Marijuana possession cases will no longer be prosecuted in Tallahassee, Florida and the surrounding area, according to a letter to law enforcement agencies from the State Attorney. The action was taken in response to the legalization of hemp in Florida earlier this year and at the federal level with the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill.
In the letter from Jack Campbell, the State Attorney for Florida’s 2nd Judicial Circuit, law enforcement agencies were informed that the difficulty in easily differentiating hemp and marijuana led to the decision.
“Hemp products look and smell exactly like marijuana products,” Cambell told local media.
Marijuana or Hemp?
Campbell noted that there are now CBD gummies, hemp pre-rolls, and other products that are now legal being sold in Florida. And while they may seem to be made from marijuana based on their smell or appearance, there isn’t a way to tell without sophisticated laboratory analysis.
“It’s the same thing as if somebody looked at a glass of alcohol. You might be able to smell and tell that there’s alcohol, but you couldn’t look or smell and say what the proof of it is,” said Campbell.
Currently, both private and government labs in Florida use lab tests that only indicate the presence of THC, not the concentration of the cannabinoid. Field tests to identify marijuana that are commonly used by law enforcement officers face similar limitations. With hemp products containing less than 0.3% THC now legal, prosecutors are no longer able to bring charges based solely on the presence of THC in a sample.
“The current posture is that no public or private lab in Florida can do this