Law Enforcement

In a unanimous ruling, the Maryland Court of Appeals said that police cannot use cannabis odor alone as justification for conducting a personal search during a vehicle stop; vehicle searches, however, are still allowed.

The de-facto cannabis reforms resulted from national hemp legalization have reached several Nebraska counties, where police are suspending cannabis enforcement until they can differentiate cannabis and hemp products.

Following hemp’s legalization in the state, law enforcement offices around Georgia are beginning to suspend low-level cannabis enforcement — the latest is the Cobb County, Georgia police force.

Following the legalization of industrial hemp in Georgia, officials in Gwinnett County have announced they will no longer prosecute or make arrests for misdemeanor cannabis cases.

Republican lawmakers in North Carolina have approved legislation banning hemp flower starting in 2020 due to police complaints that hemp flower will interfere with their cannabis enforcement efforts.

The California Bureau of Cannabis Control and state law enforcement agencies have seized a combined $30 million worth of cannabis products, cash, and weapons from the unregulated industry since 2018.

Due to the hemp legalization law passed by Texas last month, some cities are dropping cannabis possession charges as it has become too hard to distinguish between industrial hemp flower and cannabis.

Some law enforcement groups in Florida will stop arresting or detaining people for cannabis odor because hemp products — which are now legal in the state — can smell and appear identical to cannabis.

Canada has approved a new device to test drivers for potential cannabis intoxication; the test will be used to validate further investigation, either via a drug recognition evaluation or blood sample.

A Humboldt County church that uses cannabis as a sacrament is suing the state after being raided by law enforcement. During the raid, police seized property and destroyed cannabis plants that were inside of a greenhouse.

Just over 19,000 cannabis plants in Siskiyou County, California have been seized by law enforcement officials in the last month. County officials there have banned outdoor cultivation but patients can still grow up to 12 plants (up to six for non-medical users) indoors.

Farmer Luis Hummel, who is in the process of suing the state because his license was revoked “without due process,” has been charged with two felonies and one gross misdemeanor after seized crops tested 10 times higher for THC than the federal limits.

Idaho law enforcement says it will continue arresting long-haul truck drivers who ferry industrial hemp through the state and confiscating their cargo, despite hemp’s federal legalization and a USDA memo that clarifies interstate hemp transport is legal.

The majority of charges filed under the new law have pertained to the presence and placement of cannabis within the vehicle, not impairment.

A recent budget amendment in Washington state aims to give police departments cannabis tax dollars to help combat drug addiction in homeless communities.

Louisiana enforcement officials are planning a crackdown on CBD products sourced from out-of-state hemp farms, despite hemp’s recent legalization via the 2018 farm bill.

An American law firm is suing U.S. Customs and Border Protection to get documents released showing whether or not the agency has the authority to hand out lifetime bans, as it has been doing for Canadian cannabis workers since last year.

The amount of citations Edmonton police have issued for smoking cannabis in restricted areas is 10 times smaller than the amount of tobacco smoking infractions.

William Barr is officially the replacement for Jeff Sessions as U.S. Attorney General.

Gov. Gavin Newsom of California has ordered several hundred National Guard soldiers to redeploy in order to find and eliminate unlicensed cannabis grows across the state.

Regulators in California have begun serving warrants and seizing product from unlicensed cannabis businesses in the state.

The idea of a privately-funded border wall on the U.S.-Mexico border has garnered quite a few donations — but whether it will be built, and what building materials might be used, remains to be seen.

The Idaho State Police seized a shipment of legal hemp in transit between Oregon and Colorado and jailed the driver, despite the fact that the cargo is federally legal and is protected by the U.S. Constitution.

A federal judge has set a binding precedent by ruling that intent does not matter when it comes to cannabis consumption — accidentally consuming cannabis is still a fireable offense.