What do 40,000 pounds of birdseed have in common with Americas war on drugs?
Nothing, says Jean Laprise, an Ontario farmer who shipped the birdseed to his American customers, only to have it seized when it crossed the U.S.-Canadian border. Everything, say the U.S. government and its critics, but for altogether different reasons. The birdseed, nearly 20 tons of it, has been locked in a Detroit warehouse since Aug. 9, when it was impounded by the U.S. Customs Service. The reason: the seed consists of sterilized seeds processed from industrial hemp. Laprise has found himself mired in one of the more bizarre episodes of Washington’s campaign to curb illicit drug use. Hemp and marijuana are different varieties of the same plant species, Cannabis sativa, though the government rarely distinguishes between them. “They say it’s a tractor-trailer full of drugs,” Laprise said. “We say it’s a tractor-trailer full of birdseed.” But while smoking marijuana delivers a psychoactive high, smoking hemp gives only a headache. Tetrahydrocannabinol, known as THC, the psychoactive c
