Body Shop hopes for new hemp law

Body Shop executives said yesterday they were optimistic the Government would amend drug laws and legalise hemp products.

The cosmetics retailer withdrew its hemp-seed oil based products last week after the Government declared they were illegal.

The hemp plant is related to marijuana and contains minimal traces of tetra hydro cannabinol, the ingredient that gives the drug its potency, according to company chemist Dr Barbara Brockway.

'Never in our minds was that this was something that could be connected with marijuana,' she said, despite advertising which portrayed the distinctive five-fingered cannabis leaf.

Dr Brockway said the image resembled a hand, designed to emphasise the hemp moisturisers' use as hand cream. 'We were so upset and surprised that the product was associated with drugs,' she said after meeting Narcotics Bureau officers.

Users would have to eat 28,000 pieces of The Body Shop's hemp soap to achieve a mind-altering effect, she said.