ACTION ALERT -- December 30, 2000

U.S. to Outlaw Hemp Products

On November 30, 2000, the Drug Enforcement Administration published its
Semiannual Regulatory Agenda (Unified Agenda) in the Federal
Register. Included in this agenda is the intent of the DEA to outlaw
currently legal hemp products through changes to their administrative
regulations.

Administrative rules or regulations (these are interchangeable terms) are
promulgated by governmental agencies and have the force of statutory
law. Federal administrative regulations are first published in the Federal
Register and later codified in the Code of Federal Regulations. Once
proposed rules are published in the Federal Register, the public generally
has 30 days to comment on the rules before the agency makes its final
decision.

Under the title "Use of Marijuana for Industrial Purposes" in the Unified
Agenda published in the Federal Register on 11/30/00, the DEA describes its
intent to publish three proposed rules regarding hemp products.
http://www.levellers.org/dea/unified.agenda.html

1) Interpretive rule: The DEA will formally state its interpretation of
existing law with respect to THC. According to the DEA's interpretation of
the Controlled Substances Act, any product containing any amount of THC is
considered a Schedule I controlled substance, even though such products are
made from portions of the cannabis plant that have been excluded from the
federal definition of marijuana since 1937.
http://www.levellers.org/dea/thcdefn.html

2) Proposed rule: The DEA will revise the wording of their own regulations
so that both naturally-occurring and synthetic THC will be considered
Schedule I controlled substances. Right now, DEA rules only prohibit
synthetic THC, not the naturally-occurring THC that is contained in trace
amounts in industrial hemp products.

3) Interim rule: This rule will exempt some hemp products that are not
intended for human consumption (paper, rope and clothing). However,
sterilized seed for human consumption (used to make cookies, tortilla chips,
pancakes, etc.) will be banned. Highly nutritious hemp seed oil will also
be banned. Hemp personal care products (soap, shampoo, lip balm, lotion,
etc.) are still in question. The DEA would like to outlaw them as well and
is still looking for evidence that THC can be absorbed through the skin when
these products are used. If they find (or invent) this evidence, then they
may also ban hemp clothing, which is also in contact with the skin and hemp
rolling papers which are consumed when burned!

These proposed rules have been reviewed and approved by the U.S. Justice
Department, DEA and Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). A July
10, 2000 letter from Barry McCaffrey (ONDCP) to Congresswoman Patsy T. Mink
shows where the federal government is coming from. In this letter,
McCaffrey states that hemp used for human consumption is "confounding our
Federal drug control testing programs".
http://www.hempembargo.com/topstories/1010.htm

Apparently, this is in response to soldiers and transportation workers
blaming hemp consumption for THC-positive urinalysis tests. Instead of
enacting a behavioral testing program to weed out employees that are
impaired by a wide range of conditions, be it cannabis use, stress, lack of
sleep or use of other substances, the government has decided to make it a
felony to possess hemp products that have been safely consumed by humans for
over 10,000 years!

The next step is for a Notice of Proposed Rule-Making to be published in the
Federal Register. At that point, the public will have 30 days to comment on
the proposed rules, but at that point, it may well be too late for
hemp. The only time we may have to save hemp products in the U.S. is now!

CONTACT CONGRESS NOW!!!
We need to contact our federal Senators and Representatives to put pressure
on the DEA to NOT officially publish these proposed rules. Please call,
fax, write and email your federal representatives. Time is of the essence
since we do not know when the DEA will officially publish its proposed
rules. Make sure you ask your congressmembers to strongly oppose this
proposed rule-making, not just inquire about it. To date, the DEA has
received over 200 "inquiries" from congressmembers, but those inquiries
weren't logged as opposition to the matter.

PHONES:
Capitol Switchboard:
Senate: (202) 224-3121
House: (202) 225-3121

FAX CONGRESS FOR FREE!
The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws is providing a
free service to send a fax to your members of congress.

1) Go to http://congress.nw.dc.us/norml/
2) Fill out your name and contact information and click next.
3) A list of your federal representatives (based on your zip code) will
appear.
4) Select the "Stop the DEA from Banning Industrial Hemp" button and click
next.
5) You can either use the text that NORML has provided, the text that CO-HIP
provides below, or compose your own message. Then click SEND FAX.
It's fast (takes less than 3 minutes), easy and FREE!

CONTACT INFO:
Of course, personal letters and phone calls are the best. For the direct
phone, fax, or email address for your members of Congress, do a search from
the WorldNetDaily's Legislative Action Center.
http://congress.nw.dc.us/wnd/