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Tag: hemp legalization

  • Would-Be Pot Thieves Accidentally Steal Pile Of Hemp

    Would-Be Pot Thieves Accidentally Steal Pile Of Hemp

    One of the accused was reported to have been boasting to fellow patrons at a local tavern about the number of plants he had stolen.

    Six Wisconsin men are facing felony charges for stealing or damaging what they believed to be a bumper crop of marijuana plants but were revealed to be industrial-grade hemp.

    Two of the six alleged thieves were caught by employees of a state-licensed hemp-growing operation in Kenosha County and were detained until law enforcement arrived. The other four defendants were either apprehended nearby or arrested after an investigation by the county sheriff’s office.

    Hemp has become a newly prevalent crop in Wisconsin after the passage of a 2017 law that allowed the production and processing of the plant for industrial use as well as the production of CBD oil.

    The Kenosha News detailed a criminal complaint regarding the thefts, which stated that on September 15, the property owner and two employees discovered two of the aforementioned individuals in their field at 3 a.m. The two individuals, who were carrying a suitcase and duffel bag, were held at gunpoint until law enforcement arrived.

    Thieves Hit The Same Crop Twice In One Month

    A third individual, who had reportedly dropped off the other two, was arrested nearby, while the remaining three alleged thieves were arrested after an investigation by the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department for having reportedly stolen plants earlier in the same month, which prompted the property owner to take watch over his crop.

    The latter three defendants had been seen loading a large pile of plants into an SUV parked near the field. According to the complaint, one of the accused thieves was reported to have been boasting to fellow patrons at a local tavern about the number of plants he had stolen.

    The criminal complaint claimed that three of the defendants had taken as many as 30 plants during the first raid on the farm, but in the second incident, only five plants were reported as damaged. 

    According to the property owner, each plant produces one to three pounds of hemp that sells for $300 to $400 per pound.

    “Hemp” and “marijuana” are terms given to varieties of cannabis plants that differ according to the amount of THC, the psychoactive compound that produces a euphoric effect or “high”—by dry weight.

    Plants classified as hemp contain 0.3% or less of THC, while those labeled marijuana contain more than 0.3% THC. Hemp also contains another chemical compound, cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive compound that is reported to have medicinal properties. 

    Previously Illegal Hemp Now Legal to Grow In All 50 States

    The Farm Bill of 2014 marked a turning point in the cultivation of hemp, which had been made illegal by the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. The Farm Bill officially defined hemp by its THC content, which allowed for increased growth for research and industrial usage.

    The 2018 Farm Bill made hemp legal to grow in all 50 states, which Wisconsin had adopted through the passage of its own act the previous year.

    According to the Kenosha News, Wisconsin currently has more than 1,400 licensed hemp growers and nearly 700 processors, with 39 in Kenosha County alone. Those farms take up 239 acres across the county, and are easy to spot—which made the thefts all the more baffling to Sgt. Christopher Hannah of the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department.

    “If it’s an illegal marijuana operation, it’s not going to be growing along the roadside for everyone to see,” he said. “The person is going to have illegal activity is not going to do it in plain view.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Hemp Legalization Was "Lucky" Break For Man Facing Marijuana Charges 

    Hemp Legalization Was "Lucky" Break For Man Facing Marijuana Charges 

    A Texas man was let off the hook because the state could not prove whether he had pot or hemp.

    When Donte Chazz Williams went to court earlier this month for charges related to his possession of two grams of marijuana, he was afraid that he would be going to jail, or at the very least end up on probation. 

    Instead, a Houston-area district attorney dismissed the charges against Williams, scribbling a note that the plants seized from Williams’ car could be either marijuana—which is illegal—or hemp, which is legal in most of the country due to changes to the 2018 Farm Bill. Distinguishing which plants are psychoactive and which are not would require expensive and time-consuming lab testing that the DA wasn’t interested in pursuing.

    “I feel lucky, for real,” Williams told NBC News. “Now I don’t have to do anything but go find myself a job.”

    Many defendants like Williams have been surprised to find that their marijuana-related charges are being dropped, because without lab tests, law enforcement can no longer prove that a substance is marijuana and not legal hemp. 

    “That’s crazy,” Williams said. “It actually blew my mind.”

    Prior to 2018, since both marijuana and hemp were illegal, proving that something came from the cannabis plant (the species that marijuana and hemp both fall under) involved a simple analysis. 

    Burden Of Proof

    However, now that hemp—defined by the government as having no more than 0.3% of THC—is legal, law enforcement is faced with the task of proving how much THC is in a plant, which is a much more involved lab process. 

    “Everyone is struggling here,” said Peter Stout, president of the Houston Forensic Science Center in Texas. 

    Because of that, many states and counties have stopped prosecuting minor marijuana offenses, to avoid the expense and time needed for analysis. 

    Duffie Stone, president of the National District Attorneys Association, said distinguishing between hemp and marijuana is a nationwide issue. “This problem will exist in just about every state you talk to,” he said. 

    Phil Archer, a state attorney in Florida, said this confusion is unavoidable if hemp is legal. Archer no longer pursues marijuana cases, ever since Florida’s new hemp law took effect July 1st. 

    “If you want to have a hemp industry, there’s no way to get around this issue,” he said. “I would say a majority of circuits are handling it in same way.”

    For defendants and defense attorneys, including Mitch Stone, president of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the change to hemp policies has provided an easy defense. 

    “State attorneys don’t want to be dragged into court by defense lawyers to defend a case where they can’t prove that their decisions were lawful,” he said. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Hemp Confusion Forces Miami & Other Counties To Halt Minor Marijuana Arrests

    Hemp Confusion Forces Miami & Other Counties To Halt Minor Marijuana Arrests

    Police will be required to submit marijuana to state labs for testing in cases that would warrant felony charges.

    A new Florida law that legalized hemp has spurred police and prosecutors in Miami-Dade and other counties in the Sunshine State to halt arrests and cases for minor marijuana possession.

    The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s office announced the decision on August 9, 2019, and added that police will be required to submit marijuana to state labs for testing in cases that would warrant felony charges.

    The county’s new position echoes similar stances take throughout Florida, and as the Miami Herald noted, highlights the challenges faced by law enforcement and lawyers in a state where both hemp and medical marijuana are legal, but recreational marijuana use remains a prosecutable offense.

    Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle outlined the county’s new measures in a three-page memo sent to its police departments, which put a halt on marijuana prosecutions in Miami, as the city’s CBS TV affiliate, WFOR, noted in its coverage.

    Hemp VS Marijuana

    “Since hemp and cannabis both come from the same plant, they look, smell and feel the same,” wrote Rundle in her memo. “There is no way to visually or microscopically distinguish hemp from marijuana.”

    Rundle’s comments address the “odor plus” policy that some police departments employ as a go-ahead for officers to conduct probable cause searches on potential possession suspects. It also underscores another major hurdle for South Florida police: currently, none of the region’s police crime labs are equipped to test for THC, which will require law enforcement to submit cannabis samples to “another DEA-licensed facility for quantitative testing,” as Rundle wrote in the memo.

    Faced with the twin roadblocks, Rundle advised law enforcement agencies, “Since every marijuana case will now require an expert, and necessitate a significant expenditure by the State of Florida, barring exceptional circumstance on a particular case, we will not be prosecuting misdemeanor marijuana possession cases.”

    For many counties and cities in South Florida, this was already the case. As the Miami Herald noted, Miami-Dade and several other cities stopped aggressive prosecution of possession cases several years ago, and have instead implemented “civil citation” programs which levies a fine for minor possession charges.

    Even cases that have been spawned from arrests have been dropped in Miami-Dade if the defendant did not generate any additional charges for a period of at least 60 days.

    Additional counties and cities, including Seminole and Brevard counties and the city of Tallahassee, have adopted similar positions in regard to minor possession charges, and State Rep. Shevrin Jones (D-West Park) hopes to make that stance a statewide law.

    The Miami Herald detailed a proposal filed by his office on August 7 that would reduce penalties for possession charges involving 20 grams or less of cannabis and products that contain 600 mg or less of THC.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Hemp Legalization Complicates Marijuana Prosecutions In Texas

    Hemp Legalization Complicates Marijuana Prosecutions In Texas

    There are only two accredited labs in the state that can determine the difference between hemp and marijuana.

    As more states legalize hemp, prosecutors are dropping marijuana-related cases because of difficulties distinguishing it from marijuana. 

    “Everybody is struggling with this,” Peter Stout told The New York Times. Stout is the president of the Houston Forensic Science Center, a lab that does analysis for law enforcement agencies including the Houston Police Department. 

    What Is The Difference?

    Hemp and marijuana are different strains of the cannabis sativa plant. Under federal law, hemp was legalized as part of the 2018 Farm Bill. The bill described hemp as a cannabis plant containing less than 0.3% THC, the active ingredient in marijuana that gets people high. Many state laws align with this definition. 

    While that distinction is clear legislatively, it remains difficult to determine the difference between marijuana and hemp both by physical appearance and in court. 

    “It’s not different at all,” Bob Gualtieri, sheriff in Florida’s Pinellas County, told the Tampa Bay Times. “I wish it was pink. That would make it easier.”

    In Texas, many prosecutors have dropped or declined to prosecute cases involving marijuana because there are only two labs that are accredited with the state that can determine the difference between marijuana and hemp. Prosecutors who cover Houston, Austin and San Antonio have all stopped pursuing cannabis crimes. 

    Republican lawmakers in Texas recently sent a letter to prosecutors, chastising them for dropping cannabis cases. 

    Understanding The Law

    “Some of you have recently dismissed marijuana possession cases or announced you will not prosecute misdemeanor marijuana possession cases without a lab test,” the letter reads. “Marijuana has not been decriminalized in Texas, and these actions demonstrate a misunderstanding of how H.B. 1325 works.”

    The letter goes on to say that lab tests are not required to prove that a substance is marijuana, not hemp. 

    “Failing to enforce marijuana laws cannot be blamed on legislation that did not decriminalize marijuana in Texas,” the letter reads. 

    However, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said that lab testing “has long been required” to prosecute marijuana cases. 

    Texas lawyer Brandon Ball agreed. “The law is constantly changing on what makes something illegal, based on its chemical makeup,” he said. “It’s important that if someone is charged with something, the test matches what they’re charged with.”

    Even the Drug Enforcement Administration has trouble distinguishing between hemp and marijuana. Earlier this year, the agency put out a call for a device that could properly identify the substance out in the field.

    Seeing a business opportunity, companies are scrambling to make a fast and affordable test to distinguish between the two. Syndicate Alliance is one company in the process of creating a field test kit for determining whether a substance is marijuana or hemp. John Waldheim, COO and co-founder of the company, said that he expects to distribute 30,000 kits before the end of the summer. 

    He said, “It’s like an overnight sensation.”

    View the original article at thefix.com