Pubdate: Friday, 3 April 1998 Source: The National Business Review (NZ) Author: Deborah Hill Contact: MINISTRY OF HEALTH PAVES WAY FOR LIFTING BAN ON HEMP CULTIVATION A confidential Ministry of Health report is backing trials of cannabis cultivation as industrial hemp. The September 1997 report has been kept from the public, but a copy obtained by The National Business Review reveals the ministry's chief adviser on regulation and safety, Bob Boyd, suggests New Zealand should commence trials of hemp cultivation. If adopted, the report's recommendations are likely to open the way for hemp to again become a major commodity, as it was in the US up until the 19th century. This week a major New Zealand company added its voice to the call for free[ing] up cannabis laws to allow hemp to be cultivated as a crop. The Body Shop's local franchise holders are planning to meet with Health Ministry, MAF [Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries] and Customs officials as well as police to discuss reform allowing the growth of cannabis for hemp. Body Shop director Michael Ogilvie-Lee said the restrictions on hemp were preventing New Zealand businesses benefiting from a valuable opportunity. "If New Zealand wants to remain competitive internationally it must show the ability to move efficiently past legislative hurdles that have little merit or logic," Mr Ogilvie-Lee said. Industrial hemp and marijuana are both classified as cannabis sativa, although the strain used for hemp has very low levels of tetrahydro-cannabinol (THC). THC is the psychotropic substance concentrated in the flowering tops and leaves and used as a recreational drug. Cannabis strains for hemp contain 0.3-1% THC whereas varieties grow for drug use contain 10-15% THC. There are more than 25,000 industrial applications for hemp, spanning products from chipboard, paper, fabric and biodegradable plastics made from the fibre to soap, moisturiser and cosmetics made from the oil of the hemp seed. The Body Shop markets a hemp dry-skin range but is prevented from selling it in Australia under current law which classifies hemp seed oil as a poison. Hemp clothing is sold on small scale in New Zealand but products containing hemp oil could be illegal. The Body Shop founder and retailing guru Anita Roddick wrote to Prime Minister Jenny Shipley from the UK last December asking for hemp to be able to grown legally in New Zealand. Ms Shipley wrote back to Ms Roddick in general terms without responding to the hemp question, but if the Health Ministry report on hemp is adopted it could fulfill Ms Roddick's request. The report followed a research visit by Dr Boyd to look at Australia's licensed hemp programme, in which license to cultivate for trial purposes were issued in most states. Dr Boyd concluded growing cannabis for industrial hemp did not cause a security problem as there was minimal interference with the crops and no arrests. National Organisation for reform of Marijuana Law (Norml) promotions director Chris Fowlie said no one would bother trying to steal cannabis plants grown for hemp because its THC levels were too low to have any effect. The Ministry of Health report stated clearly it was dealing only with cannabis in its capacity as a source of hemp, excluding the issues of drug reform. Dr Boyd reported that no one he had spoken to in his research considered the Australian trials had made cannabis sativa more acceptable as a drug. Norml's Mr Fowlie said the UN convention on psychotropic drugs specifically excluded hemp and seeds. Norml imports raw hemp fabric and gets it made into T-shirts and jeans which are sold through its Hemp Store in Auckland's Queen Street. The plants for hemp look different as they're cultivated close together to foster the tall stalks which provide tough fibres. According to drug mythology, newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst, industrial giant DuPont and the US organisation now known as the Drug Enforcement Association [sic] (DEA) conspired to ban cannabis in 1937. It was Mr Hearst, the "real" Citizen Kane, who dubbed the plant "marijuana" after the Mexican name and masterminded the anti-cannabis campaign after having tracts of forest he owned returned to Mexican nationalists. Mr Hearst did not want hemp to overtake wood pulp as a prime source of paper, while DuPont had just invented nylon and didn't want hemp to take over as a prime source of fibre. Alcohol prohibition had just come to an end and the DEA had 30,000 officers, which it didn't want to get rid of, but had nothing for them to police. The congress passed the anti-cannabis legilsation in 1938 [sic] which met all three parties' needs.