Idaho is one of the few states that still don’t have a hemp program, and it has no immediate plans to establish one. Under Idaho law, hemp is legally considered marijuana, and this puts CBD companies looking to transport raw hemp through the state between a rock and a hard place. Indeed, lawyers representing a Colorado-based company are currently suing the Idaho State Police for a shipment of hemp seized in January.
In January, the Idaho State Police seized roughly 6,701 pounds of hemp that Big Sky Scientific had bought and was transporting through Idaho. Denis Palamarchuk, a 38-year-old trucker from Portland, was carrying the hemp from a farm in Oregon to Colorado. State troopers stopped him in Ada County, and after inspecting the cargo, seized it and arrested him.
He was initially charged with trafficking marijuana, a felony that would have earned him a maximum of five years in prison, given the amount of hemp he was transporting. However, after a deal with the prosecutors, he pleaded guilty to possessing a faulty bill of lading, a misdemeanor. Ten months later, the Idaho State Police still haven’t returned the hemp worth $1.3 million to Big Sky Scientific.
On October 30, the company’s attorneys filed a motion invoking the USDA’s final interim rule on hemp that in effect, made the state police’s seizure illegal. The federal government allowed states to establish their hemp programs in 2014, allowing farmers to grow the crop. The passing of the 2018 Farm Bill made hemp legal, and it had a section that called for states to establish their hemp programs if they wished. They would then submit their plans to the federal government for approval. Idaho is one of the very few states that are yet to establish a hemp program.
Part of the new rules refers to hemp transportation, specifically through states or tribes that have declared the cash crop illegal. Elijah Watkins, one of the lawyers representing Big Sky Scientific in its lawsuit, says he believes the new regulations require states to allow hemp to be transported across their borders of it was grown under the 2014 pilot programs, like Big Sky Scientific’s hemp.
A portion of the new regulations says that ‘No State or Indian Tribe may prohibit the transportation or shipment of hemp or hemp products lawfully produced under the 2014 Farm Bill pilot programs through the State or territory of the Indian Tribe, as applicable.’
Bethany Calley, the spokeswoman for the Ada County Prosecutor’s Office, said that moving forward, prosecutors will evaluate any future hemp-related cases on a case by case basis. “If those transporting hemp through the state have the necessary documentation proving the hemp being transported was produced in accordance with either the 2014 pilot programs or 2018 Farm Bill, they will not be prosecuted.”
Analysts believe hemp industry players like Neutra Corp. (OTC: NTRR) and VPR Brands, LP (OTCQB: VPRB) would like to see hemp traveling through Idaho without any conditions other than documentation showing it is legal hemp.
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