Global Ganja Report

The prosecutor for Miami-Dade County is the latest of several around the country to halt minor cannabis cases. The move was prompted by a dilemma vexing law enforcement nationwide: the inability to distinguish between THC and legal CBD in confiscated samples.

The Miami-Dade State Attorney's office will no longer prosecute minor cannabis cases—a significant policy shift spurred by Florida's newly enacted hemp law. 

While prosecutors in places like New York and Baltimore are now declining to pursue such cases in recognition of the social and racial injustices of cannabis prohibition, in Miami-Dade County the motivating factor is an unanticipated dilemma created by the US Farm Bill, which last year legalized industrial hemp and hemp-derived CBD.

States are now passing bills to bring their own laws into conformity with the new federal policy, and Florida did so on July 1.

But, in a reality that has authorities consternated in conservative states like Texas, law enforcement often lacks the technical ability to distinguish between newly legal CBD and still illegal THC in confiscated samples of herbaceous cannabis. So, at least until this problem is resolved, Miami-Dade has essentially instated a de facto decriminalization where small quantities are concerned. And, as the Miami Herald wryly puts it, for amounts large enough for felony charges, "police will now be required to get lab tests to confirm that marijuana is, well, actually marijuana."

Sativa semantics and the law
The decision was announced Aug. 8 in a memo sent to Miami and Dade County law enforcement agencies. "Because hemp and cannabis both come from the same plant, they look, smell and feel the same,"  State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle wrote, in a somewhat confused statement. "There is no way to visually or microscopically distinguish hemp from marijuana."

The first sentence of that statement is technically nonsensical. While hemp and marijuana are distinct categories (a question of THC content and, to an extent, which part of the plant), hemp and cannabis are overlapping ones. Hemp and marijuana alike are both forms of cannabis. This semantical confusion is seen nationwide, and exacerbates an already confused legal situation.

Adding more confusion still, some media accounts have failed to distinguish between the de facto decriminalization by failure to prosecute and the de jure decriminalization of changing the law to actually remove criminal penalties. For instance, in a report on this dilemma, Green Entrepreneur uses the extremely misleading headline "Florida and Texas Decriminalize Marijuana Possession." Neither state has passed any decrim bill, and in both cases the suspension of prosecutions is happening at the local level, not statewide.

Miami-Dade is not alone, however. Tallahassee's State Attorney Jack Campbell has also announced that prosecution for cannabis possession is on hold, at least until protocols are in place for distinguishing between legal and illegal varieties.

Cultural normalization
With the prosectutions suspended, meanwhile, signs are fast mounting of a cultural and consciousness shift in local perceptions of cannabis. In a significant leap for the plant's normalization, Miami Dade College has announced new classes on cannabis science and cultivation, and a certificate program to prepare students for careers in the medical marijuana industry.

For now at least, students will learn about cultivation and extraction mostly from a "theoretical standpoint," Mark Meade, chair of the school's Biology, Health & Wellness Department, told the Miami New Times. That is, there won't be hands-on instruction in cultivation techniques. But classes to be offered include Biology of Cannabis, Chemistry of Cannabis, and Florida Cannabis Policy & Regulation. A certificate program, Cannabis Industry Science Specialist, is planned, to be developed over the next academic year. 

"Our main goal, the way we look at it, is we simply want to be the epicenter for cannabis education, not only in Florida but nationwide," said Efrain Venezuela, the associate dean of faculty.

And the Miami Beach Convention Center last week hosted the USA CBD Expo, with some 700 brands represented.

However, the Miami Herald, in its coverage of the CBD confab, also noted a cautionary development. Just as the trade show opened, the federal Food & Drug Administration sent a warning to Curaleaf, one of the country's top medical marijuana companies and operator of 25 dispensaries in Florida. The FDA scolded Curaleaf for illegally selling unapproved products that made "unsubstantiated claims [to] treat cancer, Alzheimer's disease, opioid withdrawal, pain and pet anxiety."

This is also a somewhat confused statement, however; whatever unfounded clams are being made about cancer or Alzheimer's,  the analgesic properties of cannabis are well established.

The industry is still waiting on the FDA to issue regulations for food and drug products that contain hemp-derived CBD.

Image from Greenwhich Mean Time