In a major victory for the hemp industry, the DEA has backed-off from its demand to recall Canadian hemp seed products and has instructed US Customs agents to allow shipments of seed products containing trace amounts of THC to freely enter the United States. Since THC is considered a Controlled Substance, the agency took a hard line on hemp seed products containing as low as 14 parts per million THC.

The deal, brokered on November 4th by the Canadian Embassy in Washington DC, resolved US Customs August 9th seizure of a load of hemp grain originating from Kenex farms in Southern Ontario, and DEA's demand that Kenex recall 17 loads of previously shipped hemp seed under the threat of penalty.

Kenex owner, Jean Laprise called the agreement a guarded win. "An issue has been resolved for the entire industry," he said. "Getting the Canadian government involved was a major factor. DEA didn't suspect we had so many friends in politics and the industry."

The Hemp Industries Association played a major role in lobbying congressional representatives, launching an informational website, and by alerting the media to the situation. DEA's action posed a threat to the Association's members, many of whom use the hemp seed for food, body care and pet products.

"We weren't going to let the DEA push Kenex around without a fight because we knew this was a test case for how DEA approaches hemp in the future," said HIA president Cindy Biggers. "Sterilized hemp seed is a perfectly legal product and it's time the DEA accepted that."

Although Kenex recently sent a load of hemp seed to Baltimore, the load seized in August remains in Detroit under Customs storage. Consequently, Kenex has no idea of the condition of the seeds nor the environment they are stored in. At this time, the company has not ruled out the option of suing DEA to recover legal and other expenses.

"We got the Zero Tolerance policy reversed, and basically got DEA to abide by US law," said Jean Laprise. "We accomplished our goal and are looking forward to doing a bigger business in the future."

Websites: , http://thehia.org & http://hempstores.com