Breaking news. Drug warriors lose.
This was not particularly a surprise to me, but is very welcome.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled against the DEA regarding its "final rule." The DEA was attempting to prohibit the sale or consumption of hemp food products.
The Court had earlier granted a temporary injunction against the DEA from implementing the rule, and today they made it permanent.
From the ruling (available here in pdf form)
Appellants manufacture, distribute, or sell comestible items
containing oil or sterilized seeds from "hemp" -- a species of
plant within the genus Cannabis. They challenge two Drug
Enforcement Administration ("DEA") regulations that, taken
together, would ban the sale or possession of such items even
if they contain only non-psychoactive trace amounts of
tetrahydrocannabinols ("THC"). The DEA asserts that natural,
as well as synthetic, THC is included in Schedule I of the
Controlled Substances Act ("CSA"). We have previously held
that the definition of "THC" in Schedule I refers only to synthetic
THC, and that any THC occurring naturally within
Cannabis is banned only if it falls within the Schedule I definition
of "marijuana."1 We reiterate that ruling here: in accordance with Schedule I, the DEA's relevant rules and regulations
may be enforced only insofar as they ban the presence
of marijuana or synthetic THC.
To understand that section completely, it's important to know that the Controlled Substances Act specifically exempted hemp stalks, fiber, oil and cake made from hemp seed (and sterilized hemp seed) from the definition of marijuana.
Good news. And I repeat from an earlier post:
This means you can get your delicious and nutritious hemp food products, like those pictured from Ruth's Hemp Foods, where they have hemp bars, hemp oil, tortilla wraps/chips/pasta, hemp milk and more. Hemp cannot be legally grown in the U.S., but hemp foods can be imported from Candada, and at Ruth's it's easy to order online and have it shipped here.
Disclaimer: I do not work for Ruth's Hemp Foods, nor have I received any consideration for promoting their products. However, if Ruth's Hemp Foods appreciates this product placement, and wants to thank me... I particularly like the Cranberry Almond SoftHemp bars and the SoftHemp seeds (a case of each would be great!)
[Thanks to Richard Lake, as always!]
7:27:57 PM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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