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Fearing that easy availability of hemp seed oil could undermine the well-established United States Air Force drug testing program, officials are banning consumption of that substance.

Although the Air Force is the first branch of the military to take this step, an Air Force spokesperson said the Defense Department is considering instituting a military-wide ban on consumption of hemp seed oil.

In a press statement, the Air Force said urinalysis became an effective weapon in the 1980s for keeping drugs out of the military. But the healthy force of drug-free professionals could be compromised by hemp oil, which is widely touted as a healthy dietary supplement.

The Air Force in January banned the use of hemp seed oil products because they contain tetrahydro-cannabinol, or THC, the psychoative ingredient in the marijuana plant. Although it is illegal to grow marijuana in the United States, it is legal to import hemp products into the country. Hemp oil is found in salad dressings, dietary supplements, cosmetics, soaps and some snack bars.

Most widely available over-the-counter dietary supplements and other products with hemp seed or seed oil contain some level of THC. Although the level of THC found in the commercial products is not believed to be enough to produce a psychoactive reaction in the body, the levels are high enough to produce positive urinalysis results, the Air Force said. This "effectively interferes with its ability to maintain a drug-free force," the Air Force said.

"We don't want people testing positive and jeopardizing their careers because they swallowed some-thing they may have thought was healthy and good for them," said Lt. Col. Peter Durand of the Air Force Surgeon General's Office.

The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology conducted studies showing the ingestion of products made with hemp seed oil nearly always produces a positive urinalysis.

A spokesperson with the Surgeon General's Office said active-duty, Reserve and Air National Guard members need not be concerned they unknowingly swallowed hemp products because most products are expressly marked and sold in health food stores. She said that a claim that a positive drug test is due to an individual unknowingly ingesting hemp oil would be a matter to raise as a defense before the Air Force judge advocate general's office.