The Body Shop
1998 The Toronto Star/
Rachel Giese
- 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.
Hemp isn’t a new product in the Canadian market. Health food and other specialty stores have been carrying hemp-based clothing, furniture and paper goods for the past few years. But recently, a hemp store in British Columbia came under attack. Officials from The Body Shop say they’ve experienced problems stocking the new line in other countries, too.
See
French Police Seize Body Shop Hemp Products and Promotional Material;
Claim They "Encourage Drug Use."- 2 Articles
What a panic over an herb that proponents call a miracle plant. Anita Roddick, the hyperbole-prone founder of The Body Shop International, said at a press conference that hemp "should win a Nobel Prize."
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 Mercedes 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.
Even more annoying, however, than governmental prudishness are many hemp activists themselves and, in this case in particular, The Body Shop.
The company’s press bumpf is filled with facts about hemp, quotes from scientists, archival photos of happy hemp farmers and plenty of cheeky puns: "Roll yourself in hemp fashions!" "High time for changes!" "Hope not dope!"
The product itself bears the iconic image of the five-fronded marijuana leaf - the very symbol of the "legalize it" movement. And yet, The Body Shop is quick to distance itself from marijuana the drug, even going so far as to use an angel image to represent hemp, and the images of a devil, a criminal and an evil alien to represent pot.
This is particularly ironic in light of Jim Wakeford’s recent failure in his fight to smoke pot legally to help with his AIDS-related nausea and loss of appetite.
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Canadian Government Says Man With AIDS Doesn’t Need Medical Marijuana; Judge Promises Ruling Soon - 2 Articles
It’s certainly a more serious battle than the right to use hand-cream, and one The Body Shop could have used its high profile to support, but didn’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.
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