A new Indiana law intended to legalize the use of a cannabis extract to treat epilepsy instead resulted in a massive crackdown on the product across the state, making it more challenging for those with severe medical issues to obtain it.
An IndyStar investigation has found that after the law passed in April, the Indiana State Excise Police confiscated products containing cannabidiol, also known as CBD, from 57 stores across the state. Cannabidiol is a nonpsychoactive substance in marijuana.
The problem: CBD may be perfectly legal.
After confiscating more than 3,000 products over the course of five weeks, excise police abruptly halted the practice in late June, when questions about the legality of the busts surfaced.
Now, public officials are pointing fingers at one another over who is to blame. Ultimately, the debate is likely to carry over into the upcoming legislative session — and it could become a proxy for a broader, far fiercer debate over full-blown medical marijuana legalization.
Indiana’s new CBD law allows people diagnosed with treatment-resistant epilepsy to possess cannabidiol as part of a new state registry. Under the law, CBD products must contain less than less than 0.3 percent tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the compound in marijuana that produces a high.
The excise police, the law enforcement arm of the Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission, thought the new law made it clear that possession of CBD for other purposes was a crime, and the crackdown ensued.
But some lawmakers and Indiana State Police, a different state law enforcement branch, have said it already was legal under a 2014 law that removed industrial hemp products from the state’s controlled substance statute. Some Indiana stores have carried a variety of CBD products for well over a year, including CBD oils, vaping liquid and candies.
The spate of excise busts at convenience stores, smoke shops and a Fresh Thyme store near Greenwood angered store owners who watched helplessly as excise officers removed tens of thousands of dollars in products from their shelves. Some lawmakers are even questioning the propriety of the excise police actions.
The confiscations also upset advocates of the law who use CBD products to treat their children’s seizures. They hoped the law would let people with epilepsy use the product without fear of prosecution. Instead, the law has made it more challenging for those with health issues to obtain CBD oil.
“That’s what makes you feel awful. You feel like you worked so hard to try to do something for people,” said Brandy Barrett, the mother of a 10-year-old boy with severe epilepsy. “I even heard from a few people that our legislation had messed it up for everybody, and that obviously wasn’t our intent.”
Lawmakers said their intent was to protect people with epilepsy from prosecution, not to prompt a statewide crackdown. But they offered differing opinions about whether the product was already legal — an indication of just how confusing the state’s position on the substance has become.
The chaos has now prompted Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill to get involved. His office is conducting a legal review with plans to issue a formal opinion on the legality of CBD products.
“There’s been confusion even within state government,” said Jeremy Brilliant, a spokesman for Hill. “Is this legal? Is this illegal? The goal is to bring clarity to this issue.”
credit:420intel.com