Pot or not? Busts highlight growing confusion over hemp

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

NEW YORK (AP) — The CBD craze is 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 cannabis — marijuana. They're so similar, police officers and the field 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 significant drug bust: 106 pounds (48 kilograms) of funky, green plants that officers 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 field test had come back positive for marijuana.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/pot-or-not-busts-highlight-growing-confusion-over-hemp/ar-BBWvPjw?li=BBnb7Kz

[5X]

1. All the cops did was validate that their field test is no good.

The courts now have an opportunity to force them to recall everything tested that way.

[rollin74]

2. good. fuck the war on cannabis

and any cop or politician who supports it

the smell of weed should no longer constitute probable cause for a vehicle search

[stopdiggin]

3. interesting

Hemp is the same plant, and does contain THC (just at much lower levels). The fact that it would field test positive is not a surprise.

In May, the U.S. Agriculture Department sent a memorandum instructing states not to block the transportation of hemp that contains 0.3% or less THC.

Grower says product was tested, at request of FedEx, for THC content before shipment by local police dept. Tested less than half legal content. FedEx says that hemp (and CBD oils) are "prohibited items" for shipment. Somebody got their story wrong.