CALL FOR INDUSTRIAL HEMP TO BE LEGALISED FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION

FEDERAL Lyons MP Eric Hutchinson wants the Australian New Zealand authority responsible for food standards to legalise industrial hemp for human consumption.

Mr Hutchinson has again called on Food Standards Australia New Zealand to make the decision on hemp for food which will enable the two countries to catch up with the rest of the world on this issue.

Mr Hutchinson said in Federal Parliament this week that Australia was one of only two countries left in the world which did not allow the growing of industrial hemp for human consumption.

“The tragic irony is that Australians can buy imported hemp food products here in Australia but can’t buy Australian equivalents,’’ Mr Hutchinson told Parliament.

He took the opportunity to raise the subject of legalising hemp for food during debate on a new Bill to amend the Act that governs Food Standards Australia New Zealand to improve the clarity and operation of the legislation after its regulatory board again rejected application to legalise hemp for food earlier this year.

“I first raised the subject of industrial hemp and the unacceptably long delay nationally in deciding whether to legalise its cultivation for human consumption las year,’’ he said.

“At that stage producers in Tasmania but also in other Australian state and New Zealand had been campaigning for the development of this industry for more than a decade.”

Australia and New Zealand’s reluctance to legalise hemp for human consumption goes against the advice of the national and international science communities and the best advice from leading hemp growers like Canada.

Mr Hutchinson said that the regulatory body’s concerns about the safety of industrial hemp for human consumption had been answered long ago during the almost decade long campaign by farmers to being able to develop the crop.

The difference between marijuana and industrial hemp is that the THC concentration is significantly lower in industrial hemp with a THC concentration of less than three per cent.

Mr Hutchinson said that the hold-up in Australia and New Zealand joining the rest of the world and legalising the cultivation of hemp for human consumption was the decision needed from the representatives of each of the state’s health ministers and the federal health minister.

He is concerned that bureaucratic bungling has held up the sensible and practical decision to allow the growth of industrial hemp in Australia for food consumption.
Federal Lyons MHR Eric Hutchinson