BUSINESS & AG LIFE
2B — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2019
Pot or not? Busts highlight growing confusion over hemp
By Michael R. Sisak
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — The CBD
craze might be leaving the
war on drugs a bit dazed and
confused.
The extract that’s been
showing up in everything
from candy to coffee is legally
derived from hemp plants,
which look and smell an
awful lot like that other can-
nabis — marijuana. They’re
so similar, police offi cers and
the fi eld tests they use on
suspected drugs sometimes
can’t tell the difference.
Case in point, New York
City police boasted on social
media this week about what
seemed like a signifi cant
drug bust: 106 pounds of
funky, green plants that
offi cers thought sure seemed
like marijuana.
But the Vermont farm
that grew the plants and the
Brooklyn CBD shop that
ordered them insisted they’re
actually industrial hemp,
and perfectly legal. And, they
said, they have paperwork to
prove it.
Nevertheless, when the
shop’s owner brother went
to the police station to
straighten things out, he was
arrested. Police said a fi eld
test had come back positive
for marijuana.
Shop owner Oren Levy
said that’s likely because
hemp often tests positive for
a permissible, trace amount
of THC, or tetrahydrocannab-
inol, which is the chemical in
cannabis that causes people
to get high.
Field tests used by law en-
forcement offi cers can detect
THC but aren’t sophisticated
enough to specify whether
a shipment is legal hemp
or low-grade illegal pot, and
drug-sniffi ng dogs will alert
on both.
“He was a hungry cop. He
thought he had the bust of
New York Police Department via AP
In this undated photo taken from the New York Police
Department’s Facebook page, offi cers stand by what
NYPD thought was marijuana when they confi scated it
in the Brooklyn borough of New York on Nov. 2, 2019, at
the 75th Precinct of the NYPD in New York. The Vermont
farm that grew the plants and the Brooklyn CBD shop
that ordered them insist they’re not pot, but legal indus-
trial hemp.
the day,” said Levy, whose
Green Angel CBD NYC sells
oils, teas and other products
containing the extract. He
said he fears the seizure
could force him out of busi-
ness.
CBD, or cannabidiol, is
also found in marijuana but
does not have an intoxicat-
ing effect. Some people say it
provides them with pain and
anxiety relief.
“I can’t believe I’m going
through this for a legal
business,” Levy said. “I can’t
believe my poor brother got
locked up.”
Oren and Ronen Levy are
not alone.
Since the U.S. government
removed industrial hemp last
year from the list of illegal
drugs, a number of similar
cases have cropped up across
the country.
In July, a man who said he
was delivering 300 pounds of
hemp to a Minnesota CBD-
oil processing company was
arrested in South Dakota
after authorities there said
it tested positive for THC.
The substance “looked and
smelled like raw marijuana,”
a state trooper said.
In January, Idaho authori-
ties arrested a truck driver
and seized nearly 7,000
pounds of what they believed
to be marijuana, even though
the company shipping the
material said accompanying
paperwork made clear it was
industrial hemp.
At least two other truck-
ers and two security guards
involved in transporting
what they said was industrial
hemp have been arrested
and charged with felony drug
traffi cking.
In May, the U.S. Agri-
culture Department sent
a memorandum instruct-
ing states not to block the
transportation of hemp that
contains 0.3% or less THC.
The Nov. 2 Brooklyn bust
that landed Ronen Levy in
handcuffs stemmed from
a tip from a FedEx worker
who suspected the load of
plants on their way from Fox
Holler Farms in Fair Haven,
Vermont to Levy’s shop were
marijuana, New York City
police said.
“We got information about
a large package of drugs. We
got it in here. We fi eld tested
it as marijuana, called the
individual in. He was placed
under arrest,” said NYPD
Chief of Department Terence
Monahan.
“It is currently at the lab
at this point to make a fi nal
determination, was it hemp?”
Monahan said. “The indi-
vidual had no bill of lading
justifying its delivery.”
Ronen Levy, who runs his
own CBD business catering
to pets, pleaded not guilty
to multiple counts of felony
criminal possession of mari-
juana. He was released on his
own recognizance and is due
back in court on Nov. 19.
The police department
drew attention to the bust
by posting pictures on its
offi cial Facebook and Twitter
accounts showing the offi cers
in a room full of the seized
plants. Oren Levy and the
farm fought back with posts
of their own.
Fox Holler Farms said in a
statement posted on its Face-
book page that the shipment
bound for Levy’s shop was
fully compliant with Vermont,
New York and federal laws.
The farm’s lawyer, Timothy
Fair, said that before the
hemp shipment left Vermont,
it was tested at FedEx’s re-
quest by a local police depart-
ment. The level of THC was
less than half the allowable
threshold, he said.
A FedEx spokeswoman
said even if the plants were
hemp, they should not have
been shipped using its
service.
The company’s service
guide lists hemp plants,
leaves, oil and CBD derived
from hemp among its prohib-
ited items.
Oren Levy said he
would’ve gone to the police
station himself but couldn’t
because he was recovering
from a recent surgery.
Soon enough, Oren Levy
said, Ronen texted him: “I
think I’m getting arrested.”
“They treated him like a
drug dealer,” Oren Levy said.
“He’s never been to jail in
his whole life. He still hasn’t
slept. He’s paranoid.”
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