When hemp was legalized in Florida, many state attorneys announced that they would delay or no longer prosecute misdemeanor marijuana cases. This development has prompted the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida to announce that the feds will now take charge of prosecuting those marijuana charges. This approach is expected to set new standards regarding the prosecution of marijuana cases.
Florida law is clear that marijuana is illegal except for patients who are certified to use medical marijuana. However, the hemp law complicates matters for law enforcement because hemp is identical in appearance and smell to marijuana.
To tell them apart, sophisticated tests must be done to ascertain how much THC is contained in the samples seized.
Jack Campbell, one of the prosecutors who spoke about the difficulties of prosecuting marijuana cases post-hemp legalization, welcomed the announcement that the feds would now take the reigns. Campbell believes that the considerable resources at the disposal of the feds will be invaluable in the fight to get marijuana off the streets.
The cases handled by the federal prosecutors will blaze a trail for the future of marijuana prosecution at a time when hemp is legal. For example, questions regarding whether a police officer can establish probable cause to search a person, vehicle or premises after he or she, or even a sniffer dog, detects the smell of marijuana.
Those precedents will be important in answering some of the nagging questions that have emerged among the members of the law enforcement community.
The feds also have the facilities to test for THC. This is currently not possible in the crime labs of the state, so investigators who wish to proceed with cases have to incur high costs to have samples tested by private labs that have the appropriate testing equipment.
However, not everyone is happy that the feds are getting involved. For example, Richard Greenberg, the President of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, says that people who are prosecuted may be given stiffer punishments than they would have faced if they had been handled by the state prosecutors.
Greenberg says such stiff penalties would be unfortunate because there is a strong movement to reduce the penalties arising from marijuana-related cases.
It isn’t clear how many people could be affected since the federal prosecutor hasn’t specified which types of marijuana cases they would be taking over. Industry analysts are of the view that industry actors, such as Wildflower Brands Inc. (CSE: SUN) (OTCQB: WLDFF) and Canopy Rivers Inc. (TSX.V: RIV) (OTC: CNPOF), could be worried that the events in Florida don’t have the unexpected consequence of involving the federal government in the different states in a way that rolls back the liberty of states to manage their own affairs.
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