Ohio Trying To Close Hemp, Marijuana Loophole

COLUMBUS, OH — The state announced the creation of a Major Marijuana Trafficking Grant Program this week. Officials hope allocating funds to local police departments will close a loophole that makes prosecuting marijuana users and traffickers extremely difficult in Ohio.

When the Ohio legislature legalized hemp, it unintentionally created a loophole for recreational marijuana users. Senate Bill 57 changed the definition of marijuana to exclude hemp, and defined hemp as cannabis that does not have more than 0.3-percent THC. That seemingly mundane change presented a significant barrier to police.

Traditional law enforcement techniques for determining whether or not a substance was marijuana relied merely on the presence of THC, not determining how much THC was in a plant. Microscope examination and chemical color testing, techniques commonly used by police, were rendered ineffective by the legislative change.

The new grant program will provide up to $50,000 for police to have large quantities of marijuana tested in accredited laboratories — laboratories that can determine how much THC is in a cannabis plant.

“Just because the law changed, it doesn’t mean the bad guys get a ‘get of out of jail free’ card,” Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said. “We are equipping law enforcement with the resources to do their jobs.”

New testing equipment was purchased for the attorney general's Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) laboratories in Richfield and London. Yost's office said a third machine is being added to a laboratory in Bowling Green.

BCI is testing the new equipment and learning how to use it to test for THC content. Yost's office anticipates being ready to test marijuana evidence in early 2020.

Hemp was once on the federal controlled substance list because it derives from cannabis plants, like marijuana. However, hemp has significantly lower concentrations of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the substance that produces a high from cannabis plants.

There has been at tidal wave of change over the past few years for the hemp production industry. The 2018 Farm Bill removed hemp from the federal controlled substances list, decriminalizing hemp nationwide. Hemp is now legal under certain restrictions, and considered an agriculture product, the National Conference of State Legislatures noted on its website.