NORML News of the Week 9/4/2008

This Week's News from NORML


1) Ingestion Of Commercially Available Hemp Products Unlikely To Trigger Positive Drug Test


2) United Kingdom: Pot Potency Fell Following Cannabis Downgrade


3) Hawaii: Big Island Voters To Decide "Lowest Law Enforcement Priority" Initiative



1) Ingestion Of Commercially Available Hemp Products Unlikely To Trigger Positive Drug Test

Rockville, MD: Commercially available ingestible hemp products, such as oils and nutrition bars, are unlikely to contain significant enough quantities of THC to trigger a positive drug test, according to findings published in the July/August issue of the Journal of Analytical Toxicology.

Investigators at the Armed Forces Medical Examiners Office in Maryland assessed 79 separate hemp products for the presence of THC. (THC found in manufactured products is present via contamination from resin produced in the leaves and buds that come in contact with the seed shell.)

Products that were aqueous based (such as hemp tea or hemp beer) possessed trace levels of THC present (below 2.5 ng/ml) while several hemp oil products tested positive for higher amounts. However, these amounts, on average, were far lower than the levels of THC detected in similar products 10 to 15 years ago - when their ingestion was linked to positive drug test results.

More than half of the products tested possessed no detectable levels of THC.

"Results of the hemp products tested indicate the amount of THC present in commercially available products is significantly less in products available today than those reported in the past," authors concluded. "As a result, the probability that these products will produce urine THC metabolite levels greater than the [US federal guidelines] confirmation cutoff of 15 ng/ml is significantly reduced and should not be considered as a realistic cause for a positive urine analysis result."

Similar analysis conducted prior to 2001 found that certain hemp oil products contained sufficient THC levels to result in a positive drug test. Following these results, the Hemp Industries Association instituted so-called "Test Pledge" standards, a self-regulation program lowering trace THC levels in their products to levels that would no longer interfere with workplace drug testing regulations.

For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director, at (202) 483-5500 or Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director. Full text of the study, "Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol content of commercially available hemp products," appears in the Journal of Analytical Toxicology.




2) United Kingdom: Pot Potency Fell Following Cannabis Downgrade

London, United Kingdom: The average potency of THC in seized samples of British cannabis fell 25 percent between 2004 and 2007 - following Parliament's decision to downgrade the drug's possession to a non-arrestable offense, according to data collected by the UK's Forensic Science Service and published by The Guardian newspaper.

Marijuana's THC content fell from 12.7 percent in 2004 to 9.5 percent in 2007 the newspaper reported.

In May, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith announced plans to upgrade cannabis possession to an arrestable offense punishable by up to five years in jail, claiming that the drug's potency had increased "nearly threefold." Just prior to Smith's announcement, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown claimed, "[T]he cannabis on the streets is now of a lethal quality."

Smith's decision contradicted the recommendations of Britain's Advisory Panel on Drugs, which noted that marijuana use by young people had fallen approximately 20 percent since 2004.

A spokesperson for the Forensic Science Service claimed to The Guardian that the agency did not analyze enough samples to accurately gauge the average potency of British cannabis.

In June, a University of Mississippi report alleged that US potency had grown to record levels. However, a close analysis of the report revealed that the average THC in domestically grown marijuana - which comprises the bulk of the US market - is less than five percent, a figure that's remained unchanged for nearly a decade.

For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director, at (202) 483-5500 or Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director.



3) Hawaii: Big Island Voters To Decide "Lowest Law Enforcement Priority" Initiative

Hilo, HI: Hawaii County voters will decide this November on a local initiative that seeks to make marijuana law enforcement the county's "lowest priority."

The County Council voted 5-4 to let voters decide the issue after proponents of the measure failed to gather a sufficient number of signatures from registered voters to place the proposal on the November ballot.

The measure would direct law enforcement to make activities related to the investigation and arrest of adults who possess up to 24 ounces of cannabis and/or 24 plants their lowest priority.

Passage of the measure would also forbid the County Council from accepting government funding to promote federal marijuana eradication efforts on the Big Island.

Voters have enacted similar 'deprioritization' initiatives in Seattle, Washington; Oakland, California; Columbia, Missouri; and Denver, Colorado.

For more information see http://projectpeacefulsky.org/


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