-Caveat Lector-
From
http://www.post-gazette.com/forum/20011209edann1209p5.asp
}}}>Begin
White House Watch: THC madness
The drug war blunders on: The DEA is cracking down on hempseed oil in
tortilla chips
Sunday, December 09, 2001
By Ann McFeatters
WASHINGTON - And now, for something completely different, to borrow a
phrase from Monty Python.
The three earnest young men burdened with plastic bags came to the
office bearing food. Pretzels with seeds. A snack bar. An energy bar.
Tortilla chips.
Ann McFeatters is National Bureau chief for the Post- Gazette and The Blade of Toledo,
Ohio. Her e-mail address is amcfeatters@
nationalpress.com.
Never mind the caloric sin. We're talking serious evil here.
Or so the government says.
Unless you are an avid reader of the Federal Register and perused the tiny print of
almost undecipherable bureaucratese on pages 51,539 through 51,544, you might have
missed it -- but the government has returned to normal
.
The Drug Enforcement Administration, under the direction of Asa Hutchinson, the former
GOP congressman from Arkansas, has announced rules to ban certain brands of a wide
variety of foods -- "beer, cheese, coffee, corn chi
ps, energy drink, flour, ice cream, snack bars, salad oil, soda and veggie burgers" --
if they contain trace amounts of THC.
THC, as those who came to the age of majority in the 1960s know well, is
tetrahydrocannabinols. As DEA succinctly explains: "That's the hallucinogenic
substance in marijuana that causes the psychoactive effect or high."
The THC found in certain brands of the above-mentioned food comes from hempseeds and
hempseed oil, popular with some so-called "natural food" manufacturers because they
are high in protein and serve as a fatty acid supple
ment -- "good fats" that doctors like. But DEA says such foods are now controlled
substances illegal for everyone.
Makers of foods with hempseeds or oil, with $5 million in annual sales, argue that the
amount of THC is so infinitesimal that inhumanly high consumption of them would be
required to get high. They liken it to getting a bu
zz from eating the opiate-containing poppy seeds on bagels or the alcohol in orange
juice.
But the Controlled Substances Act says that any consumption of THC is forbidden. And
any food that contains it is no longer to be sold, distributed or eaten.
Says the DEA: "If you wish to err on the side of caution, you may freely dispose of
the product. As stated in the rules that DEA published on Oct. 9, 2001, anyone who has
purchased a food or beverage product that contains
THC has 120 days (until Feb. 6, 2002) to dispose of the product without penalty under
federal law."
After Feb. 6, it will be illegal to sell or import any hemp-containing foods.
The DEA, in its wisdom, notes that bird seed with cannabis seeds, clothing such as
hats, shirt and shoes, cosmetics, lotion, paper, rope, twine and, yes, shampoo and
soap, which also can contain hemp, are not illegal. "Ba
sed on the information currently available, DEA believes that [such products] do not
cause THC to enter the human body and are therefore legal."
Confronted with the thought that the government's investing time, money and energy in
such a campaign during a time of war is, possibly, ridiculous, Hutchinson says, "Many
Americans do not know that hemp and marijuana are
both parts of the same plant and that hemp cannot be produced without producing
marijuana."
Not surprisingly, supporters of food with hempseed oil have gone to court, beseeching
the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to block the DEA rule. DEA says it is permitted
to issue the ban on THC-laced products without a
formal rule-making procedure although the public may comment until Dec. 10. "It's like
the judge announcing the verdict before the trial," complained John Young, a lawyer
for the hemp-food lawsuit, to the National Law Jou
rnal.
Groups which are applauding the DEA's action, such as the conservative Family Research
Council, say food with hempseeds sends a pro-drug message to children and is
camouflage for a campaign to legalize marijuana.
The other day, confronted by a man in Florida who said the government was not
responding to his needs, President Bush muttered, "I can't stand bureaucracy."
Bush remembered the cameras were rolling and said that he appreciated "the
hard-working people who care enough to work for the government. But what I don't like
is systems that get so cumbersome that those who are trying
to help you don't get the product out."
In the course of writing this, I have munched on the 120-calorie corn
chips, the 220-calorie pretzels and devoured the 170-calorie snack
bar. In truth, I feel nothing but my waistband.
And a curious desire to watch "Monty Python's Flying Circus."
End<{{{
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