NEW YORK BUST HIGHLIGHTS GROWING CONFUSION OVER HEMP
The CBD craze is leaving the war on drugs a bit dazed and confused. New York police posted on social media last week about what seemed like a significant drug bust: 106 pounds of what officers were convinced was marijuana. As it turned out, it was actually industrial hemp shipped in from a farm in Vermont, complete with the requisite paperwork to prove it.
OWNER ARRESTED WHEN TRYING TO STRAIGHTEN THINGS OUT.
Even though there was paperwork to verify what the substance was, when the owner of the hemp went to the police to get it all straightened out, he was arrested for possession of marijuana. The police stated the product tested positive for THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, thus making it marijuana. As most everyone knows, hemp has an allowable percentage of THC (.3%).
POLICE NOT AT FAULT
The police are only doing their job and enforcing the law as they see it. The confusion surrounding hemp and CBD is the result of conflicting and confusing laws. What would help is certified and standardized testing and documentation that can follow any hemp shipment. Truck loads could be certified, locked and then the police can know the shipment is actually hemp and not marijuana.
IN TIME, THE CHANGES WILL BE MADE.
Eventually, the changes will be made, and all this confusion will be behind us. As CBD becomes more prevalent and as more and more people are finding how beneficial it can be for them, we will see the changes made in the laws. It will take more people contacting the people in congress and in the state legislatures and letting them know how they feel.