WHIFFS OF HYPOCRISY IN HEMP PROMOTION

Last week, The Body Shop, the socially progressive cosmetics franchise, launched a new line of skin care products made with an industrial grade hemp, the non-mind altering sister herb of marijuana.

Packaged in slick silver tins, the new hemp bath oils, moisturizers and soaps promise, like most Body Shop products, to soothe the skin while protecting rain forests, saving endangered species and providing jobs for oppressed people.

But the new hemp line almost didn’t make it on to shelves here. Just before the launch, Health Canada threatened to raid stores that carried the products. Health Canada - which is currently studying the risk of long-term marijuana use - recanted after a visit from The Body Shop’s head chemist, who showed that the products contained less than the prohibited amounts of THC, the active ingredient in smokeable hemp.

There’s no denying hemp’s value. It’s a hardy, naturally pest-resistant, an excellent rotation crop that’s much easier on the environment than cotton. It can grow in just about any climate and can be used as fuel or food and in textiles and building materials. In the past, the plant was widely grown and utilized - as a pro-hemp activists like to point out, Rembrandt and van Gogh painted on hemp canvases, the first pair of Levi’s were made of hemp cloth and the Gutenberg Bible was printed on hemp paper in 1455.

What’s new about hemp is that it’s so hip - it has become a cause celebre for hippies, environmentalists and liberal yuppies. It’s been made into sneakers by Adidas and BMW is exploring hemp’s use in the dashboards of its cars. There are hemp magazines, websites and advocacy groups. The plant even has a movie star spokesperson in actor Woody Harrelson, who work a hemp tuxedo made by designer and supporter Giorgio Armani to the Academy Awards.

Compared to this, Health Canada and other regulatory bodies look downright square and regressive in their efforts to ban a plant which has such Earth-saving potential solely on the grounds that it may encourage or glamourize drug use.

Health Canada can rest easy - there’s little glamour to be had in hemp. The clothing made from the product is as sexy as sack-cloth.

(Ed. note: There really are some very elegant hemp clothes on the market now, but there are those that still look like hippie rejects.)

The skin care products, while effective, stink like a dirty bong. Hemp is way too granola-wholesome to pose anything of a threat to vulnerable teens, who are, apparently, just one 100 per cent hemp T-shirt away from heroin addiction. Reefer madness, this ain’t.

Promoting hemp through hip, drug-related colloquialisms while reiterating tired old stereotypes about a drug that’s less harmful than alcohol is a cheap and hypocritical position. It’s a little like saying you read Playboy for the articles - or that you never inhaled.