Cops say 9-ton shipment is marijuana not legal hemp

hemp-truck

Police in Pawhuska, Oklahoma stopped a tractor-trailer Wednesday, Jan. 9 for running the only red light in the small town in the northeast corner of the state. A resulting search found the trailer filled with what cops say is more than 18,000 pounds of marijuana.

Employes of a company accompanying the truck say it’s a mistake because the load was actually 60 pallets of industrial hemp being shipped from Kentucky to Colorado to be processed for medical use. A Colorado attorney told a Tulsa TV station the Farm Bill signed by President Trump in December makes the transportation of industrial hemp legal.

Authorities in Oklahoma said the cargo is pot, and four people connected to the shipment were arrested.

“It’s a mix-up,” James “Jamie” Baumgartner, president of Panacea Life Sciences, told the Lexington Herald-Leader. “It’s also a lack of understanding of local authorities about what is allowed and what is not. It’s our understanding as a licensed hemp broker that we were free to exchange from point to point hemp or hemp-based products between states that have a hemp program. This was completely shocking to us when we heard the fellows were pulled over.”

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