Earlier this year, a New Yorker was arrested and slapped with federal drug trafficking charges after the police intercepted and confiscated what they thought was a shipment of marijuana.
Ronen Levy was receiving the shipment of hemp from Vermont on his brother’s behalf, Oren Levy, who owns Green Angel CBD. Acting from a tip from a FedEx driver, New York police arrested him and confiscated 106 pounds of hemp.
On Tuesday, Brooklyn prosecutors dropped criminal charges against Levy, and he and his brother are seeking $10 million in damages from the NYPD. The claims include $8 million for false arrest, false imprisonment and other charges levied against Ronen Levy. They are also seeking $2 million for the confiscated hemp.
According to Oren Levy, even if he does get his hemp back, it would have deteriorated in quality to the point that it’s unusable.
At the moment, New York is undergoing a lot of legislative changes concerning marijuana, and that accounted for the Brooklyn prosecutors’ inability to give a ruling in time.
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez dropped the case against Ronan Levy on Tuesday, and he acknowledges that the hemp contained less than 0.06% THC in accordance with federal regulations.
Although the marijuana and hemp plant are quite similar in appearance, federal law makes a distinction based on THC levels. According to the 2018 Farm Bill, cannabis with less than 0.3% THC (delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol) is classified as legal industrial hemp. The legislation gave farmers in all states and tribes liberty to farm industrial hemp under state and tribal programs.
Just this week, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law a bill that sets up a comprehensive regulatory system for growing and processing hemp. According to DA Gonzalez, the new regulations don’t address the fact that criminal law still classifies the cannabis plant as marijuana regardless of THC levels.
Sanford Rubenstein, an attorney known to take high profile police brutality cases, says a win for the brothers would send a clear and loud message that if you don’t follow the appropriate procedures and you don’t follow the paperwork and you mistake hemp for marijuana, your municipality will pay damages to the victim.
“Police departments have to be properly trained to know the difference between hemp and marijuana,” he adds.
Jahala Dudley of Fox Holler Farm grew and sold Oren Levy the hemp in dispute, and he is keeping an eye on the case. He sold the hemp for $17,000, and he estimates it could have sold for up to $60,000 in retail.
“I would like to know what happened to my hemp. That’s a product that I grew and was paid for.”
Industry watchers think the entire hemp industry, including Dama Financial and Canopy Rivers Inc. (TSX: RIV) (OTC: CNPOF), is following the New York case since its outcome could potential make law enforcement across the country more careful when confiscating hemp shipments.
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