HIA

For the Birds: Hemp seed bust infuriates locals
Janet Wells, Sonoma County Independent, Vol. 21, No.19
Friday, 1 October 1999

Kevin Roth, the executive chef at the Coup Restaurant in New York, says, "Hemp seed-crusted tuna is our best selling dish. To say that we're serving a controlled substance is outlandish.

Pubdate: Sept. 30-Oct. 6, 1999 - Sebastopol-based Nutiva, which brokers and distributors imported hemp products used for a booming consumer market, is reeling from a U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency seizure of a tractor-trailer full of Canadian hemp seed. In addition to the August seizure of sterilized grain on its way to a U.S. Company that sells bird seed blends, the DEA demanded that the Canadian supplier, Kenex, recall previous hemp products or pay more than $500,000 in fines.

Sterilized hemp seed, says Nutiva president John Roulac, is heated to 212 degrees for at least 15 minutes, so the seeds will not germinate. "It's a legal product," he says. "The 1937 tax act exempts sterilized [hemp] seed, oil, or meal."

While it is illegal to grow hemp in the United States because it contains trace amounts of the federally controlled drug in marijuana, the DEA has provided no legal basis for confiscation of the imported load, says Roulac.

Despite support from legislators, including Virginia Strom-Martin, whose bill to legalize industrial hemp recently was approved by the California State Assembly, Roulac has had to lay off one employee and cut back on hours in response to what he calls "intimidation" of Canada's largest hemp processor.

"They are trying to cut off the raw material supply," he says. "If they can intimidate and shut down the biggest player, the other companies will be intimidated."

One of Roulac's customers, Kevin Roth, the executive chef at the Coup Restaurant in New York, says, "Hemp seed-crusted tuna is our best selling dish. To say that we're serving a controlled substance is outlandish."

U.S. Customs Department spokesman Dean Boyd says that customs inspectors in Detroit called the DEA about the hemp seed after looking at the shipment's paperwork, and were instructed to seize the load.

"By doing our job we've walked into a political minefield," says a beleaguered-sounding Boyd. "You wouldn't believe the calls we're getting on this. Our role was based on the legal advice provided by the DEA. We're obligated to hold it. It' costing us a lot to keep 39,000 pounds of birdseed."