The embargo on sterilized hemp seeds entering the United States that was lifted in December has once again been reinstated on order of U.S. drug czar Barry McCaffrey, because it goes against his office’s “zero tolerance policy.”
Tom Corwin, of the U.S. Customs Department of Trade Programs, said when the hemp seed embargo was lifted in December, they looked at other country’s limits for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and decided that 0.3 percent THC should be the limit. He said this decision was made without the knowledge of the drug czar’s office. Corwin said McCaffrey was “offended” by this decision because it went against the Office of National Drug Control Policy’s (ONDCP) National Drug Control Strategy.
A Jan. 5 memorandum from Robert McNamara, Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Office of Field Operations, instructed U.S. Customs to “[S]uspend the policy that allows for the legal importation into the United States of sterilized hemp seed or other hemp products which contain an amount not in excess of 0.3 percent tetrahydrocannabinol.”
Corwin said that according to the drug czar’s orders, every hemp seed shipment arriving from Canada will be detained, and a sample will be taken to a lab to determine if there is any trace of THC. This process takes 30 days. If there is any trace of THC, the shipment will be seized.
Corwin said another of McCaffrey’s concerns is that even trace amounts of THC in hemp seed products could cause a false positive drug test.
In August, the DEA instructed U.S. Customs to stop the importation of all hemp seed products into the U.S. The first seizure was a 53,000 pound load of sterilized birdseed imported by Kenex Ltd. In November, the DEA lifted the embargo and allowed sterilized seeds to enter the country.
“The hemp industry suffered a huge loss of momentum when Customs illegally cut off our supplies for four months,” said Don Wirtshafter of the Ohio Hempery. “We finally were getting back on our feet when the drug czar did this about-face on us. Any new regulations should come only after rule making procedures, not on some bureaucrat’s whim.”
For more information, please contact Don Wirtshafter of the Ohio Hempery at (740) 662-4367 or Tom Dean, Esq., NORML Foundation Litigation Director at (202) 483-8751.
