Posted on 10/15/2001 9:04:33 AM PDT by MadameAxe
This week, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration banned all food manufactured with hemp grain, delivering a shocking blow to consumers and producers of hemp foods. According to DEA notices published in the Federal Register on October 9, 2001, any product that contains any amount of THC is, and always has been, a Schedule I controlled substance.
The DEA published this notice as an "interpretive rule", not as a new rule, thereby bypassing the usual requirement for public notice and comment. The DEA is stating that hemp food products have always been illegal and that they are just clarifying that fact with this new interpretive rule. The DEA justifies their decision only by saying that it is to "protect the public health and safety", but the DEA does not provide any evidence that THC in any amount is harmful.
"For the first time in U.S. history, the federal government is outlawing a whole class of food products", says Kathleen Chippi, co-founder of the Boulder Hemp Company, who was forced to suspend business last year when investors became nervous about rumors that the DEA was going to outlaw hemp. "It's the same as if the DEA outlawed wheat or corn."
Hemp grain, while not as commonplace as other grains, is touted by health food experts as being "the most nutritionally complete seed on the planet for human consumption."
THC may appear in trace amounts in some products made with hemp grain, just as opiates may appear in trace amounts in poppy seeds. Hemp food has been produced and safely consumed in the U.S. since the founding of the country and has been used worldwide for over 10,000 years without any adverse health effects ever.
The DEA notice in the Federal Register states that it is illegal to consume "any food or beverage (such as pasta, tortilla chips, candy bars, nutritional bars, salad dressings, sauces, cheese, ice cream, and beer) or dietary supplement". Consumers and hemp food manufacturers have until Feb. 6, 2002 to destroy any hemp food products they currently possess.
EXEMPTIONS: The DEA does exempt hemp products that "do not cause THC to enter the human body", such as paper, cloth, and rope. Sterilized seed remains legal for birds, but not humans. Sterilized seed will be exempt only if it is intended for bird seed and combined with some other seed or material that is "not derived from the cannabis plant". Raw hemp fiber is legal, but (strangely) unprocessed hemp stalks are illegal.
Personal care products, such as lotions, soap, shampoo, and lip balm are legal for now, while the DEA searches for evidence that these products can cause trace amounts of THC to enter the body.
There have been rumors for over a year that the DEA was going to ban hemp products. It's unfortunate for citizens that they chose to do this now, while the entire country is focused on terrorist attacks and the war in Afghanistan. You'd think they'd have more urgent things to do right now, like protecting us from bioterrorism, but such is the absurdity of our federal government and its War on Drugs.
This article from the Colorado Hemp Initiative Project. Edited for publication by Sierra Times.com
I’m just making a couple of silly jokes.
Why? Why do you care?
This government, swollen and arrogant with pelf goes butting into our business. It checks the amount of tropical oils in our snack foods, tells us what kind of gasoline we can buy for our cars, and how fast we can drive them, bosses us around about retirement, education, and what's on TV, lectures us on safe sex, dictates what we can sniff, smoke and swallow. The Government is huge, stupid, and greedy and maked nosy officious and dangerous intrusions into the smallest corners of our lives.
Calling this Glacial Stupidity is an insult to Glaciers.
"We have a report about a bale of marijuana in one of the caves in the sector 30 klicks NNE of Karendahr. Your mission is to search them. Oh, and if you encounter armed resistance or see anybody who looks like one of these pictures, shoot them."
I am for legalization. With legalization, we don't need to debate your claims above, nor the claims of the hemp car people. The free market will be put to work. If hemp is economically viable it will flourish. If it is not, it won't.
Nor have they ever, nor will they ever.
Like Wolfie said, when did we elect the DEA to pass laws?
When did we get to the point when unelected persons have the blanket authority to declare possession of a plant to be illegal, based upon "public safety", but is never required to show evidence of harm?
When did we get to the point when Americans turn the page in the paper, and never give this a second thought? An agency called the "DEA" who does not answer to tax payers, has just decaled that people are criminals for possessing products made from a plant, although they have no authority to pass laws and claim this is just an "interpretation".
The biggest problem with "interpretations"(and why law was never meant to be interpreted) is that by definition, legality of any act can be determined on a day to day basis, based on "interpretations". One day your fine, the next you are a criminal, based upon a "new interpretation". This entire point makes me wonder how anyone can not understand why it was never intended for possession of anything on private property to possibly be illegal. An act is so benign, that its been legal to this point, but under this "new interpretation", its evil, and must be banned. They tell us about "harm" and "public safety", but can show us no evidence of the harm this prodcut has done. If its so harmful, I would think the legality of it must have killed tens of thousands by now - maybe millions.
I hope these government agents are prepared for their place in Hell.
As far as the pro-hemp folks shooting themselves in the foot over the utility of hemp, why not let the actual free market decide? I have some hemp-fiber clothing which is comparable in quality to wool. I've enjoyed food products made with hemp oil and as a food product hemp oil has a reputable history equivalent to sesame oil, peanut oil, or lard - it's not deadly poison. I don't care if Genghis Khan wants to plan hemp on my dead body, I can tell the difference between a corrupt official and a hemp plant fairly easily. So rhetoric smearing hemp by association with enviromentalist tyrants is irrelevant.
Grrrrr.
I don't think that they are that smart. This is government. The conventional wisdom is that drugs are evil(which I agree with, to a degree) and that they should not just be banned, but waged war against (which I completely disagree with).
The half-intelligent gov't employee has an easy job to do if he follows the simple plan laid out before him, the smart employee knows he can get his career advanced if he find new and unique ways to wage the war of drugs.
I don't think that this requires any sort of collusion amongst the DEA and DuPont. It's just government doing what is does best - always expanding and encroaching on our rights.
Thanks WOD
Just when is the DEA going to ban poppy seeds? They contain certain amounts of opium!
There goes the hard roll industry!
Petroleum is pumped from the ground in vast quantities, which is pretty cheap. Biomass products have to first be grown in large quantities and then refined, requiring an expensive extra step. You can't make the calculation from the assumption of having raw product available because vast quantities of usable biomass aren't growing on their own. If you ignore the production costs of the raw materials, many biomass fuels only appear to be $2.5-3/gallon.
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