Confirming carriers' worst fears about hauling cannabis products, a truck driver was arrested last month for bringing hemp across the Oregon border into Idaho.
The arrest, which came a little over month after the Farm Bill made industrial hemp and all of its byproduct legal, underscores the risks independent truckers and trucking companies face navigating a rapidly changing legal environment where state and federal cannabis laws are often in conflict.
In this particular case, the disconnect revolves around a grey area caused by the timing of the Farm Bill, said Nathaniel Saylor, a transportation attorney with the firm Scopelitis, Garvin, Light, Hanson & Ferry.
The legislation, which passed in late December 2018, contains a preemption provision saying that states must allow interstate transportation of hemp — but only if hemp is produced under a federal program or a state regulatory program.
"Because the bill passed but none of those programs yet exist," Saylor said, "technically Idaho has an argument for its position," which is that the transport of hemp across its state lines violates federal law.
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There's another disconnect at the heart of this case – the chemical distinction between marijuana and hemp. More on that in a minute. First, here's what happened:
On January 24, Idaho State Police arrested Denis Palamarchuck, a trucker employed by VIP Transport in Portland, for carrying what the state of Idaho says is 6,701 pounds of illicit marijuana. (Palamarchuck said he was carrying hemp, but an Idaho state policeman checking the load at a weigh station decided to test the product anyway.)
The police arrested Palamarchuck after the analysis revealed the product contained THC, the psychoactive chemical present in hemp and marijuana. But herein lies a crucial distinction – marijuana and hemp are both members of the cannabis family, but otherwise are radically different in composition.
Hemp contains a very low concentration of THC (less than .03 percent) which is why it doesn't get you high. It's also why the federal government legalized it. Marijuana, by contrast, has an abundance of THC (around 15 to 43 percent). Testing reveals the presence of THC, but not how much or whether the product is hemp or marijuana.
Ivan Pavily, VIP Transport's owner, has no doubt about the nature of the product Palamarchuck was carrying.
"One million percent, that product is hemp," Pavily said. He said he consulted with a lawyer before taking on the hemp shipment, and also had the hemp tested by a third party. "Only then was it okay to ship it."