When a vote for decriminalisation is cast, it should never be supported because it does not solve any problems attributable to prohibition. Legalisation (much different to decriminalisation) is the only way to control, regulate and tax the market.

We cannot have the equivalent of food/health inspectors (cannabis plant inspectors) under a decriminalisation.

Here is the original article misleading the public to think the majority does not support legalisation:

Voters oppose relaxing drug laws despite failure of 'war'

Mark Metherell, Lisa Davies
May 21, 2012


A MAJORITY of voters oppose decriminalisation of drug use despite declarations by a group of eminent Australians and a global commission that the war on drugs has failed.

An Age/Nielsen poll taken this month found two-thirds of Australians oppose decriminalisation. The finding reflects little change in attitudes from a similar poll taken 13 years ago.

Attitudes on the issue appear to be entrenched, with just 4 per cent of those polled saying they neither supported nor opposed decriminalisation and 2 per cent saying they did not know.


A similar poll in March 1999, soon after then prime minister John Howard had controversially blocked a heroin trial in the ACT, showed 71 per cent opposed decriminalisation of heroin use.

Nielsen polling director John Stirton said that while there was stronger support for specific or limited changes such as heroin trials, the latest poll showed little real change on the overall issue of decriminalisation, given the poll's margin of error of 2.8 per cent.

While the 1999 poll showed that people were likely to be more receptive to specific drug reform ventures, the poll this month ''would suggest attitudes have not shifted much in the past decade on the issue''.

The result comes after the recent report of the think tank Australia 21, which said it was time to reopen the national debate on drug use, regulation and control.

It cited the Global Commission, chaired by former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan, which found that the 40-year ''war on drugs'' had failed with devastating consequences for individual addicts and the spread of organised crime and corruption.

Federal Mental Health Minister Mark Butler who has responsibility for drug treatment, said Australia had succeeded in recent years in reducing prevalence and harm from drug use.

Latest Australian Crime Commission figures show cannabis and steroids to be the only illicit drug types where there was an increase in arrests last financial year although the weight of smuggled heroin detected increased by 240 per cent and was the highest since 2001-02.

Senior police maintain a hard line on drug use and Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Stephen Fontana this month said the social acceptance of illicit drug taking was ''a national disgrace''.

NSW drug squad chief Detective Superintendent Nick Bingham said to decriminalise drugs would abrogate the responsibility of government and send the very wrong message that some drugs were OK.

The latest poll finds that 27 per cent of voters support decriminalisation. That figure rises to 50 per cent for Greens and 34 per cent for Labor voters. Support among Liberal-National Party voters is much lower, at 18 per cent.


Source: http://www.smh.com.au/national/voters ... f-war-20120520-1yz3h.html

The Hemp Comeback

Broadcast: 20/05/2012 1:20:57 PM

Reporter: Sean Murphy
Featured on ABC Landline: Download video (53,506,860 Bytes)


PIP COURTNEY, PRESENTER: Hemp is one of the oldest crops known to humankind.

And some historians believe the need for material to make ropes and sails for the Royal Navy was the real reason behind the establishment of Australia as a penal colony more than two centuries ago.

Now hemp is making a comeback of sorts, with licensed production in most states supplying growing markets in masonry, fibreglass replacements and textiles. But a push to legalise foods made from hemp seeds could be the key to Australia's hemp industry taking off.

ONSCREEN: The Hemp Comeback

SEAN MURPHY, REPORTER: At Ashford in the New England region of New South Wales they used to grow tobacco on the verdant plains of the Severn River but now farmers like Leon Minos are growing industrial hemp.

LEON MINOS, HEMP GROWER, PONDA: Traditionally my grandparents and parents grew tobacco here, and that was predominantly tobacco. And then the tobacco industry folded and yeah, we're just looking at another industry to get up and running and hopefully be good for the Ashford area.

SEAN MURPHY: With his wife Connie, they're growing about six hectares of hemp under licence, providing hurd for a growing market in masonry material for building.

CONNIE MINOS, HELP GROWER, PONDA: We really like the crop. It's something that's been a really interesting industry, I guess, for to us get involved in over the last three years. We've learnt a lot about it in that time and I guess we're always impressed with just how diverse the product can be, and it's something that we're hoping really does take off.

As far as the farming side of it goes, we find that because we've previously just grown lucerne here, that it's less time consuming, it uses a lot less water - so there's a lot of benefits for that side of it as well.

SEAN MURPHY: Even if it needs irrigation, hemp uses about a third of the water needed to grow lucerne and its low cost benefits extend well beyond water savings.

(Sean Murphy in front of tall fronded hemp crop)

This crop was planted about 90 days ago. It's about 4m tall and is ready for harvest now.

It's planted in beautiful alluvial soil and there used to be free range pigs running in this paddock. But other than that there have been no inputs at all - no fertiliser, no pesticides, no herbicides, no fungicides, not even irrigation, just sunshine and rain.

SEAN MURPHY: And the returns are attractive too. Industry advocates reckon a crop like this could fetch about $1,500 a tonne when its raw material is separated.

KLARA MAROSSEZKY, AUSTRALIAN HEMP MASONRY COMPANY: So the farmer is getting $500 for their hurd, $500 for their fines and then additionally they can get $500 for the short bast.

And the short bast is something that can be fed into the fibreglass industry very readily - so its major market is in Europe is in the automobile industry.

(Klara Marossezky starts hemp processing machine)

SEAN MURPHY: Klara Marossezky is a sustainability educator. She runs the Australian Hemp Masonry Company and has developed an award winning formula for converting hemp hurd into a carbon sequestering building material.

KLARA MAROSSEZKY: This is actually a carbon sink. So it's harvested carbon out of the air in the field, that's been chopped up and it's being put into this lime-based material and then locked up in that. So it's literally carbon locked into a wall.

SEAN MURPHY: Once the material sets it undergoes carbonisation or petrification and continues to soak up carbon.

KLARA MAROSSEZKY: When we talk about Australia not being ready for a low carbon future, we are actually ideally poised for a low carbon future. This is probably one of the most powerful resources that we have to us and one of the most powerful tools we have for addressing carbon.

And so we've got this equation. We've got you know, huge impact from just- If I only talk about the building sector, 40 per cent of our carbon footprint in Australia from building. If we replace that, that's something that's immediately being addressed.

SEAN MURPHY: This prototype building is at Mountain View near Nimbin in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales. It's cheap, easy to build and has high thermal qualities and energy efficiency.

LIZ JOHNSON (working on building): Just coming home and smelling the beginnings is great, makes you feel like you're doing something for Mother Nature.

SEAN MURPHY: Aboriginal community Elder Liz Johnson says it's a perfect fit for remote Aboriginal communities.

LIZ JOHNSON, ABORIGINAL ELDER: I've searched a long time for what I think is a culturally appropriate building material for Aboriginal people. Since the change of cultures in our country, Aboriginal people have been imposed upon so far as building is concerned. And traditionally we lived in healthy living conditions.

And all my life I've built houses out of different things. I've lived in different houses, and I've seen the health of Aboriginal people deteriorate with the houses that are built specially for public housing.

So I'm hoping that with our venture into the hemp housing, that we will be able to influence regional governments and eventually the Federal Government with a prototype of this sort of house.

(Close up of hemp crop)

SEAN MURPHY: Hemp is one of the oldest and most versatile crops in existence and was the world's most ubiquitous textile fibre before the invention of the cotton gin in the American South in the 19th century.

It's still grown for fabric making but until now, the process of separating the bast fibre from the stem has been expensive and burdened by archaic technology.

ADRIAN CLARKE, TEXTILE AND COMPOSITE INDUSTRIES: You cannot do anything with hemp until you have separated the hurd from the fibre. The fibre is in the bark on the outside. The hurd is the woody pith in the middle.

(Extract from Textile and Composite Industries corporate video showing a decortication machine at work and the resulting fibre)

SEAN MURPHY: Victorian inventor Adrian Clarke is working on a decortication machine which can process hemp in a field.

It produces material that can be adapted to existing cotton spinning technology and Mr Clarke says its potential is revolutionary.

ADRIAN CLARKE: Our method theoretically, you could cut it today and be spinning it tomorrow - and we recover over 90 per cent of the fibre. But we do it in a way that will spin in cotton machinery.

They're making advances with cotton spinning machinery every day. Billions of dollars gets spent on improving the cotton spinning - so we link into the most modern technology out of the oldest technology. We bring more fibre per hectare and we bring a better fibre.

And it's not stained, it can be spun and dyed just like cotton. And most of the goods you will see around in the hemp shops is actually a blend of cotton and hemp, so it gets the benefit of both.

(Extract from BBC TV show on hemp)

VOICEOVER: This particular machine is just a prototype but its Australian inventor thinks it could revolutionise textile production throughout the world.

REPORTER: It will be a drivable machine?

ADRIAN CLARKE: It will be a drivable machine that harvests and what comes out the back will be ready to go straight into a cotton system.

(End of extract)

SEAN MURPHY: The BBC showed interest in Adrian Clarke's invention after he moved to England 12 years ago when licensed hemp production was stopped in Victoria.

Now that it's resumed, he's returned to Australia with a refined device that can fit onto a tractor.

ADRIAN CLARKE: We have developed a decorticator that is very small and very efficient, and it was actually designed to go inside a harvester so that the harvester immediately feeds it into the decorticator and separates the fibre from the hurd as it's going through.

SEAN MURPHY: He's now seeking investors but says the biggest boost to Australia's fledgling hemp industry would be to follow the lead of countries like Britain, Canada and the United States and legalise hemp food.

(Montage of hemp products)

ADRIAN CLARKE: To deny Australians the right to eat these very healthy foods and use the oil is just quite ridiculous. I can go into Sainsburys or Tesco in London and buy hemp spaghetti, hemp salad dressing, hemp ice cream, hemp soaps.

The foods are just there. Hemp breads, it's all just there. And you can't buy it here. You can't consume it here.

SEAN MURPHY: Food Standards Australia and New Zealand has recently recommended that hemp seed foods be made legal in Australia and this is now being considered by a ministerial council.

It comes a decade after a similar recommendation was rejected.

SEAN MURPHY: Food Standards Australia and New Zealand found there would be no public health and safety concerns with hemp as a food product.

New Zealand accepted the advice but the Howard Government rejected it. It said legalising hemp as a food would send mixed messages about drug abuse and it would be difficult for law enforcement agencies to police.

Now police agencies across Australia are objecting on the grounds that hemp food could corrupt roadside drug testing. And the New South Wales Government says it might also encourage cannabis consumption, which is already the highest in the world.

ANDREW KAVASILAS, HEMP GROWER: They talk about undermining efforts made to eradicate cannabis, it will send the wrong messages to people about the safe use of cannabis.

But those arguments aren't getting anywhere overseas. Overseas we're looking at markets that are just expanding tenfold.

(In front of hemp fields)

You could smoke an ounce of this and still walk home- still drive home, yeah! (laughs)

SEAN MURPHY: Andrew Kavasilas is one of 34 licensed hemp growers in New South Wales. He is specialising in hemp seed production.

He says there's no THC in hemp seeds and he believes fair trade laws will eventually open the hemp food market up in Australia.

ANDREW KAVASILAS: They probably won't get up this time. I think what will happen is something like what happened in the US and Canada, where there will be a trade issue, there will probably be a court case, and the truth in fact will come out about the nutritional benefits of hemp seed and the government will have no option but to facilitate the introduction of hemp seed food in Australia.

(Andrew Kavasilas opening a sac and showing hemp seeds)

That's the seed, Stewart.

STEWART LARSSON, MARA SEEDS: What sort of germinations do you look at?

ANDREW KAVASILAS: Eighty per cent, 90 per cent plus, generally. Sometimes fresh enough, it will go 100 per cent.

SEAN MURPHY: Stewart Larsson is Australia's biggest organic soy bean producer, processing about 7,000 tonnes a year.

At his new stockfeed and biochar facility at Mallanganee in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales, Mr Larsson has been working with local hemp growers. He believes there's huge potential for broadacre hemp seed production, if the Government legalises hemp foods.

STEWART LARSSON: We can't take it any further until basically that happens. I mean, we can do the trial areas and the growing of the crop and even the methodology of how we do that. But we need that tick for it to happen.

If we look at what the world says we're going to have a food shortage in years to come.

I mean, it's a crop we can grow well here, it appears, and it's suited to this environment as well. And I guess our interest is in taking it to a commercial crop, in that using standard equipment that we're using now in growing soy and also to be a rotation with soy - in soy being a nitrogen crop and the end level for growing food grade hemp is certainly a plus.

SEAN MURPHY: Even on a small scale like this, the economics of hemp seed are impressive. Andrew Kavasilas says a one hectare crop will yield about 1.5 tonnes of seed worth up to $6,000.

ANDREW KAVASILAS: Well, that's what keeps my enthusiasm up, because it is a high potential plant. As a broad acre crop, it integrates well into what farmers are doing anyway.

And when you're growing a crop that in effect can produce oil at the same quality as fish oil, in terms of its omega ratios, yeah, why wouldn't you be going for it?

I think what happens, is people haven't got a grasp of the full facts, and politically I don't think there's any votes for any politician to say that our kids should be eating hemp foods.

SEAN MURPHY: At Ashford, Connie Minos is hoping to integrate her fat lamb production with hemp growing but under her current licence conditions this is forbidden.

CONNIE MINOS: We're personally interested in being able to use it as fodder for stock because we grow lucerne and hemp here. Hemp being so high in protein, we're interested in being able to combine the two and make pellets and chaff available for the stock. And we believe that they'll do very well on that, the fat lambs we've got at the moment.

We're really keen to try that but we can't do that until the Government basically approves the use of hemp as a human consumption, which has been approved in many other parts around the world.

SEAN MURPHY: Hemp growers are strictly monitored and their crops are tested regularly to ensure they have low THC levels but growers say there's an imbalance between compliance and technical advice and support.

ANDREW KAVASILAS: For instance in New South Wales the hemp issue is being handled by Invasive Species Department of the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries.

That's a department that's in the business of eradicating plants not fostering an industry to catch on to what the rest of the world is doing.

In compliance and regulation, yeah, they'll be out there, they'll be testing your plants, they'll tell you what you can't do - but in terms of any support to make representations to the minister, it's just not there.

SEAN MURPHY: The New South Wales Government says it's planning a round table meeting with the hemp industry's major players in the coming months to formulate a strategic plant.

Leon Minos says it's the kind of support that could create a thriving local industry and see Ashford prosper again as it did during the heyday of the tobacco industry.

LEON MINOS: Obviously we need to promote it in the area and get the community on board and allow the farmers to be able to have enough crops and that growing to cater for the market. And eventually get a processing plant of some sort in Ashford so we can create some employment for the future, and for the town, and sort of turn things around.

We've lost a lot of industry, lost the coal mine and the power station, tobacco industry - so it's basically a retirement village. Old people are good but we need some young people too.

And we'll need to be able to keep them around if they have the will to stay.

NY judge with cancer makes case for marijuana

Published: May 20, 2012 11:10 AM
By REUTERS




A cancer-stricken judge in New York has become an unlikely voice in support of legalizing the use of medical marijuana with the admission that he smokes pot to ease the side effects of his treatments.

Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Gustin Reichbach, who is being treated for pancreatic cancer, wrote in a New York Times article on Thursday that he had been using marijuana provided by friends at "great personal risk" to help him cope with the nausea, sleeplessness and loss of appetite from chemotherapy treatments.

"This is not a law-and-order issue; it is a medical and a human rights issue," wrote Reichbach, 65, who has spent 21 years on the bench in Kings County Supreme Court and continues to hear cases even as he receives cancer treatment.

In the past, admitting to taking a few puffs of marijuana has been enough to derail some judges' careers. U.S. appeals court Judge Douglas Ginsburg saw his nomination for the U.S. Supreme Court go up in smoke in 1987 after admitting he had used marijuana several times in the 1960s and 1970s.

In 2011, a Georgia judge was removed from the bench for various infractions, including publicly admitting to smoking pot regularly.

New York is not among the U.S. 16 states and the District of Columbia that allow medical marijuana. Cannabis remains an illegal narcotic under federal law.

Under New York's Code for Judicial Conduct, judges are required to "respect and comply with the law." First-time possession of less than 25 grams of marijuana is punishable by a $100 maximum fine.

Although Reichbach's editorial amounts to an admission he broke the law, his story is more likely to elicit admiration than condemnation, judicial ethics experts said.

"It's brave and wonderful, but it's heart-wrenching," said Ellen Yaroshefsky, a law professor at the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law. "There are key moments in history where a judge makes a bold stand. This is one of the moments, and we should be proud of it."

LEGAL CONSEQUENCES UNCLEAR

In New York, disciplinary actions involving judges are handled by the state's Commission on Judicial Conduct, which reviews allegations of criminal activity and other wrongdoing and decides on an appropriate reprimand. That could range from a confidential cautionary letter to dismissal, although more serious forms of punishment require approval from the state's chief judge.

Robert Tembeckjian, counsel for the commission, declined to say whether any inquiry could or would be opened into Reichbach's statements.

"Information relating to the conduct of judges that appears in newspapers is routinely reviewed by the commission," Tembeckjian said.

The Brooklyn district attorney's office did not immediately comment on whether any action was being contemplated against the judge. But first-time possession of a small amount of marijuana is classified only as a civil offense.

A spokesman for the state court system, David Bookstaver, also declined to address whether Reichbach might face consequences for the editorial, saying only that "everyone's thoughts in the court system are with Justice Reichbach as he battles a very serious disease."

One potential conflict that may arise from Reichbach's comments is his ability to hear cases involving marijuana possession, said Monroe Freedman, a law professor at Hofstra University.

"He has admitted to unlawful conduct," Freedman said. "Ordinarily, that could be a problem, but it's a very narrow, specific situation and I would hope nothing would come of it that would be adverse to the judge."<

Support for medical marijuana legislation is gaining support among New Yorkers. A poll from Siena Research Institute released on Wednesday found 57 percent of New Yorkers supported establishing a legal framework for allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana for cancer, chronic pain and other illnesses.

On Tuesday, an Assembly committee approved medical marijuana legislation, and the Democratic-controlled Assembly appears poised to pass it for the third time in five years. A spokesman for the state Senate Republican majority said that chamber was unlikely to act on the measure this year.


Source: http://newyork.newsday.com/news/new-y ... e-for-marijuana-1.3728853

The endocannabinoid signaling system is composed of the cannabinoid receptors; their endogenous ligands, the endocannabinoids; the enzymes that produce and inactivate the endocannabinoids; and the endocannabinoid transporters. The endocannabinoids are a new family of lipidic signal mediators, which includes amides, esters, and ethers of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids. Endocannabinoids signal through the same cell surface receptors that are targeted by Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9THC), the active principles of cannabis sativa preparations.

The biosynthetic pathways for the synthesis and release of endocannabinoids are still rather uncertain. Unlike neurotransmitter molecules that are typically held in vesicles before synaptic release, endocannabinoids are synthesized on demand within the plasma membrane. Once released, they travel in a retrograde direction and transiently suppress presynaptic neurotransmitter release through activation of cannabinoid receptors.

The endocannabinoid signaling system is being found to be involved in an increasing number of pathological conditions. In the brain, endocannabinoid signaling is mostly inhibitory and suggests a role for cannabinoids as therapeutic agents in central nervous system (CNS) disease. Their ability to modulate synaptic efficacy has a wide range of functional consequences and provides unique therapeutic possibilities.

www.kingstoncompassion.org

Watch full film on youtube here here: http://www.youtube.com/movie/cocaine-unwrapped
or watch on journeyman here: http://vodsite.journeyman.tv/store?p=4821
For downloads and more information visit: http://www.journeyman.tv/?lid=63214

From the first frame this definitive documentary ties the blithe recreational use of cocaine, "a bit of good fun", to the global realities of its "dirty supply chain". With unprecedented access to all the major players in the War on Drugs, from Presidents to drug mules, Cocaine Unwrapped challenges preconceptions and begs compassion.

Poll Shows 74% of Americans Support Medical Marijuana


National Poll Reveals Unpopularity of Obama Administration Interference In Medical Marijuana States

In a just-released poll conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, three quarters of American voters -- 74 percent -- want the Obama administration to respect individual state medical marijuana laws.

Only 15 percent of voters nationwide support using federal resources to arrest and prosecute those who are acting in compliance with their state medical marijuana laws.

The poll informed voters that medical marijuana is legal with a doctor's recommendation in 16 states as well as the District of Columbia, and in some of those states it is legal for licensed and tightly regulated individuals to grow and sell marijuana to qualifying patients. Respondents were then asked if President Obama should respect the medical marijuana laws in these states, or continue to use federal resources to arrest and prosecute individuals who are acting in compliance with state medical marijuana laws.

"These results are consistent with the clear and growing body of evidence that documents substantial voter support for the legalization of medical marijuana," said Larry Harris, a principal with Mason-Dixon Polling & Research.

Support for keeping the federal government out of state medical marijuana issues was universal across all demographics. With respect to political affiliation, 75 percent of Democrats, 67 percent of Republicans, and, notably 79 percent of Independents said that President Obama should respect state medical marijuana laws.

Even among the least supportive group (those identified as over 65 years of age), 64 percent were in favor of respecting state law.

"The results of this survey demonstrate that there is virtually no support in the country for the Obama administration's crackdown on state medical marijuana laws," said Steve Fox, director of government relations for the Marijuana Policy Project. "Across all demographic and ideological groups, the American people strongly believe the president should respect state medical marijuana laws, as he promised he would when he campaigned to be president.

"It is clearly time for President Obama to stand up to the members of his administration who are carrying out the morally wrong and politically unpopular policy of denying patients safe access to this beneficial medicine," Fox said.

The nationwide poll of 1,000 registered likely voters was conducted May 7 to 11, 2012, and commissioned by the Marijuana Policy Project.

The full poll and demographic breakdown can be viewed here [PDF]

Sugar can make you dumb, US scientists warn

Eating too much sugar can eat away at your brainpower, according to US scientists who published a study showing how a steady diet of high-fructose corn syrup sapped lab rats' memories.

Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) fed two groups of rats a solution containing high-fructose corn syrup - a common ingredient in processed foods - as drinking water for six weeks.

One group of rats was supplemented with brain-boosting omega-3 fatty acids in the form of flaxseed oil and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), while the other group was not.

Before the sugar drinks began, the rats were enrolled in a five-day training session in a complicated maze. After six weeks on the sweet solution, the rats were then placed back in the maze to see how they fared.

"The DHA-deprived animals were slower, and their brains showed a decline in synaptic activity," said Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, a professor of neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

"Their brain cells had trouble signaling each other, disrupting the rats' ability to think clearly and recall the route they'd learned six weeks earlier."

A closer look at the rat brains revealed that those who were not fed DHA supplements had also developed signs of resistance to insulin, a hormone that controls blood sugar and regulates brain function.

"Because insulin can penetrate the blood-brain barrier, the hormone may signal neurons to trigger reactions that disrupt learning and cause memory loss," Gomez-Pinilla said.

In other words, eating too much fructose could interfere with insulin's ability to regulate how cells use and store sugar, which is necessary for processing thoughts and emotions.

"Insulin is important in the body for controlling blood sugar, but it may play a different role in the brain, where insulin appears to disturb memory and learning," Gomez-Pinilla said.

"Our study shows that a high-fructose diet harms the brain as well as the body. This is something new."

High-fructose corn syrup is commonly found in soda, condiments, applesauce, baby food and other processed snacks.

The average American consumes more than 40 pounds (18 kilograms) of high-fructose corn syrup per year, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

While the study did not say what the equivalent might be for a human to consume as much high-fructose corn syrup as the rats did, researchers said it provides some evidence that metabolic syndrome can affect the mind as well as the body.

"Our findings illustrate that what you eat affects how you think," said Gomez-Pinilla.

"Eating a high-fructose diet over the long term alters your brain's ability to learn and remember information. But adding omega-3 fatty acids to your meals can help minimise the damage."

The study appeared in the Journal of Physiology.


Source: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/lifes ... -warn-20120516-1ypox.html

I just sent this letter to Tanya Plibersek, Federal Minister for Health.

Dear Minister, I am writing to you to lend support to a submission made to you by Dr Andrew Katelaris (see below), regarding the use of hemp seed for human consumption here in Australia.

Minister, I am concerned that Australians are being deprived of what must be considered a super food, because of undue pressure being placed on the Australian Government by the United States as part of its global War on Drugs. To say approval for hemp seed should be withheld because it would send the wrong message, is madness. To see Australia submit this way to US intervention shames me.

Dr Katelaris raises some serious questions about the Board hearing his application. There seems in my view to be some collusion among the members, who have vested interests in keeping hemp seed off the market for human consumption.

Minister, I ask you now. Do you not feel that this issue is being dealt with in a fair and proper manner, with particular regard to the necessity that this super food be made immediately available for human consumption in Australia?
How many of the Board members have any qualification or interest in the health aspects of food? How many come from a public health background?

Are you satisfied that the time taken to deal with this matter is exhaustedly long winded and politically delayed?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you

Mark


Hon. Tanya Plibersek
Minister for Health

I write as a matter of urgency on the subject of my current FSANZ application A1039, to have hemp seed licensed as a human food. This was lodged on 4th December, 2009 with the statutory process beginning on 3rd November, 2010 with an expected completion date in August 2011.

The scientific analysis and safety study confirmed the assertions made in the application that hemp seed is a nutritious and beneficial food. However, the assessment report was not published until 6th November, already beyond the proper completion date. The report contained a draft copy of the proposed amendment to the code that struck a fair balance between regulatory factors and industry.

The application was further delayed by a request for a second round of submissions and when the FSANZ Board met recently, rather than signing off on the approval report as would be reasonably expected, it called for further information on potential issues with false positive saliva tests and investigating whether the permitted levels of THC be further reduced than was demonstrated to be necessary by the scientific study. Australia is the last country on Earth to accept hemp seed as a human food and no problems from overseas have been reported to FSANZ. I met with Dean Stockwell to discuss the matter, but he was unable to explain the necessity of the further delay or the importance of the questions which are the cause of the delay. I had requested silent observer status at the Board meeting, permitted under their protocol, but this was refused. I have requested the briefing papers and minutes but that is still pending.

I was disturbed to see that the Department, under your predecessor, had made a submission in opposition to a change in the code. They received advice from a lawyer Chris Reid, who stated that so doing would be in breach of our treaty obligations. Mr Reid was unable to respond when I reminded him we were the only country yet to take this step. Hemp seed and hemp seed products are found on supermarket shelves in the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe and have been for some years.

Federal government studies have indicated that most Australian schoolchildren get less than the optimal quantity of omega 3 and here we see the government, the supposed guardian of public health and welfare placing spurious obstacles in the path of the industrial hemp industry in Australia. It is of great concern to me that the FSANZ Board has obviously been stacked with flunkies from the processed food industries. Please check for yourself. How many of the Board members have any qualification or interest in the health aspects of food? How many come from a public health background?

Can we expect better from your administration? I certainly hope so. While the natural hemp food industry is held back the federal government has allocated tens of millions of dollars to Nutec and CSIRO in an attempt to increase the omega 3 level of canola. To spend millions of public funds on speculative genetic engineering, of questionable health benefit which will only profit transnational corporations, while a highly palatable natural product is delayed for spurious reasons, is not acting in the public interest. Rates of obesity and diabetes in Australia are escalating rather than declining and much of what is offered as food in this country has a demonstrably adverse effect on health, yet it managed to get past the FSANZ Board.

Are you more committed to public health than your predecessor? For the sake of the neurological and mental development of the youth of Australia I certainly hope so. I would appreciate your review of the FSANZ process to date as a matter of urgency and the provision of ministerial oversight on the propriety of the process, now many months overdue and nowhere near finality.

I can be contacted at Andrew.katelaris@gmail.com or on 0414 306 306 if you require any additional information on which to base your assessment. Of course we would be pleased to provide face to face briefing on the subject at a time convenient to yourself. I would appreciate an acknowledgement of receipt of this missive. I trust that you have the health and welfare of this and future generations of Australians as your principle concern, as we in the hemp food movement do. ,

Sincerely,

Dr Andrew Katelaris MD