Jesse Mondry, attorney with Harris Bricken tells Hemp Grower…
Hemp-related litigation is on the rise, and reasons for the uptick are varied. “The collapse in hemp prices last fall caused a lot of disappointment and disruption for growers, investors and others in the hemp supply chain,” he says. “In many cases, those disappointments led to litigation that is still winding its way through the courts. These included partnership disputes and disputes between growers and investors, harvesters, and processors, on up the supply chain to consumer class-action lawsuits against companies selling hemp-derived CBD products.”
One high-profile example is the recent class-action lawsuit against Kentucky-based Bluegrass Bioextracts after the company allegedly breached hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of contracts with hundreds of farmers, as Hemp Grower reported in April.
Other lawsuits, however, have been centered on the confusion between hemp, with designated legal tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) limits of 0.3%, and its high-THC sister, marijuana, as is potentially the case with the Oregonized lawsuit.
Apothio LLC, a vertically integrated hemp business, recently filed a suit against Kern County, Calif., and other individuals and government agencies for allegedly destroying a 500-acre hemp crop, Hemp Grower also reported in April.
In another well-known case that was filed in early 2019 and is still moving through the courts, Big Sky Scientific filed a suit (Big Sky Scientific LLC, v. Idaho State Police, et al.) against Idaho State Police and related parties after police seized a truck with 7,000 pounds of what Big Sky says was hemp. In fact, “The driver was carrying paperwork that showed that the product was hemp and not marijuana, and that it tested at or below 0.3% THC,” reported the Denver Law Review. At issue for Idaho officials was that Idaho law prohibits hemp possession unless it contains 0% THC. (Idaho has since amended its laws to allow for interstate hemp transport.) The case’s significance drew the support of the American Trade Association of Cannabis and Hemp, a nonprofit organization of U.S. hemp and marijuana industry leaders, and the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, a hemp education and advocacy organization, which filed amicus briefs in support of Big Sky Scientific.
Mondry notes that while lawsuits around hemp are on the rise, the case with OHC uncommon. “Although the facts alleged in Oregonized Hemp are concerning, it is important to recognize that this seems to be an outlier case,” he said. “By that I mean that courts are not awash with lawsuits alleging the seizure and destruction of hemp by law enforcement, and the vast majority of hemp appears to be grown and harvested without incident or interference by law enforcement.”
Read the full article at https://www.hempgrower.com/article/hemp-lawsuits-rising-oregonized-josephine-county-oregon/
