Samples didn't test as marijuana, so entire 9-ton hemp shipment will be tested on DA orders Jan 31, 2019
https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/samples-didn-t-test-as-marijuana-so-entire--ton/article_49943da5-764d-5d30-9836-00328f9fa660.htmlThe massive truckload of industrial hemp or illegal marijuana seized by authorities in Pawhuska may make it to Colorado after all — but not to its original destination with the purchasers.
Defense Attorney Matt Lyons on Thursday said federal testing has been completed on 11 samples, with only two found to be marginally over the legal THC limit and outside of the test’s margins of error.
So the Osage County District Attorney’s Office will send the truck to Colorado for THC testing of the entire 9 tons of cannabis in relation to hemp’s three-tenths of 1 percent legal limit, he said. The lowest level of THC in medicinal marijuana is 15 percent, Lyons said, which is nowhere near the one-half of 1 percent of THC found in the most potent test sample.
Lyons said the shipment doesn’t contain any black market marijuana, which he said is what prosecutors told him was their initial cause for concern.
“They are trying to call this marijuana, when it’s clear to the rest of the sane world that it’s not,” he said.
Additionally, federal and state laws provide support for handling the situation outside of criminal court. But the unresolved situation has exposed how unprepared Oklahoma — and probably other states — is for legal industrial hemp.
Federal law bars criminal enforcement of hemp growers found to be in violation, and the state only imposes civil fines or penalties, according to a Tulsa World review of relevant laws. Transport personnel don’t appear to be addressed as far as violations in either set of laws.
“Why is this (still) being criminally prosecuted?” Lyons said. “Is this because you made the mistake of prosecuting them before the tests were done?”First Assistant District Attorney Michelle Bodine-Keely on Thursday declined to comment. She had said she thought the office might issue a news release Thursday, but it didn’t materialize.
Andrew Ross, 29, and business partner David Dirksen, 31, spent almost a week in jail after law enforcement seized the cargo Jan. 9 on Main Street in Pawhuska during a stop for a traffic violation.
Ross and Dirksen, who were providing security for the shipment, each posted a $40,000 bond on Jan. 15. That same day prosecutors had charged them with aggravated trafficking of marijuana — which carries a sentence of 15 years to life in prison.
Also charged with drug trafficking were the tractor-trailer rig’s two drivers — Tadesse Deneke, 51, and Farah Warsame, 33. Deneke and Warsame have been unable to secure bonds and
remain jailed.
The pair were subcontracted by Patriot Shield Security, the business formed by Ross, Dirksen and two other veterans. All four defendants live in different states.
Trevor Reynolds, a Tulsa attorney for the shipment’s two drivers, questioned whether federal authorities will properly test the nearly 18,000-pound shipment.
Reynolds said THC contents in cannabis aren’t uniform, in contrast to a block of methamphetamine. He said defense attorneys have concern that authorities may have chosen plant samples that were more apt to have higher THC concentrations than the average of the whole shipment.
“I think
Osage County has painted themselves into a corner a little bit,” Reynolds said. “I am fairly certain that unless the (THC content) tests at 1.0 percent or higher, the U.S. government is not going to be interested in it.”
Federal and Oklahoma hemp laws appear to support that supposition.
Not knowing how much those trunks weigh I would imagine their estimates are a bit off, too.