South Carolina police who seized a more than 180-pound hemp shipment headed to from North Carolina to Texas have destroyed the crop after it tested over the legal limit for hemp but did not press charges against the drivers, according to a WCNC report. The hemp was cultivated by Bio Lab Global, which is licensed in North Carolina, and indicated last month that the test results had been included in the shipment.
“Business was transacted in North Carolina, where we are fully licensed and continue to do good business. We have worked closely and helped educate our own local police departments on these matters, and it is a frustrating process for everyone.” — Austin Diggs, Bio Lab president, in a statement to WCNC
Wellford Police Chief David Green, whose department discovered the hemp during a traffic stop and ultimately seized it, said they didn’t want to press charges against the drivers, preferring instead to use the stop as a learning experience and an opportunity to get clarity from lawmakers about how to tell the difference between legal hemp and illegal cannabis.
“We do not want to withhold anything that’s legal from anybody,” Green said after the hemp was seized last month. “But the way it’s packaged and the way the investigation has gone up to this point we wanted to do our due diligence in making sure that it is what it’s said to be.”
Officials did not indicate what THC levels the plants contained, just that the levels surpassed the 0.3 percent legal limits. The shipment was headed to a Texas hemp distributor who said he paid between $20,000 and $30,000 for the product.
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