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Making the Case for Medical Marijuana

Started by patric, August 26, 2011, 11:48:42 AM

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heironymouspasparagus

Quote from: DTowner on January 11, 2019, 02:31:06 PM
This is an interesting article in Mother Jones discussing a new book that takes a hard look at the realities of smoking pot and comes to some pretty scary conclusions.  Short answer- today's pot ain't anything like the stuff you were smoking in high school in the 1980s.  Mother Jones isn't exactly manning the barricades for the War on Drugs, so is a pretty interesting take from an unlikely source.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/01/new-york-times-journalist-alex-berenson-tell-your-children-marijuana-crime-mental-illness-1/

I'm generally opposed to legalizing recreational marijuana because it is my sense that there is still too much we don't know.  However, I've been pretty agnostic on the medical marijuana issue, but voted for it because, well I don't know, I didn't want to see Oklahoma to be the last state to adopt it.

That said, the whole medical benefits debate has always struck me as peculiar.  On one hand, the "just say no" folks don't seem to want to consider even the possibility that it can help certain people with certain conditions - when it seems there is strong evidence it can.  But then the advocates usually strike me as the kind of people who try to convince you that a Chiropractor can cure whatever ails you.

At any rate, for anyone who cares about this debate, this book seems like good read.



No.  Chiropractors won't cure whatever ails you.

Marijuana will help a lot more things than a Chiropractor.


Here is another good book.  Wrote about the benefits of pot a long time ago... just has taken 40+ years for people to start thinking more.  (Started in '73, published in '85)

Jack Herrer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor_Wears_No_Clothes

"So he brandished a gun, never shot anyone or anything right?"  --TeeDub, 17 Feb 2018.

I don't share my thoughts because I think it will change the minds of people who think differently.  I share my thoughts to show the people who already think like me that they are not alone.

patric

The 17,258 pounds of plant material seized by Pawhuska police this week was industrial hemp, a product that's legal to possess or transport nationwide, according to documentation from the purchaser and an attorney involved in the case.

Hemp and marijuana are products of the cannabis plant, but the former contains none of the intoxicating chemical compounds of marijuana and has been made legal in the U.S.

Pawhuska police seized the shipment Wednesday morning while it was en route to a Colorado business and jailed the occupants of the truck and a van accompanying the shipment on complaints of trafficking marijuana in excess of 1,000 pounds, according to jail records.
Pawhuska police did not respond to multiple requests for comment since the arrests and seizure.

The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control was called to the traffic stop Wednesday, but the Pawhuska Police Department is the lead agency in the investigation.
"We don't know if it is marijuana. We don't know if it is hemp," Mark Woodward, a spokesman for the OBNDD, said Wednesday.
The difference between the two can be apparent from visual inspection for those who know what they're looking for, but only a chemical test can determine for certain whether cannabis plant material has a low enough threshold to qualify as hemp. Authorities in Oklahoma had taken the material for testing, but results were not available Friday.

James Baumgartner, president of the Colorado-based purchaser of the shipment, provided documentation showing the majority of the plant material tested at or below the federal threshold of three-tenths of 1 percent THC content for hemp. Cannabis that becomes medical and recreational marijuana, by contrast, typically has THC contents around 15 percent to 20 percent.
Baumgartner said Panacea Life Sciences ordered the shipment of hemp from Kentucky because the company's needs were beyond what the 2018 hemp harvest in Colorado could support.

"Kentucky does a better job than just about every other state," Baumgartner said. "What the state does is take very good control over the farming element. They quarantine it; they test it; and they certify it before they will let it be sold commercially."

Baumgartner said a Pawhuska Police Department representative yelled at and hung up on one of his employees who called seeking information.

Osage County prosecutors said Thursday they had yet to receive an investigative report from Pawhuska police.
Pawhuska police reportedly stopped the truck in the city for failure to stop at a traffic control signal.

At issue is the THC content of the plants in the shipment, said Colorado attorney Mark Robison, who represents one of the involved entities. He said officers believed the seized material to be marijuana because of a field test.

Robison said law enforcers do not readily have the tools to determine whether someone has legal cannabis plant material. A field test for drugs, he said, "isn't going to do it anymore."

"We have a suite of paperwork that (proves the shipment) is hemp, but they jump to the conclusion that it's marijuana and that it's the biggest marijuana bust of all time," Robison said.

The nearly 9-ton shipment was valued at about $850,000. A similar shipment of medical or recreational marijuana, Baumgartner said, would have been valued around $17 million. Panacea Life Sciences uses hemp to make its hemp oil-based products, including topical products and dietary supplements.

Baumgartner expressed concern that the shipment may sustain damage or degradation to the point where the material is no longer usable.

"Would you ship a $17 million product in cardboard boxes like that?" Baumgartner asked. "Right there, that tells you there are going to be discrete differences in how the products are going to be handled."

The laws regarding cannabis became complicated when hemp became legal at the end of 2018 after an act of Congress signed by the president. Robison said there will be a learning curve for code that was enacted less than a month ago.

The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, also known as the 2018 farm bill, removed hemp from the Controlled Substances Act and provided protections for the interstate commerce of hemp.

The (federal) law says no state or Indian tribe "shall prohibit transportation or shipment of hemp" that was produced in accordance with the law.

Kentucky, where the shipment originated, tightly controls its hemp industry, providing testing procedures and disposal procedures should hemp test above the federal threshold.

Woodward said there remains much "gray area" with State Question 788, the farm bill and Oklahoma's pilot hemp program.
"The Agriculture Improvement Act, there's certain provisions of it that do allow for hemp shipments to be sent and potentially some shipments that may be outside of the AIA, so we will always take it on a case-by-case basis," Woodward said.

Baumgartner and Robison said that, should the seizure result in financial damages with no criminal charges being filed, they would consider legal action for civil relief
.

https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/local/marijuana/biggest-marijuana-bust-of-all-time-no-just-legal-hemp/article_f8e59c4e-dc26-5ee3-81c7-3da033db4f8d.html
"Tulsa will lay off police and firemen before we will cut back on unnecessarily wasteful streetlights."  -- March 18, 2009 TulsaNow Forum

Hoss

Quote from: patric on January 12, 2019, 12:00:45 PM
The 17,258 pounds of plant material seized by Pawhuska police this week was industrial hemp, a product that's legal to possess or transport nationwide, according to documentation from the purchaser and an attorney involved in the case.

Hemp and marijuana are products of the cannabis plant, but the former contains none of the intoxicating chemical compounds of marijuana and has been made legal in the U.S.

Pawhuska police seized the shipment Wednesday morning while it was en route to a Colorado business and jailed the occupants of the truck and a van accompanying the shipment on complaints of trafficking marijuana in excess of 1,000 pounds, according to jail records.
Pawhuska police did not respond to multiple requests for comment since the arrests and seizure.

The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control was called to the traffic stop Wednesday, but the Pawhuska Police Department is the lead agency in the investigation.
"We don't know if it is marijuana. We don't know if it is hemp," Mark Woodward, a spokesman for the OBNDD, said Wednesday.
The difference between the two can be apparent from visual inspection for those who know what they're looking for, but only a chemical test can determine for certain whether cannabis plant material has a low enough threshold to qualify as hemp. Authorities in Oklahoma had taken the material for testing, but results were not available Friday.

James Baumgartner, president of the Colorado-based purchaser of the shipment, provided documentation showing the majority of the plant material tested at or below the federal threshold of three-tenths of 1 percent THC content for hemp. Cannabis that becomes medical and recreational marijuana, by contrast, typically has THC contents around 15 percent to 20 percent.
Baumgartner said Panacea Life Sciences ordered the shipment of hemp from Kentucky because the company's needs were beyond what the 2018 hemp harvest in Colorado could support.

"Kentucky does a better job than just about every other state," Baumgartner said. "What the state does is take very good control over the farming element. They quarantine it; they test it; and they certify it before they will let it be sold commercially."

Baumgartner said a Pawhuska Police Department representative yelled at and hung up on one of his employees who called seeking information.

Osage County prosecutors said Thursday they had yet to receive an investigative report from Pawhuska police.
Pawhuska police reportedly stopped the truck in the city for failure to stop at a traffic control signal.

At issue is the THC content of the plants in the shipment, said Colorado attorney Mark Robison, who represents one of the involved entities. He said officers believed the seized material to be marijuana because of a field test.

Robison said law enforcers do not readily have the tools to determine whether someone has legal cannabis plant material. A field test for drugs, he said, "isn't going to do it anymore."

"We have a suite of paperwork that (proves the shipment) is hemp, but they jump to the conclusion that it's marijuana and that it's the biggest marijuana bust of all time," Robison said.

The nearly 9-ton shipment was valued at about $850,000. A similar shipment of medical or recreational marijuana, Baumgartner said, would have been valued around $17 million. Panacea Life Sciences uses hemp to make its hemp oil-based products, including topical products and dietary supplements.

Baumgartner expressed concern that the shipment may sustain damage or degradation to the point where the material is no longer usable.

"Would you ship a $17 million product in cardboard boxes like that?" Baumgartner asked. "Right there, that tells you there are going to be discrete differences in how the products are going to be handled."

The laws regarding cannabis became complicated when hemp became legal at the end of 2018 after an act of Congress signed by the president. Robison said there will be a learning curve for code that was enacted less than a month ago.

The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, also known as the 2018 farm bill, removed hemp from the Controlled Substances Act and provided protections for the interstate commerce of hemp.

The (federal) law says no state or Indian tribe "shall prohibit transportation or shipment of hemp" that was produced in accordance with the law.

Kentucky, where the shipment originated, tightly controls its hemp industry, providing testing procedures and disposal procedures should hemp test above the federal threshold.

Woodward said there remains much "gray area" with State Question 788, the farm bill and Oklahoma's pilot hemp program.
"The Agriculture Improvement Act, there's certain provisions of it that do allow for hemp shipments to be sent and potentially some shipments that may be outside of the AIA, so we will always take it on a case-by-case basis," Woodward said.

Baumgartner and Robison said that, should the seizure result in financial damages with no criminal charges being filed, they would consider legal action for civil relief
.

https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/local/marijuana/biggest-marijuana-bust-of-all-time-no-just-legal-hemp/article_f8e59c4e-dc26-5ee3-81c7-3da033db4f8d.html

Sounds like the city of Pawhuska may be on the hook for a lawsuit..

heironymouspasparagus

Quote from: patric on January 12, 2019, 12:00:45 PM


The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, also known as the 2018 farm bill, removed hemp from the Controlled Substances Act and provided protections for the interstate commerce of hemp.

The (federal) law says no state or Indian tribe "shall prohibit transportation or shipment of hemp" that was produced in accordance with the law.


Woodward said there remains much "gray area" with State Question 788, the farm bill and Oklahoma's pilot hemp program.
"The Agriculture Improvement Act, there's certain provisions of it that do allow for hemp shipments to be sent and potentially some shipments that may be outside of the AIA, so we will always take it on a case-by-case basis," Woodward said.



So once again, we make national headlines for stupid.  What kind of idiot is this Woodward clown - who is supposed to be a "law enforcement officer" - such that he is not familiar with some fairly basic Federal laws??   And how that applies to Oklahoma law?   (He should read his Constitution a little more closely about restraint of trade between states.)   Especially when they have used pretty easy words, even for an Okie... there is NO "gray area".  It is clear, specific, and unambiguous.  No state or Indian tribe shall prohibit transportation or shipment of hemp. 

So this "LEO" is actually breaking Federal law.  Now there is a good "public servant".

"So he brandished a gun, never shot anyone or anything right?"  --TeeDub, 17 Feb 2018.

I don't share my thoughts because I think it will change the minds of people who think differently.  I share my thoughts to show the people who already think like me that they are not alone.

patric

Quote from: heironymouspasparagus on January 12, 2019, 05:10:47 PM

So once again, we make national headlines for stupid.  What kind of idiot is this Woodward clown - who is supposed to be a "law enforcement officer" - such that he is not familiar with some fairly basic Federal laws??   And how that applies to Oklahoma law? 


Mark Woodward, with the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics, said, "I've seen it wreck more lives than any other drug."
https://kfor.com/2014/01/20/senator-pushes-for-legalization-of-marijuana/

That kind of idiot.  Ill have to dig more to find where he was quoted saying marijuana is the number one drug problem.

Some will argue that the law legalizing hemp is fairly recent, but I will argue that if you enforce drug laws you should have more than just a passing familiarity with those laws.   Pawhuska Police, the Osage County Sheriff's Office, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and the Drug Enforcement Administration all had a chance to say "Um, guys..." when they were playing for the cameras, but now, crickets.
"Tulsa will lay off police and firemen before we will cut back on unnecessarily wasteful streetlights."  -- March 18, 2009 TulsaNow Forum

Conan71

These guys effed up big time.  Having a father-in-law who is a retired LEO, I get that they all feel they have a purpose and some things are drilled in their heads even though their personal convictions may not fall in line with that.  These guys over-stepped and from the initial reports, it appears they knew this from the git-go but they lacked the courage or integrity to say they were wrong.
"It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first" -Ronald Reagan

patric

#1026
Quote from: Conan71 on January 12, 2019, 10:53:28 PM
These guys effed up big time.  Having a father-in-law who is a retired LEO, I get that they all feel they have a purpose and some things are drilled in their heads even though their personal convictions may not fall in line with that.  These guys over-stepped and from the initial reports, it appears they knew this from the git-go but they lacked the courage or integrity to say they were wrong.


Because this looks just like what you get at a dispensary. /not



KTUL seemed convinced though.
Federal authorities investigate 18,000 pounds of marijuana in Pawhuska (actual headline)
One of his officers just so happened to be in the area and flashed her lights.
https://ktul.com/news/local/federal-authorities-investigate-18000-pounds-of-marijuana-in-pawhuska

(District Attorney Mike) Fisher said state agencies in Oklahoma lacked the capacity to resolve the issue, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, commonly called the DEA, had sent a sample to a lab in the Washington, D.C., area, but that lab is closed because of the ongoing federal government shutdown.
https://www.pawhuskajournalcapital.com/news/20190111/federal-shutdown-puts-hemp-or-dope-question-in-limbo

"The route between Kentucky and Colorado wouldn't lead you through Oklahoma. It would go through Kansas," said Sheriff Eddie Virden, with the Osage County Sheriff's Office.
https://kfor.com/2019/01/10/4-arrested-after-police-discover-18000-pounds-of-marijuana-in-semi-truck/

(Pawhuska Police Chief Rex) Wikel said the federal officers were taking over the investigation. Wikel added the material being shipped in the truck had field-tested positive for marijuana, but he clarified that industrial hemp can do that. He said law officers found paperwork during the investigation that listed Illinois, Kansas and Texas as states to be avoided with the cargo in the truck.
https://www.pawhuskajournalcapital.com/news/20190111/federal-shutdown-puts-hemp-or-dope-question-in-limbo


"Tulsa will lay off police and firemen before we will cut back on unnecessarily wasteful streetlights."  -- March 18, 2009 TulsaNow Forum

heironymouspasparagus

Quote from: patric on January 13, 2019, 09:11:03 PM

"The route between Kentucky and Colorado wouldn't lead you through Oklahoma. It would go through Kansas," said Sheriff Eddie Virden, with the Osage County Sheriff's Office.
https://kfor.com/2019/01/10/4-arrested-after-police-discover-18000-pounds-of-marijuana-in-semi-truck/




A very special kind of stupid who has obviously never driven outside the state of Okrahoma.

"So he brandished a gun, never shot anyone or anything right?"  --TeeDub, 17 Feb 2018.

I don't share my thoughts because I think it will change the minds of people who think differently.  I share my thoughts to show the people who already think like me that they are not alone.

patric

You can put someone in jail over a lax drug field test, but there is apparently only one laboratory in Washington D.C. that can do a legitimate test for marijuana.  Prosecutors and police may want to make note of that.

Amid a federal shutdown that's slowed or stalled many government operations, four men in Pawhuska are awaiting test results from the Drug Enforcement Administration that will be the difference between being freed from jail or facing marijuana trafficking charges. They remain held in lieu of $40,000 bond.

(DEA Special Agent Rick) Salter confirmed that samples of the seized product had been collected for testing by the DEA. He estimated that it could be up to four weeks before results are available.


https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/local/marijuana/in-limbo-fate-of-men-arrested-over-cannabis-shipment-waits/article_ccc17b0d-20da-54e1-87eb-c1251ff00b82.html

"Tulsa will lay off police and firemen before we will cut back on unnecessarily wasteful streetlights."  -- March 18, 2009 TulsaNow Forum

heironymouspasparagus

Quote from: patric on January 14, 2019, 10:52:02 PM
You can put someone in jail over a lax drug field test, but there is apparently only one laboratory in Washington D.C. that can do a legitimate test for marijuana.  Prosecutors and police may want to make note of that.

Amid a federal shutdown that's slowed or stalled many government operations, four men in Pawhuska are awaiting test results from the Drug Enforcement Administration that will be the difference between being freed from jail or facing marijuana trafficking charges. They remain held in lieu of $40,000 bond.

(DEA Special Agent Rick) Salter confirmed that samples of the seized product had been collected for testing by the DEA. He estimated that it could be up to four weeks before results are available.


https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/local/marijuana/in-limbo-fate-of-men-arrested-over-cannabis-shipment-waits/article_ccc17b0d-20da-54e1-87eb-c1251ff00b82.html




Another Trump Fail.  Keeping the government shut down so they can harass people at all levels.
"So he brandished a gun, never shot anyone or anything right?"  --TeeDub, 17 Feb 2018.

I don't share my thoughts because I think it will change the minds of people who think differently.  I share my thoughts to show the people who already think like me that they are not alone.

DTowner

Something about this story feels off.  Maybe it is just overzealous local cops looking for a big civil forfeiture payout.  But if you are shipping a tractor trailer load of industrial hemp across the country under the current laws and police climate, wouldn't you be extra careful to have all the necessary paperwork, documentation and manifest lined up proving that it is actually industrial hemp?

rebound

Quote from: DTowner on January 15, 2019, 01:23:51 PM
Something about this story feels off.  Maybe it is just overzealous local cops looking for a big civil forfeiture payout.  But if you are shipping a tractor trailer load of industrial hemp across the country under the current laws and police climate, wouldn't you be extra careful to have all the necessary paperwork, documentation and manifest lined up proving that it is actually industrial hemp?

Did you read the original article?

"We have a suite of paperwork that (proves the shipment) is hemp, but they jump to the conclusion that it's marijuana and that it's the biggest marijuana bust of all time," Robison said.


The crew apparently stuck around for hours working with the various officials trying to work this out, which I assume would have included calls to both the supplier and customer, but were still arrested.

What's telling to me is that they were offered the chance to leave, but authorities wanted to keep the truck.   If were not about forfeiture, the cops could have simply recorded everything, taken a sample of load, and sent them on their way.  Charges could be pressed later, if needed. But then the locals don't have the truck to sell later.

There is no way a law enforcement person could possibly think that was actual marijuana for distribution. I mean, look at it.  At "best", they may have thought they could gin something up related to the THC content not testing low enough, but that's a stretch.   They just wanted to keep the truck, or they are complete idiots, or both.





 

DTowner

Quote from: rebound on January 16, 2019, 12:24:21 PM
Did you read the original article?

"We have a suite of paperwork that (proves the shipment) is hemp, but they jump to the conclusion that it's marijuana and that it's the biggest marijuana bust of all time," Robison said.


The crew apparently stuck around for hours working with the various officials trying to work this out, which I assume would have included calls to both the supplier and customer, but were still arrested.

What's telling to me is that they were offered the chance to leave, but authorities wanted to keep the truck.   If were not about forfeiture, the cops could have simply recorded everything, taken a sample of load, and sent them on their way.  Charges could be pressed later, if needed. But then the locals don't have the truck to sell later.

There is no way a law enforcement person could possibly think that was actual marijuana for distribution. I mean, look at it.  At "best", they may have thought they could gin something up related to the THC content not testing low enough, but that's a stretch.   They just wanted to keep the truck, or they are complete idiots, or both.







I did not get that impression from the original article, but today's makes that a lot clearer. 

patric

Quote from: rebound on January 16, 2019, 12:24:21 PM

What's telling to me is that they were offered the chance to leave, but authorities wanted to keep the truck.   If were not about forfeiture, the cops could have simply recorded everything, taken a sample of load, and sent them on their way.  Charges could be pressed later, if needed. But then the locals don't have the truck to sell later.


The Civil Forfeiture aspect has the Department of Public Safety's scent all over it.

Quote from: rebound on January 16, 2019, 12:24:21 PM

There is no way a law enforcement person could possibly think that was actual marijuana for distribution. I mean, look at it.  At "best", they may have thought they could gin something up related to the THC content not testing low enough, but that's a stretch.   They just wanted to keep the truck, or they are complete idiots, or both.




Baumgartner says there was a manifest in the truck listing the cargo as hemp. He also says contractors received pre-clearance from the State of Oklahoma, but that wasn't enough to encourage local police Pawhuska to simply move on. Instead, officers arrested the drivers and security detail.

https://kdvr.com/2019/01/14/local-hemp-manufacturer-claims-500k-worth-of-legal-hemp-confiscated-in-oklahoma/






PAWHUSKA — There were a few moments overnight Jan. 9 in which Andrew Ross was free to leave with the others in his crew.

Just not with the truck trailer hauling what law enforcement suspected was 8 to 10 tons of illegal marijuana.
Ross and his business partner, David Dirksen, had been in a van behind the tractor-trailer rig.

Ross said Tuesday that the plant material — which he described as akin to "rotten hay" with mold on it — is legal industrial hemp. As CEO of Patriot Shield Security, Ross described it as his duty to protect the cargo en route to the purchaser, a Colorado company that offers hemp-based therapeutics.

So Ross, Dirksen and the two men in the truck stayed on Main Street in Pawhuska for several hours to answer questions in a failed bid to convince law enforcement officers that they were legally transporting medicine, not illicit drugs. Then they were arrested.

"If we are drug traffickers, we're the worst drug traffickers in the world," Ross said. "Every different law enforcement agency that came on the scene tried to get us to leave. And we refused to leave. We stuck around.

"It was product we were responsible for. So we stayed around to make sure it was handled correctly and just to answer any questions and to help everybody understand that it is industrial hemp. It's a legal product."

Ross and Dirksen each were charged Tuesday with aggravated trafficking of 20,500 pounds of marijuana. Both posted $40,000 bonds for release from the Osage County jail after video arraignments in district court.

Documentation provided by the defendants, however, indicates that the weight of the crop, excluding packaging, was about 17,200 pounds.

The two men in the truck, Tadesse Deneke and Farah Warsame, were charged with the same crime and remain jailed in lieu of $40,000 bond. Deneke and Warsame were subcontracted by Patriot Shield to drive the truck from a hemp farm in Kentucky to the purchaser, Panacea Life Sciences, in Colorado.

Ross and Dirksen also were charged with possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony. Ross said the handgun is legally owned and was in a locked case in a duffel bag in the back of the van, which is separated from the front seats by a cage.

Defense attorney Matt Lyons questioned why charges were filed before testing of the THC content of the product could be completed. The completion of testing is dependent on a federal agency during a partial shutdown of the federal government.
Why not release all four men and file arrest warrants later if charges are deemed necessary, he asked.

Lyons said he was told that a laboratory had determined that some of the substance was marijuana by studying it with a microscope.
"The federal law says there's no difference between marijuana and hemp and that the only difference is the quantity of the THC," Lyons said. "Last I checked they can't look at that underneath a microscope.

"The problem is if they don't determine it to be marijuana today, they can't press charges. If they can't press charges, they can't hold a truck and a minivan. ... Meanwhile, we're providing as much mitigating evidence as I've ever provided in a case prior to any charges being filed, and it's just doing no good."

Lyons and the purchaser supplied to the Tulsa World earlier this week documentation that the plant material in question is industrial hemp that is legal to possess or transport nationwide.

The majority of the product tested at or below the federal threshold of three-tenths of 1 percent THC content for hemp, according to the documents. In contrast, cannabis that becomes medical or recreational marijuana typically has THC — the psychoactive component of marijuana — content of around 15 percent to 20 percent.

First Assistant District Attorney Michelle Bodine-Keely said Tuesday that it's the state's prerogative to decide whether and when to file charges within the statute of limitations. She declined to discuss specifics of the case.

"Some of the things we consider are whether we have probable cause to believe a crime was committed in the jurisdiction, whether there is a danger to the public, whether there is a flight risk," Bodine-Keely said.

Pawhuska Police Chief Rex Wickle said he was handed documents by a manager of the subcontracted trucking company Tuesday that he would look at and give to the District Attorney's Office. Wickle declined to comment further.

Aggravated trafficking of illegal drugs is punishable by 15 years to life in prison, with a fine between $100,000 and $500,000, according to court documents.

Police say the truck driver failed to stop at a stop light.

At first, Ross told the Tulsa World from the lobby of the county jail, he thought the matter would be resolved expeditiously. But he said it became clear that officers were confused and "had no idea what they were looking at."

More law enforcement agencies — the Osage County Sheriff's Office, Osage Nation tribal police, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol — responded after police made the traffic stop. Eventually, around 9 or 10 a.m., representatives of the federal Drug Enforcement Agency arrived, Ross said.

He thought that if someone — anyone — would recognize legal industrial hemp, it would be the DEA.

To his dismay, Ross said, the two agents thought the product appeared to be marijuana. A field test would turn up purple if THC was in the plant material, he was told.

That was when he knew he and the others would be handcuffed and taken to jail, because legal hemp has minuscule amounts of THC.

"Clearly this is industrial hemp. I don't know what those DEA agents are talking about when they looked at it," Ross said.
"It's literally a giant bag of like rotten hay. It's got mold on it. It's sticks and stems. It's gross. It's not something anybody would buy.

"It is 100 percent different than what marijuana would look like. So for anybody to have actually gone through that product and then still a week later they're saying it's marijuana and not industrial hemp, it's insane."

https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/state-and-regional/man-charged-with-marijuana-trafficking-in-pawhuska-disputes-charge-says/article_5347f894-99f1-5272-abe7-47ffcf6810a5.html
"Tulsa will lay off police and firemen before we will cut back on unnecessarily wasteful streetlights."  -- March 18, 2009 TulsaNow Forum

patric


Osage County District Attorney Mike Fischer said the alleged hemp confiscated in Pawhuska last week had clear signs under a microscope that it was in fact marijuana. He described hemp as the male version of the plant and marijuana as the female version.

"There were clear male and female differences we could see, and what I saw was clearly what for this story could be classified as female," Fischer said.

https://www.krmg.com/news/national/hemp-marijuana-what-the-difference/h0WiRjkfLywYbrdg3EY7uK/

"Tulsa will lay off police and firemen before we will cut back on unnecessarily wasteful streetlights."  -- March 18, 2009 TulsaNow Forum