Effort to Revive Hemp Industry Encounters Stigma of Marijuana

And that infuriates the Ojai entrepreneur, who sees hemp as a remedy for America's ailing farms and as a way to invigorate national health.

He's pushing not marijuana, but industrial hemp, which contains only trace amounts of THC, the chemical that puts the buzz in Cannabis sativa.

Roulac owns and operates Nutiva, one of the largest hemp food companies in the country. He converts hemp seeds from Canada into snack bars and oil sold in 1,200 health-food stores nationwide.

"You can a smoke a truckload of this stuff and all you'll get is a headache," he said, relaxing in the organic garden of his rural Ojai home.

Roulac leads a hemp-centric life. He cooks with hemp oil, grazes on hemp seeds, wears clothes made of hemp fiber and writes books about hemp.

His nimble mind constantly turns over new applications for hemp, a crop he calls the soybean of a new generation -- rich in omega-3 fatty acids and protein.

But Roulac's hemp noshing and peddling days could be numbered. Last year, the Drug Enforcement Administration declared hemp foods containing THC illegal and gave those making or selling hemp foods 120 days to get rid of their stock.

With their livelihoods threatened, Nutiva and six other hemp businesses joined with the Hemp Industries Assn. of America to sue the DEA in the hope of blocking the ban.

The case is now before the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, considered one of the nation's more liberal venues. A decision is expected soon.

DEA officials said they became interested in the issue after seeing increasing numbers of hemp products on the market. Some had labels saying they contained THC. This led to public confusion over what is and isn't legal, the DEA said in a filing with the Federal Register.

"The law is pretty clear," DEA spokesman Will Glaspy said in an interview.

"If it contains THC and it's meant for human consumption, then it's an illegal product. Congress does not make allowances for trace amounts. The law specifies that any amount of THC is illegal."

Opponents say the law has always excluded oil and nonviable hemp seeds from the prohibition.

"They are legal and not on the list of controlled substances," said Joseph Sandler, the attorney representing the hemp industry in the lawsuit.