[ad_1]
Arriving on January 24th at the East Boise entry point weighing station, Denis Palamarchuck's truck semi-trailer was stopped by a soldier from the state of Idaho for perform a routine inspection. The truck bill of lading indicated that the goods being transported were hemp.
"However, the training and the soldier's experience led him to believe that the cargo was actually marijuana and not industrial hemp," wrote the state police. of Idaho in a press release.
The agent opened one of the 31 platform shipping bags and, with the aid of a narcotics identification kit, tested a sample that showed a positive result for THC, the chemical altering the mentality of marijuana.
Palamarchuck was immediately arrested and charged with marijuana trafficking.
Court records indicate that Palamarchuck had spent four days in jail after the arrest. . Jim Ball, Palamarchuck's attorney, told CNN that his client had been released after posting a $ 100,000 bond.
Idaho's mandatory minimum laws dictate that as it carried more Idaho considers that marijuana is greater than 25 pounds. If the driver is convicted, he will serve at least five years in jail and a minimum fine of $ 15,000.
Except that hemp is legal throughout the country.
Hemp Can not Breed You
Marijuana and hemp are two different varieties of the same plant, Cannabis sativa L. For centuries, hemp has been transformed into a number of products: rope, building materials, clothes, shampoo, food, even beer.
There is no way to visibly distinguish a hemp plant from a marijuana plant. And for decades, states like Idaho and the federal government have treated hemp like any other cannabis plant.
The CBD makes hemp an important report crop because some believe it can help relieve the pain. Anxiety, arthritis, stress and other conditions.
Big Sky Scientific wants to recover its hemp (and its source of CBD)
The CBD is the reason why Colorado- based at Big Sky Scientific is pursuing for his return from hemp. The company was created three days before the signature of the Farm Bill by people already active in the marijuana sector, for the sole purpose of taking advantage of the new legal hemp and CBD industry.
The company says on its website that it is buying "rich hemp." In CBD "from farmers, sends it to processors to make CBD powder, and then sells it to manufacturers. products.
And in the lawsuit, that's what Big Sky Scientific says: He bought about 13,000 pounds of industrial hemp from Boones Ferry Berry Farms in Hubbard, Oregon. According to the lawsuit, the farm is allowed to grow industrial hemp from the Oregon Department of Agriculture (Oregon Department of Agriculture).
The company stated that it tested 19 different samples of the hemp crop on this farm on January 17 and that their THC content was 0.043%. – less than the federal statutory limit of 0.3%.
But the state police of Idaho claims to have complied with state laws and, technically, it is the only one in the state. ;did. Routine inspection, field testing and dog testing were all done according to the rules of the book.
Tests such as that carried out on hemp that Palamarchuck carried do not make it possible to distinguish hemp from marijuana. The state police of Idaho says that his tests, and canine units, can only test the presence of THC – not the concentration.
The agency has since sent a sample of hemp seized to a laboratory to test its THC content
Idaho's state law defines marijuana as "all parties of the plant of the cannabis genus, irrespective of the species "- – and that any" evidence "of THC" will create a presumption that this material is "marijuana" as defined and prohibited hereunder. "
But Big Sky Scientific's attorney, Elijah Watkins, states that federal law and the Constitution take precedence over the laws of Idaho.
"Idaho has the freedom to do whatever law it wants," Watkins told CNN. "Idaho can legislate and fight drugs.The problem occurs when there is a tension."
Big Sky Scientific claims that not only is Idaho in violation of the 2018 Farm Bill, but also the commercial clause of the Constitution States can not prohibit the carriage of legal goods in one state to another State.
The Ada County Attorney's Office, which – as the state police of Idaho – is being sued by Big Sky Scientific, declined to comment on this lawsuit. and on the charges against Palamarchuck.
But in a letter in response to the complaint, Ada County Attorney, Jan Bennetts, claims that the company's arguments are flawed. Oregon, where hemp was grown and shipped, has no plan approved by the federal government to monitor and regulate hemp production in the state, as required by the Farm Bill of 2018.
Response to CNN about the lawsuit, Idaho State The police reiterate that the law of Idaho states that any substance containing any amount of THC is illegal in the US. State.
"Idaho state police soldiers will continue to aggressively enforce the laws of Idaho," CNN's Timothy Marsano, head of police, told AFP. Info from the Idaho Police Department According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, nine states still do not allow hemp cultivation: Idaho, South Dakota, l & # 39; 39, Iowa, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio and Connecticut. Many other states allow only pilot programs or only raids on hemp cultivation.
decided in favor of Big Sky Scientific, could necessarily change that.
But time is running out for Big Sky Scientific's hemp; in his trial, it is said that the peril is perishable and that mold can form without the air circulating properly in the plants.
It is time for Denis Palamarchuck to stop. He is caught in the middle of all this and his fate, his freedom and his future remain uncertain.
"It looks like Denis has unwittingly pushed his truck into a fight between the state of Idaho and the federal government regarding the legality of industrial hemp," Ball said.
A previous version of this story misinterpreted investors in Big Sky Scientific. The company's lawyer stated that none of them had been active in the marijuana sector.
