits the growing and processing of industrial hemp.
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