The King of Pointland

Stoked

I'm a big fan of the Hemp waffles sold, for example, at the Glut Food Coop. They're very tasty and get me stoned out of my gourd. Just kidding: they have only trace amounts of THC. And yet that was enough to get the DEA to issue a ban on hemp food products in October of 2001, arguing that they had no choice because, according to the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, "any material, compound, mixture, or preparation which contains any quantity of THC' is a . . . controlled substance." The Family Research Council had been pushing for the ban.

The Hemp industry challenged the DEA in court, and in March of 2002 the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay permitting the continued sale of the food products pending a decision in the case.

Yesterday, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit unanimously ruled that the DEA lacked the "authority to reclassify hemp as a dangerous drug without first showing that it has a 'high potential for abuse.'" Now we will see whether the Bush administration feels strongly enough about this gathering threat to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.