

The Drug War Chronicle
reports that one of the prisoners freed during the recent
unrest in Egypt was Mostafa Soliman, a dual American/Egyptian
citizen who was arrested on drug trafficking charges and faces a
possible death sentence because there is no Arabic word for
hemp. In December a shipment of nonpsychoactive hemp seed
oil that Soliman was importing into Egypt for his company Health
Harvest attracted official attention because "authorities
translated 'hemp oil' as 'hash oil,' and that's when Soliman's life
took a Kafkaesque turn." In Arabic, the Chronicle says,
"any concoction from the cannabis plant, whether high THC or low
THC, is simply called cannabis." In a telephone interview, Soliman
told the Chronicle that "even the Egyptian drug
enforcement people told me they knew it wasn't hash oil, but they
said they had to follow procedure."