-Caveat Lector- <<Rogene Waite, a spokeswoman at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, said her country’s controlled substance act defines hemp as marijuana.>> Subject: Hemp-War Declared: Canada vs USA-(DEA) Date: Wednesday, October 06, 1999 3:09 PM THE OTTAWA CITIZEN Ottawa, Ontario October 5, 1999 KENEX SEED SEIZED AT U.S. BORDER Hemp grower plans to take battle to court By Jack Aubry A Canadian Goose couldn’t get high on the stuff but 20 tons of Ontario birdseed has been confiscated at the Windsor-Detroit border crossing as part of the U.S. war on drugs. The truckload of bird feed, which is sterilized seeds processed from industrial hemp, has been sitting in a Detroit warehouse since early August after the U.S. Customs Service swooped down on it at the border. “It’s very silly. They are telling us that this a truck full of marijuana when in fact a bag couldn’t get a buzz from the seed,” said Jean Laprise from this Chatham-area farm on Monday. Laprise says instead of enforcing the law, the U.S. drug officials are making it up because American legislation clearly exempts sterilized hemp seed from its list of controlled substances. He estimates the value of the birdseed at $35,000 and says he is now being threatened with fines of about $500,000 if he doesn’t recall already shipped products. Laprise, the owner of Kenex Ltd., is caught in what the New York Times calls “one of the most bizarre episodes of Washington’s campaign to curb illicit drug use.” Hemp and marijuana are different types of Cannabis sativa but the U.S. government rarely recognizes the distinctions when it comes to that particular plant species. It has been over a year since the Canadian government declared hemp a legitimate crop. The birdseed seizure is the first time the legislation change in Canada has run afoul of American drug laws. While smoking marijuana will lead to a noticeable high, smoking hemp will have no psychoactive effect. The psychoactive component of marijuana, known as THC for tetrahydrocannabinol, usually varies between five and 20 per cent of a leaf. The only mind-altering threat posed by the birdseed sitting in Detroit, which has a THC content of 0.0014 per cent, comes from trying to imagine how minuscule its psychoactive component is to its consumer. Fourteen parts per million THC would hardly make a bird chirp, let alone reach a higher altitude. Rogene Waite, a spokeswoman at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, said her country’s controlled substance act defines hemp as marijuana. She released a statement from the agency which said that U.S. agencies “have become aware that sterilized cannabis seed has been imported in the U.S. for use in food products for human consumption. “Furthermore, some of that seed, and products made from the seed, may be contaminated with THC.” The agency’s position is that any product containing any amount of THC can only be imported into the U.S. by a company that is appropriately registered with DEA. John Roulac, the president of Nutiva, a California company which has been supplied by Kenex, called the confiscation “crazy”. “When there are real criminals running around, I guess we have to stay focused on people who are obeying the law,” said Roulac. “The reality is that they are allowing shipments of hemp from France and Germany right into the U.S.” He termed the minute amount of THC found in 40,000 pounds of birdseed “like an olive pit in a railroad car.” Roulac says the publicity about the seizure has outraged Kenex’s U.S. customers, who are buying its hemp seeds and fibres for food and beauty products. He says he has sold 100,000 hemp bars in the past five months and drug enforcement officers are trying to shut down the market. “In California, this is being laughed at. Kenex is the largest, most successful hemp processor in Canada. They are about as far away as you can get from a drug dealer. I mean give me a break,” said Roulac. He explained that the small amount of THC detected in the seed comes from unavoidable contact with leaves of the hemp plant. Lambton-Kent-Middlesex MP Rose-Marie Ur echoed Roulac’s comments, calling Kenex “a very above-board company.” She said the U.S. officials were “making a mountain out of a molehill” and the confiscation is “absolutely ridiculous.” She supports the company’s intentions to challenge in court under the North American Free Trade Agreement the DEA’s interpretation of its drug laws.(END) (NEXT) THE LONDON FREE PRESS London, Ontario October 5, 1999 U.S. HALTS ONTARIO HEMP AT BORDER By John Miner The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has delivered a body blow to Ontario’s fledgling hemp industry, stopping a shipment of hemp products to the U.S. and ordering the processor to recall 17 other tractor-trailer loads. Jean Laprise, president of Kenex Ltd., said his Chatham-Kent company now faces more than $700,000 in penalties and has lost the major market for its products. “It’s not just us. It will seriously affect several Canadian operations,” Laprise said yesterday. Laprise said he also expects several U.S. customers will be forced out of business because they won’t be able to get supplies from Canada. Many have poured money into developing and marketing hemp products. Hemp production is legal in Canada, but banned in the U.S., although the U.S. imports hemp products from other countries. Several U.S. farm groups are now suing their government over the ban. Hemp is used in a wide variety of products, including textiles, automotive parts and edible oils. Kenex Ltd. is one of two Southwestern Ontario companies that contract with farmers to grow hemp. The other is Middlesex-based Hempline Inc., which has a processing plant in Delaware. Laprise said Kenex has not broken any rules and filed an objection yesterday under the Free Trade Agreement. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency isn’t following the rules, he said. Ontario Agriculture Minister Ernie Hardeman said he has asked the federal government to take quick action to deal with the Kenex situation. “We hope the federal government will get on it,” he said. Production of hemp in Ontario has been supported by the provincial government with grants to get the industry going. “We have an interest in making sure that industry succeeds,” said Hardeman. Laprise said most of the hemp products shipped to the U.S. were bird seed containing hemp seed. The DEA objected, saying the material was banned because it contained THC, the psychoactive material found in marijuana, a relative of hemp. Laprise said Kenex had the material tested in Canadian labs, proving that the THC content was only 14 parts per million, but the Americans refused to accept the results. Geoffrey Kime of Hempline said his company also depends heavily on the U.S. markets, but hasn’t had any difficulty shipping fibre to the U.S. The problems facing Kenex show there is still some misunderstanding about hemp, Kime said. Laprise said Kenex can’t pay the $700,000 in penalties imposed by the DEA. Jobs at Kenex are also in jeopardy. “Twenty people are working here. Those jobs didn’t exist a year and a half ago,” said Laprise. “We were hoping to add another 10 jobs, not take away 10 or 20 jobs.”(END) (NEXT) THE SHELBURNE FREE PRESS & ECONOMIST Shelburne, Ontario September 28, 1999. Hemp growers fear forthcoming report By West Keller Hemp may prove to be a new source of income for southern Ontario farmers, but those who would pioneer the harvesting could face a dual threat, a Shelburne-area supporter says. Mark Benvenete, a longtime local spokesman for hemp interests, says there’s a serious risk of financial loss on the farm, and an emergent risk of seizure at the U.S. border for those who would export to the American market. Mr. Benvenete’s comments on hemp followed a weekend “field day” at a hemp site on the Alan and Shirley Meech farm near Shelburne. Part of the day focused on a forthcoming federal report on the health risks of hemp products, a document that the growers say is not only flawed but is lacking in scientific methodology. Mr. Benvenete said the outcome of the report could be to create Canadian safety guidelines that might be 1,000 times more stringent than any elsewhere in the world and, he says impossible to measure. The report is not yet publicly available, but a 200-page draft was leaked to the Toronto Globe & Mail last March. Although interest in the recent field day may have been less than expected, participants included major hemp producer Jean Laprise of Kenex, and research scientist Dr. Ernest Small of Agriculture Canada. Kenex, said Mr. Benvenete, has a 1,500 acre plantation near Chatham. The Meech farm expects to grow 40 acres next year. In decades past, hemp was a common crop in North America. Its fibre was used principally for production of rope. It became a suspect crop when it was, perhaps unfairly, associated with marijuana, a similar plant containing high levels of the narcotic THC. The hemp grown in Canada contains virtually no THC, but can be used in the production of soap, salad dressings, clothing, ice cream, and burgers, among other things. Financially, Mr. Benvenete says the only way to be certain of earning a profit by growing hemp is to be able to separate the seed from the fibre and pulp and find a market for both. There are markets in the United States. But the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency recently seized a tractor-trailer load of seed which had been consigned to a bird-seed distributor, apparently thinking that the seed could be used to cultivate crops containing the narcotic THC. In fairness to the DEA, Mr. Benvenete says there are two sub-species of hemp, one which does have enough THC in the husk to qualify it as a drug. But Canadian farmers don’t grow that species. In any event, the seed is removed from the husk before it is exported. The shipper of the seized load of seed (at Detroit on Aug. 9) was Kenex, Canada’s leading producer and processor of industrial hemp products. Now, says Mr. Benevnete, the DEA is demanding a recall of all prior Kenex shipments, “including oil, granola bars, horse bedding and animal feed.” He quotes Kexex president Jean Laprise as saying in a taped interview that “all the proper documentation has been supplied to Customs in the past in accordance with our broker’s instructions. “Kenex has always acted in good faith and has never violated any U.S. laws. Our U.S. legal counsel has advised us that the DEA and U.S. Customs are acting in clear violation of the U.S. laws as well as the NAFTA.”(END) DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
