SSDP
Plans
National
Day
of
Action
on
Hemp
Food
Ban
11/23/01
December 4 will see protests at DEA offices across the country, as Students for Sensible Drug Policy (http://www.ssdp.org) and Vote Hemp (http://www.votehemp.org), a hemp advocacy group, publicly challenge the DEA's move to ban ingestible hemp products containing trace amounts of THC. So far actions are confirmed for Washington, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Boston, Louisville, Chicago, San Francisco, Berkeley, Richmond, Austin, Houston, Erie, New York City, and at locations in Arizona, Florida, New Hampshire and Wisconsin. Using innovative tactics, protestors at local DEA offices will confront the agency not with marches or rallies, nor with rocks or bottles, but with hemp bars and poppy-seed bagels in a hemp foods taste test. "At lunchtime on December 4, activists will be setting up tables with hemp products and information and soliciting the participation of DEA employees in taste tests," said Alexis Baden-Meyer of the Mintwood Media Collective, which is coordinating the national day of action. "This is our opportunity to show the DEA and the public just how ridiculous the new DEA rules are that make the delicious and nutritious hemp foods they are eating Schedule I substances," Baden-Meyer added. In October, the DEA issued regulations claiming to criminalize the sale or ingestion of hemp products containing traces of THC, the primary psychoactive ingredient in cannabis. The agency argued that even traces of THC could cause positive results on drug tests, although the hemp industry, through its Test Pledge program (http://www.testpledge.com) has created protocols designed to ensure that ingestible hemp products do not interfere with drug tests. The DEA has not explained how it has the power to administratively change a law (the Controlled Substances Act) that for three decades has been interpreted to allow such products. Constitutionally, law must be changed by act of Congress, not administrative fiat. The hemp industry is challenging the new regulations in court. The Hemp Industries Association (HIA) and supporting plaintiffs have filed for a "Stay Pending Review" in the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals. If granted, the stay would invalidate the new rule and force the DEA into a formal rule-making process, which would allow an opportunity for public notice and comment before any rule would take effect. But SSDP and Vote Hemp are challenging the DEA in the court of public opinion with their national taste test actions. "Through this action, we will draw national media attention to the nutritional and other positive values of hemp and highlight the absurdity of the DEA prohibiting foods," said Baden-Meyer. SSDP chapters and other activists wishing to participate should contact Mintwood Media, said Baden-Meyer, "and we'll send you a box of free samples of hemp foods" -- all packaged goods available on grocery store shelves around the country -- courtesy of David Bronner of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps. Baden-Meyer said that at noon on December 4, DEA employees across the country will be given the opportunity to taste delicious, nutritious hemp foods and challenged to justify banning them. Quiet, courteous activists will set up tables and offer samples, creating an open-air, hempen Fresh Fields sort of demonstration sure to confound DEA workers and incite local media coverage. Mintwood Media has created an assemblage of materials and information for activists wishing to participate, including informative flyers and contacts for legal support and independent videographers to cover the events. According to Baden-Mayer, the day of action on hemp could serve as the model for broader national protests against the drug war. "Another reason for doing this is to see if we can pull off a successful nation wide day of action against the DEA that can be replicated to tackle the absurdities and injustices of the drug war on a regular basis until we've stopped it," she said. "We hope that these actions will culminate in 'A Day Off From the Drug War' or some other type of national action or general strike that aims to interrupt business as usual to call attention to the largest human rights abuse the United States has committed against its own people, the imprisonment of people for the nonviolent victimless crime of consuming a mind-altering substance." See you at the barricades, er, sample tables, on December 4! Interested parties may contact Alexis Baden-Meyer and the Mintwood Media Collective at [email protected] or (202) 232-8997.
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