Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2003 06:56:47 -0400 From: "VOTE HEMP" To: "VOTE HEMP" Subject: DEA Hemp Food Regulations are wrong Thank you for using VOTE HEMP Mail System Message sent to the following recipients: Sen. Kennedy Sen. Kerry Rep. Capuano Message text follows: Matthew Belmonte [address] April 17, 2003 [recipient address was inserted here] Dear [recipient name was inserted here], On 21 March the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) published its final rule on hemp foods, which essentially bans the sale of all hemp food products by 21 April 2003. This final rule is virtually identical to an interpretive rule issued on 9 October 2001 which was stayed by the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on 9 March 2002. The DEA's attack on nutritious hemp foods on account of insignificant trace THC content is like attacking poppy seed bagels because of their trace opiate content. DEA's attack will destroy businesses, jobs and livelihoods, and is an outrageous waste of taxpayer money and government resources, especially in this time of economic and national crisis. Because trace THC in hemp seed is non-psychoactive and insignificant, Congress exempted non-viable hemp seed and oil from control under the Controlled Substances Act (21 USC 802(16)), just as Congress exempted poppy seeds from the CSA, although they contain trace opiates otherwise subject to control. Hemp seed has a well-balanced protein content and the highest amount of essential fatty acids of any oil in nature. Shelled hemp seed and oil are increasingly used in natural food products, such as corn chips, frozen waffles, nutrition bars, hummus, nondairy milks, breads and cereals. In the last few years, the hemp foods industry has grown from less than $1 million to over $6 million in annual retail sales. Unlike the US, other western countries have adopted rational THC limits for foods, similar to those voluntarily observed by North American hemp food companies which protect consumers with a wide margin of safety from any psychoactive effects or interference with workplace drug-testing (see hemp industry standards regarding trace THC at http://www.testpledge.com/). The fourteen-year-old global hemp market is a thriving commercial success. Unfortunately, because DEA has confused non-psychoactive industrial hemp varieties of cannabis with psychoactive `marijuana' varieties, the U.S. is the only major industrialised nation to prohibit the growing and processing of industrial hemp. Please ask DEA to immediately stop attacking hemp foods, and rather work for reasonable regulations that support a healthy domestic hemp foods and cosmetics industry. Sincerely, Matthew Belmonte