Two-Year
Court
Fight
over
Hemp
Foods
in
Final
Stages
--
Hemp
Industry
Association
Files
Brief
to
Keep
Hemp
Foods
Legal
6/27/03
press release from VoteHemp, http://www.votehemp.com On Tuesday, June 24, the Hemp Industries Association (HIA), which represents the interests of the hemp industry and encourages the research and development of new hemp products, filed a brief in the Ninth Circuit (San Francisco) asking for a review of the Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) "Final Rule" regarding hemp foods. If this new "Final Rule" were to take effect, it would ban hemp seed and oil and consequently destroy the multimillion dollar hemp food industry. Due to a Court ordered Stay, hemp foods remain perfectly legal to import, sell and consume while the Court hears arguments from the HIA and DEA and renders a decision. The HIA brief charges that the DEA's "Final Rule" should be invalidated because the agency is exercising arbitrary and capricious authority by attempting to outlaw hemp seed and oil without holding formal hearings on the issue or finding any potential for abuse. Because trace infinitesimal THC in hemp seed is non-psychoactive and insignificant, Congress exempted non-viable hemp seed and oil from control under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), just as Congress exempted poppy seeds from the CSA, although they contain trace opiates otherwise subject to control. The brief also charges that DEA acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner in exempting hemp seed mixed with animal feed, although Congress made no such distinction in the CSA. Additionally, the brief elucidates other major failures by the DEA -- namely, the lack of hearings on this issue and the failure to comply with the Regulatory Flexibility Act, which requires assessing effects of the proposed change on small businesses. The brief and other court documents are available at http://www.votehemp.com/PDF/HIAvDEA_finalrules_petition.pdf. Final Legal Schedule in Hemp Food Fight:
North American hemp food companies voluntarily observe reasonable THC limits similar to those adopted by European nations as well as Canada and Australia. These limits protect consumers with a wide margin of safety from any psychoactive effects or workplace drug-testing interference (http://www.testpledge.com). The DEA has hypocritically not targeted food manufacturers for using poppy seeds (in bagels and muffins, for example), even though they contain far higher levels of trace opiates. The recently revived global hemp market is a thriving commercial success. Unfortunately, because the DEA's drug war paranoia has confused non-psychoactive industrial hemp varieties of cannabis with psychoactive "marihuana" varieties, the US is the only major industrialized nation to prohibit the growing of industrial hemp. Visit http://www.VoteHemp.com to read scientific studies of hemp foods and see court documents.
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