Ask a Stoner: Why Not Tell the Cops My Joints Are Hemp?

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Dear Stoner: What’s stopping me from smoking pot in public and just telling the cops that hemp is in my joint?
Pete

Dear Pete: Other than virtually zero cops believing you? Nothing, really. Smoking hemp in public places that allow smoking may be technically legal now that industrial hemp is, but that won’t stop police from detaining you. All that hemp talk will just piss them off more, and possibly require an expensive attorney to get you out of a cheap citation for public pot use in Colorado.

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Getty Images/Shane Cotee / EyeEm

Reports of trucks and packages transporting industrial hemp getting “busted” by cops in states from Kansas to New York are common. Most of the charges are eventually cleared after testing confirms the lack of THC in the hemp, but it usually takes a while. As reported in our January 2 issue, Colorado’s Jensen brothers — who turned to hemp to pay off their court-ordered restitution after cantaloupes traced to their farm killed 33 people in 2011 — are still fighting 2017 charges in Kansas for shipping marijuana via FedEx, even though the plant tested below 0.3 percent THC.

If real hemp is having this tough of a time, good luck with your joint.

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