What’s the deal, here? Hawaii’s Congressional Representative Cynthia Henry Thielen pushes for and receives Industrial Hemp privileges for her state — even as the DEA issues an order banning hemp-food products from store shelves.

From The Washington Post:

[…] the DEA has ordered any food containing hemp off store shelves by early next month. Soaps, cosmetics and clothes made with hemp may still be sold unless and until there is evidence that the hemp in such products can be absorbed by the body.

The DEA’s order, issued Oct. 9, is the latest twist in an ongoing battle between drug-control advocates and a growing number of farmers, entrepreneurs and drug-reform advocates such as “Cheers” actor Woody Harrelson who want to legalize industrial hemp.

Well, with all due respect, who really cares what Woody Harrelson wants. That’s not the point, is it? Clearly, though, there are more pressing reasons why this order, which goes into effect February 6, is equal parts ludicrous and dangerous:

the largest exporter of hemp seed to the United States (it is illegal to grow industrial hemp in most of this country), Kenex Ltd. of Canada, is to notify Washington tomorrow that it intends, under the North America Free Trade Agreement, to seek compensation of at least $20 million as a result of the DEA’s action.

‘The level of THC [tetrahydrocannabinol, the hallucinogenic substance found in marijuana] in hemp seeds is minuscule,’ said John W. Roulac, founder and president of Nutiva, whose California company sells hemp bars, chips and cans of shelled hemp seeds.

Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), said the DEA’s decision ‘is the kind of thing that undermines the credibility of the so-called war on drugs. There is no basis for the complete prohibition. The amount of THC in these food products are so infinitesimally small — are addicts are going to carry around barrels of pretzels? . . . This is from the same administration that says it’s okay to have more arsenic in water than it is to have hemp in cereal.’

But the DEA defends its actions. Officials say “the issue is simple. The ban is required by law”:

‘Many Americans do not know that hemp and marijuana are both parts of the same plant and that hemp cannot be produced without producing marijuana,’ DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson said in a statement announcing the ban.

Under the 1970 Controlled Substances Act, the DEA said, it has no choice but to ban food with hemp seed.

Whatever. Next up for the DEA? The War on Poppy Bagels, followed by the obligatory statement that the law demands it…