TNAG-1709-FCO40-2384-Hong-Kong-narcotics-offences-and-drug-trafficking-1988 — Page 172

-2-

be used to grow cannabis.

With a view to allowing cannabis seed to be used in Chinese herbal medicine and to be re-exported through Hong Kong without danger of diversion to the illicit market we examined the possibility of controlling viable cannabis seed whilst allowing non-viable seed to be used locally and re-exported without controls.

5.

Cannabis seed can be rendered non-viable by boiling, baking, frying or grinding. But if the seeds are boiled, their medicinal value as an ingredient in herbal medicine will be lost. A further difficulty is that baked or fried seeds are indistinguish- able from seeds which have not been so treated. Customs and Police Officers would be unable readily to detect any possibly viable seeds. Samples of seeds would have to be sent to the Government Laboratory for germination tests. The public would also be lef with no guarantee as to whether the seed they bought was in fact non-viable.

6.

Grinding, on the other hand, would make it easy to identify possibly viable, that is to say, unground, seed. The problem with grinding is that oil would be expressed which would reduce the medicinal value of the seed and the ground seed would become rancid unless special storage arrangements were made. Unground seeds would still have to be sent to the Government Laboratory for germination tests.

7.

cannabis seed

If the precise method of rendering non-viable were left to the trade to decide, the importation of purportedly boiled, baked or fried seed would create enforcement difficulties for the Customs and Police in ensuring that the seed had been so treated. If the law prescribed that only ground cann- abis seed would be regarded as non-viable, the provision would be considered an undue intrusion into trade practice and would seriously diminish the utility of the commodity.

8.

Given the practical difficulties ir drawing a distinction between viable and non-viable cannabis seed, we came to the conclusion that it would not be practicable to control viable cannabis seed whilst allowing non-viable seed to be free from controls.

Argument for allowing cannabis seed to be free from control in Hong Kong

9.

As explained above, measures to place cannabis seed under international control would create difficulties for Hong Kong. Provided that the enforcement agencies remain vigilant against any illicit cultivation of cannabis plants and as long as the law prescribes severe penalties for possessing, using, trafficking or dealing in cannabis we feel that there may be no reed to have a. provision in the law which would make the possession of cannabis seed an offence. The definition of cannabis would be:

10.

"Any plant, or any part of any plant, of the

excluding the of plant genus cannabis.

cannabis which contains tetrahydro cannabinol but The 1961 Convention specifically excludes cannabis seeds when not accompanied by the flowering and fruiting tops of the cannabis plant. According to United Nations sources,

/cannabis