The Texas Department of Public Safety said last week that it would not perform testing to distinguish between hemp and marijuana in misdemeanor cases.
The Texas Tribune reports:
The Texas Department of Public Safety is almost ready to roll out its long-awaited lab test to tell if cannabis is newly legal hemp or illegal marijuana. But DPS Director Steve McCraw notified Texas law enforcement agencies this month of a crucial caveat: The state labs won’t do testing in misdemeanor marijuana possession cases.
The situation comes after the Texas Legislature changed the definition of marijuana last year in order to legalize hemp, drawing a new distinction between two substances that can look and smell the same. The illegal drug changed from the cannabis plant to cannabis containing more than 0.3% THC, the compound in the plant that produces a high.
As lawmakers moved that legislation forward, DPS asked them for additional funding to test THC levels — and thus determine if cannabis is marijuana — in both felony and low-level possession cases. McCraw's letter this month said the legislature did not provide money for testing in misdemeanor cases, so “DPS will not have the capacity to accept those.”
Read more at The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/02/26/texas-marijuana-misdemeanor-cases-wont-go-to-dps-crime-labs/
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