NYC Cops Post “Big Marijuana Bust” on Social Media – Turns out it’s hemp
A week or so ago, I wrote about some “dumbass criminals” stealing hemp while thinking its weed. This time around, it wasn’t the crooks who fucked up – it was the 5-0!
On November 3rd, the 75th Precinct in New York posted this on their Facebook account;
“Great Job by Day Tour Sector E yesterday. Working with FedEx and other local law enforcement, they were able to confiscate 106 Lbs. and arrested the individual associated with the intended delivery.”
Who did they arrest?
The brother of a Brooklyn Shop owner, who ordered the legal hemp to be processed into CBD extract, and came into clarify that the cops had taken legal hemp. When the brother of the shop owner came into the police station, with the proper paperwork – the cops arrested him and thought they had made a Big Bust.
The Shop owner, Oren Levy, believes the cops arrested his brother because the crops did test positive for THC. However, hemp is cannabis that has a THC content of .3% or lower. The crops that Levy had ordered is .14% THC, meaning it’s definitely within the legal limit.
However, since cops are still using outdated technology, they can only test for the “presence of THC” or not. Hemp has THC, which means that it will always test positive – however, that doesn’t make it illegal.
The case is not over yet, and the owner of the shop did plead “not guilty” to possession of cannabis, especially since Hemp is legal all over the United States. He is still expected to show up at court on November 19th.
In all likeliness, he will have all charges dismissed, however Levy might also have the right to Suit the police department – especially if the seizure diminished the quality of the product.
Weed doesn’t have an indefinite shelf life
The thing about cannabis is that over time, with things like oxygen and light, the cannabinoids can change. This could mean that if the crops were shipped with 20% CBD content in the particular strain, over the period of a month that could drop to 18% or lower.
The more time the crop takes from being processed, the lower the quality of the crop becomes. Thus, the NYC 75th precinct is literally interfering with a legal businesses’ property, causing damages to the business via the seizure.
We don’t know if the owner of the CBD shop will pursuit these kinds of legal strategies, however I think it’s time that every hemp related company follows suit and sues the government every time there is a seizure on legal crops.
It’s not the fault nor the responsibility of the hemp industry that the United States law enforcement doesn’t have the right gear to test for hemp. It’s the responsibility of both the Federal government and local state governments to provide law enforcement with the adequate tools to do their job.
This cannot be at the expense of the private citizen. The burden should not rest on the shoulders of the industry, but rather on the shoulders of the federal government.
The only way this can truly become a “thing”, would be if all of the affected parties band together and sues the federal government for incompetence and damages due to toxic policies. Of course, I’m no lawyer, so I’m sure there would be other legal terms that could be used – however, it stands to reason that prohibition is now cutting into the pockets of legal industries.
Imagine if cannabis prohibition negatively affected the profit margins of Walmart, because cops made mistakes between “spinach and cannabis”. You would have public outrage!
But Hemp and Weed is Similar
While this is true in terms of physical appearance, to have the technology to test cannabis vs hemp is not expensive nor difficult to achieve. How much money is being spent on making missiles and shipping them half way around the world, when a fraction of that could be used to create proper cannabis testing on US soil?
The problem is that we’re so busy trying to “police the world” that we are finding it difficult to scrape together the funds to protect the individual within the borders of this country.
While hemp and weed might be similar looking, they are different and if the US decided to legalize hemp in 2018 (federally) yet keep cannabis illegal, then the burden solely lies on the government to make the distinction between the two.
Every crop seized by law enforcement should be federally insured to protect the producers and the buyers. If the money would come out of the pockets of law enforcement – they would never mistake hemp for cannabis again. You can count on that.
Ultimately, it’s time we simply just end prohibition altogether. After more than 100 years of some sort of prohibition – we can safely say that it isn’t, and has never worked.
CONFUSING HEMP FOR MARIJUANA AND VICE VERSA...
PEOPLE STEALING HEMP THINKING IT'S WEED, READ THIS.
OR..
