Laprise has found himself mired in one of the more
bizarre episodes of
Washington's campaign to curb illicit drug use. Hemp
and marijuana are
different varieties of the same plant species,
Cannabis sativa, though
the government rarely distinguishes between them.
"They say it's a tractor trailer full of
drugs," Laprise said. "We say
it's a tractor trailer full of birdseed."
But
while smoking marijuana delivers a psychoactive high,
smoking hemp
gives only a headache. Tetrahydrocannabinol, known as
THC, the
psychoactive component in marijuana, usually varies
between 4 and 20
percent of a leaf. Industrial hemp has a THC below 1
percent.
The birdseed seized in Detroit had a THC content of
barely .0014 percent,
which wouldn't give a bird a buzz.
John Roulac, the president of Nutiva, a company in
Sebastopol, Calif.,
that buys hemp seeds from Laprise's operation for
food products, said
that seeds themselves have no THC, and whatever gets
detected comes from
contact with leaves of the hemp plant. Roulac said
the amount of THC was "like an olive pit in a
railroad
boxcar."
Laprise,
whose company, Kenex Ltd., grows and processes hemp
with the
approval of the Canadian government, said that
"all of our other products
have no detectable level of THC. The only shipment
with any detectable
amount was the birdseed, and it was really
nothing."
Though the U.S. government today views hemp with
suspicion, it was
historically an agricultural staple used in
everything from ropes and
sails to clothing and the first American flag
supposedly sewn by Betsy Ross. It
has been virtually illegal since 1937.
Last
year, Canada declared hemp a legitimate crop and has
granted
growers' licenses for 35,000 acres. Britain, France
and Germany also have
commercial hemp industries. Hawaii, North Dakota and
Minnesota passed
laws approving hemp this year as a crop for
hard-pressed farmers.
Kenex's customers, who snap up Laprise's hemp seeds
and fibers for
everything from food for animals and people to beauty
products and horse
bedding, have been outraged by the seizure in
Detroit.
"What in the heck are they doing arresting
birdseed?" said Anita Roddick,
the British founder of the Body Shop, whose organic
hair- and skin-care
products have used hemp oil produced by Laprise.
"It's so Monty Pythonesque," Ms. Roddick
said, alluding to the antic
comedians who mocked life's absurdities.
"They're chasing around bloody
birdseed. It's making the D.E.A. look stupid."
Federal
law enforcement officials defended the seizure.
D.E.A. spokesman
Terry Parham said, "Our understanding is there
is no legal way for hemp
seed to have come in that contains any quantity of
THC." He explained
that no product containing THC could be imported
except by a company
registered with the D.E.A., and that no companies are
registered.
Drug-policy critics like Ethan Nadelmann, the
president of the Lindesmith
Center, a New York group that advocates a more
liberal drug policy,
reacted to the birdseed seizure with glee, contending
that it shows how
dumb the war on drugs can get.
Laprise
said the Customs Service also ordered him to recall
his earlier
exports to the United States of hemp oil, horse
bedding, animal feed and
granola bars, or face more than $500,000 in fines. He
cannot comply, he
said, because the products have been used or
consumed.
Meanwhile, a report by the U.S. Department of
Agriculture assessing the
potential of hemp growing has made the rounds of the
federal government.
The report's beige cover is stamped
"Classified."
"I can't figure out why they classified
this," said a government official
who let a reporter take a peek. "The study said
there was a limited niche
market for hemp products, like Laprise's
birdseed."
