Hemp lovers across the country can relax now that a federal court ruled there is no harm in consuming hemp foods.
Supporters of hemp products endured a two-and-a-half year fight against the Drug Enforcement Agency to defend what they said was a wasteful exercise.
"We stood our ground defending a position we should have never had to defend," said David Newman of Nature's Path, the leading manufacturer of hemp foods in North America.
Hemp supporters said they believe the lawsuit was a misguided attempt by the DEA to work hemp seed into the definition of marijuana.
Under the Controlled Substances Act, hemp seed, which is often used to manufacture food products, was excluded from the definition of marijuana. The DEA is therefore unable to ban hemp food products unless a law is written in Congress, said Adam Eidinger, a spokesman for Vote Hemp, a nonprofit organization that seeks to make industrial hemp available in the free market.
At the beginning of the lawsuit, the government instructed retailers to pull hemp food products off the shelves, but the attempt to ban the foods was not successful. Newman said retailers were afraid, but manufacturers stood their ground and continued making hemp products.
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The fight has cost hemp companies more than $200,000, said Eric Steenstra, president of Vote Hemp.
The lawsuit concluded that foods containing THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis hemp, could be regulated by the government if it is within the definition of marijuana. But naturally occurring THC found in hemp foods cannot be regulated, as hemp seeds do not cause a person to become intoxicated.
Newman said every hemp food product at Nature's Path is tested for trace amounts of THC but an amount that could have an affect on a person has never been found.
Eidinger said he thinks what the DEA was concerned about was that the same people who are active in the drug policy movement to popularize marijuana are the same people who consume hemp foods.
A 2000 Office of Natural Drug Control Policy document states that hemp products are not a threat, but that "hemp-hype" has become a "stalking horse" for the marijuana movement. It also states that allowing the import and sale of hemp products in the United States threatens the viability of the Federal drug-testing system and would further support a movement to grow hemp in the country.
Usually when a controlled substance becomes a problem, the government sets standards for any trace amounts, Steenstra said, but there is no current standard for hemp foods.
He said the DEA's classification of hemp food products as controlled substances was always questionable. Comparing hemp foods with poppy seeds, he said the cut-off level for amounts of opiates in poppy seeds were increased to distinguish food from drug, and he doesn't see why the same couldn't have been done with hemp foods.
Officials from the DEA refused to comment Tuesday.
