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STATE
Federal legalization of hemp creates quandary for US police
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❜❤❝ ❞❢❢❣❥❦♥♦❝✇ ①②❝❢❢
PORTLAND — Federal
legalization of hemp ar-
rived in the U.S. late last
year and expanded an in-
dustry already booming
because of the skyrocket-
ing popularity of CBDs, a
compound in hemp that
many see as a health aid.
But now, just a few
months after Congress
placed the marijuana look-
alike squarely in safe legal
territory, the hemp indus-
try has been unsettled by
an unexpected develop-
ment.
Truckers, now free to
haul hemp from state to
state, have been stopped
and sometimes arrested
by police who can’t tell
whether they have inter-
cepted a legal agricultural
crop or the biggest mari-
juana bust of their careers.
That’s because the only
way to distinguish hemp
and marijuana, which
look and smell alike, is by
measuring their tetrahy-
drocannabinol, or THC,
③④⑤ ⑥⑦⑧⑨⑩❶ ⑤⑥④❷❸ ❹③❺⑨ ❸❹⑨
testing technology to do so
on the spot.
Marijuana, illegal un-
der federal law, has
enough THC to get users
high. Hemp has almost
none — 0.3 percent or
less under U.S. govern-
ment standards — yet
drug-sniffing dogs will
alert on both. Field tests
that officers now use can
detect THC but aren’t
sophisticated enough to
specify whether a ship-
ment is legal hemp or
low-grade illegal pot.
❻④ ③ ❶❼❽④ ⑥❾ ❸❹⑨ ❶❼❽④❼❿➀
cance of the problem, the
U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration earlier this
month put out a request
for information on pri-
vate companies that might
have the technology for
❿⑨➁⑤ ❸⑨❶❸❶ ❶⑨④❶❼❸❼❺⑨ ⑨④⑥➂❽❹
to distinguish between
hemp and marijuana.
“Nobody wants to see
someone in jail for a month
for the wrong thing,” DEA
spokeswoman
Barbara
Carreno said. “To enable
us to do our job, we have
to have something that can
help us distinguish.”
It’s an unanticipated
hiccup for the rapidly
growing hemp industry,
which relies on interstate
trucking to transport
hemp from farms to pro-
cessing labs that extract
the compound cannabi-
diol, or CBD, from the raw
plant material. The pure
CBD powder is then resold
for use in everything from
makeup to smoothies to
pet food.
Kentucky and Oregon
are big producers of hemp,
and much of what they
grow is processed in Col-
orado. Companies that
transport the plant often
drive through Oklahoma
and Idaho, which is where
some arrests have oc-
curred.
Hemp remains illegal
under Idaho law, and law-
makers there are scram-
bling to pass a legaliza-
tion bill. Law enforcement
agencies are urging them
to include guidance on
❿⑨➁⑤ ❸⑨❶❸❶➃
To further complicate
the issue, states that al-
ready have their own hemp
programs must have them
approved by the U.S. De-
partment of Agriculture,
which could take months.
“It’s the greatest ex-
ample of the cart being
put before the horse that
I’ve ever thought of,” said
Grant Loebs, who is on
the board of directors of
the Idaho Prosecuting At-
torneys Association, which
has demanded better test-
ing. “You’re trying to make
hemp legal so farmers can
grow it, but you haven’t
put into place anything
that’s going to keep mari-
juana dealers from taking
advantage of a huge loop-
hole.”
At least three truckers
and two security guards
transporting state-certi-
❿⑨⑤ ❹⑨➄➅ ❹③❺⑨ ➇⑨⑨④ ③⑩➀
rested and charged with
❾⑨➁⑥④➈
⑤⑩➂❽
❸⑩③⑦⑧➉❼④❽➃
Thousands of pounds
worth more than $2 mil-
lion combined after pro-
cessing remain in ware-
houses in Oklahoma and
Idaho as evidence while
the cases play out.
Frank Robison, a Colo-
rado-based attorney spe-
cializing in such cases,
said he has about a half-
dozen clients in similar
situations in other loca-
tions. He declined to pro-
vide more information,
citing his clients’ desire for
privacy.
“What local law enforce-
ment is doing is they’re
❶❸❼➊❼④❽ ③④ ❼④⑤➂❶❸⑩➈ ❸❹③❸
Congress intended to
promote to help Ameri-
can farmers and help the
American economy — not
to make people nervous
that they’re going to get
tossed in jail over a (THC)
discrepancy,” said Robi-
son, who represents one of
the companies involved in
the Oklahoma case.
Robison and others
hope the USDA will work
quickly to create rules
for validating hemp ship-
ments that local law en-
forcement could use in-
stead of relying on THC
way, police could let a
suspicious load through
without arrests and if the
hemp samples come back
high in THC from testing
done in a lab setting, au-
thorities could pursue the
grower or shipper after
the fact.
Andrew Ross, a Marine
who served in Afghanistan
and Iraq, is facing 18 years
to life in Oklahoma if con-
victed after he was arrest-
ed in January while pro-
viding security for a load
being held.
The case and a similar
one in Idaho prompted the
Oregon Department of Ag-
riculture to issue a formal
warning to hemp grow-
ers not to ship their crop
across state lines.
Ross posted bail and
continues to run his hemp
transport business, Pa-
triot Shield Security, from
Denver while awaiting tri-
al in Oklahoma. He said
potential customers from
places like Nevada, West
Virginia and Wyoming
say they now are afraid
to send their hemp out of
state.
“The whole industry has
been turned upside down.
Osage County First As-
sistant District Attorney
Michelle
Bodine-Keely
said the seized hemp was
still being tested. Some
samples sent to a DEA lab
in Washington, D.C., came
back within the legal range
for THC, but several were
over, she said.
Based on the results
so far, Bodine-Keely said
she’s not convinced it’s all
hemp.
“Part of it is hemp, and
part of it is marijuana. It’s
an ongoing case, and not
only is it an ongoing case,
it’s still an ongoing inves-
tigation,” she said.
But, she allowed, “It
would be nice to have a
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❿⑨➁⑤ ❸❹③❸ ➍❼➁➁ ③⑧❸➂③➁➁➈ ❸⑨➁➁
❿⑨➁⑤ ❸⑨❶❸❶➋ ❶➂⑧❹ ③❶ ❶❸③❸⑨
③❽⑩❼⑧➂➁❸➂⑩③➁
⑧⑨⑩❸❼❿⑧③❸⑨❶
⑥⑩ ➁③➇ ⑧⑨⑩❸❼❿⑧③❸⑨❶➃ ➌❹③❸
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from Kentucky. Ross and
a colleague were riding in
a van behind a semi-truck
❶❸③❸⑨➀⑧⑨⑩❸❼❿⑨⑤
one wants to transport
anything,” Ross said.
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ran a red light and was
pulled over.
Ross said he provided
police in Pawhuska, Okla-
homa, with the state-is-
sued license for the Ken-
tucky farm that grew the
hemp, the license for the
Colorado lab that was buy-
ing it and chemical analy-
sis paperwork for all 60
sacks of hemp that he said
shows it was within federal
guidelines for hemp.
That wasn’t enough for
❸❹⑨ ⑥⑦⑧⑨⑩❶➃ ➌❹⑨➈ ❸⑨❶❸⑨⑤
the shipment and found
it contained THC — al-
though not how much —
and arrested Ross, his col-
league and the two truck
drivers.
The charges against
the drivers eventually
were dropped, but their
18,000-pound (8,165-ki-
logram) cargo with a
value of nearly $1 million
after processing still is
what the percent is.”
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