{"id":4127,"date":"2015-05-07T13:19:58","date_gmt":"2015-05-07T13:19:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.cannitrol.com\/\/?p=4127"},"modified":"2015-05-07T13:19:58","modified_gmt":"2015-05-07T13:19:58","slug":"pet-cannabis-raises-questions-about-hemps-legality-in-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/pet-cannabis-raises-questions-about-hemps-legality-in-florida\/","title":{"rendered":"Pet cannabis raises questions about hemp&#8217;s legality in Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/pet-cannabis-raises-questions-about-hemps-legality-in-florida\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p class=\"p1\">Joy Drawdy has an emergency arrest plan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">If the police come, she\u2019ll call her lawyer. She\u2019ll send her friend to care for her store. She\u2019ll have her partner care for her cats, dogs and chickens.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">But she hasn\u2019t had to use it \u2014 yet.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><!--more--><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Drawdy, 45, and her partner, Kat, own Earth Pets, a Gainesville pet store that not only sells soy dog collars and organic pet treats, but it also shelters homeless kittens in a community kitten therapy room.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">But the emergency arrest plan is for a product she sells, called CannaVet, formerly known as Canna Companion during the summer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">CannaVet is an herbal supplement for pets with problems like anxiety, seizures and allergies. The problem lies in its main ingredient: hemp.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Hemp is from the cannabis plant, a variation of which is the marijuana smoked recreationally, medically and illegally nationwide. Hemp is used for industrial purposes like rope; it doesn\u2019t get users high.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"inline-asset-9419aa2c-e32a-11e4-9cec-7f5b510c864a\" class=\"inline-child image\"><span class=\"image-box\"> <img class=\"blox-img-loader\" src=\"http:\/\/bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com\/alligator.org\/content\/tncms\/assets\/v3\/editorial\/9\/41\/9419aa2c-e32a-11e4-9cec-7f5b510c864a\/552efa01aec7b.image.png?resize=620%2C467\" alt=\"Hemp vs. Marijuana\" data-original=\"http:\/\/bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com\/alligator.org\/content\/tncms\/assets\/v3\/editorial\/9\/41\/9419aa2c-e32a-11e4-9cec-7f5b510c864a\/552efa01aec7b.image.png?resize=620%2C467\" data-full=\"http:\/\/bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com\/alligator.org\/content\/tncms\/assets\/v3\/editorial\/9\/41\/9419aa2c-e32a-11e4-9cec-7f5b510c864a\/552efa01aec7b.image.png?resize=728%2C548\" \/> <\/span><\/figure>\n<p class=\"p1\">Hemp sale, not production, is federally legal. But after a 1979 law passed in Florida, it\u2019s illegal within state lines. However, products like hemp milk, seeds and bracelets are still seen on shelves statewide. Some critics call this selective enforcement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">But getting law enforcement to respond to that criticism, or comment on this story, has been impossible:<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u2022\u00a0 Gainesville Police and the Gainesville-Alachua County Drug Task Force declined to comment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u2022\u00a0 Alachua County Sheriff Sadie Darnell, who also serves as vice president for the Florida Sheriffs Association, declined to comment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u2022\u00a0 Bill Cervone, the state attorney for the eighth judicial circuit \u2014 which covers six counties including Alachua \u2014 declined to comment on behalf of his office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u2022\u00a0 The Florida Sheriffs Association did not respond to multiple requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Drawdy doesn\u2019t consider herself a marijuana activist. Instead, she describes herself as a pet activist.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">She first discovered CannaVet after searching online for a solution for her dog\u2019s seizures following the severe side effects, like liver damage, of a medication her dog\u2019s veterinarian prescribed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Iggy, a staghound Afghan mix, would shake and panic up to 10 times a day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">But since Iggy\u2019s been on the CannaVet supplements, her seizures dwindled and eventually went away.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cThere are literally zero side effects,\u201d Drawdy said. \u201cMy dog\u2019s not drugged up. She\u2019s not high. She doesn\u2019t feel weird. I just loved it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The trouble began when she made a Facebook post announcing the new product, which she touted as \u201c100% legal\u201d cannabis for pets.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">She was at the beach with her dogs and family when reporters started calling.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Worried, she called GPD. Officers told her they saw her Facebook post and were considering sending an undercover officer to buy the product and test it for THC, which stands for tetrahydrocannabinol, the active ingredient that gives users a euphoric \u201chigh.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Any amount of THC classifies a product as marijuana and can make the owner vulnerable to arrest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Drawdy called in her lawyer, Dean Galigani, who practices in Gainesville. They sent supplements to the state attorney\u2019s office, and composition test results came back positive for the chemical.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">In a November email, state attorney\u2019s office investigator Paul Clendenin confirmed Drawdy\u2019s worst fear.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cSale at your own risk,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIt is FDLE\u2019s opinion that the product tested positive for THC and therefore is illegal. We can not offer you any further information.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Drawdy panicked. She took CannaVet off the shelves, worried about putting her employees and her friends at risk.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">But Drawdy didn\u2019t want to give up on her pets and the other animals who rely on the product to manage pain. She called the main players: the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Department of Justice, Florida representatives, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Florida Cannabis Action Network and even Publix, because it sells hemp milk.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">She finally made progress with the state attorney\u2019s office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Working with investigators, Drawdy had her product tested twice more, and both times the quantity of THC was so low it did not register in the test.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">At this point, Cervone told Drawdy that if she were arrested, his office wouldn\u2019t pursue the case. He wrote his cell phone number on a business card and gave it to Drawdy \u201cin case of a raid.\u201d It hangs in a laminated pouch in her office, an easy reach next to the door.<\/p>\n<div class=\"long-form-center\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\">That doesn\u2019t mean Drawdy isn\u2019t at risk.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Drawdy still speaks with Sheriff Darnell about her doubts of the legality of CannaVet.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Despite the fact that Drawdy offered samples and research to prove CannaVet couldn\u2019t get users high, she said Darnell refused, saying that simply because the product contains cannabis, it\u2019s illegal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cIf they find out it has THC, they can arrest her for that,\u201d Galigani said, \u201cwhether the prosecutor would go forward with that in a formal prosecution \u2014 they\u2019ve indicated they would not.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">When State Attorney Bill Cervone declined to comment on this story, he did so \u201cas the matter is one that could be before us at some point.\u201d He did not indicate whether he would pursue it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">* * *<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">To David Jones, the communications director for the Florida Cannabis Action Network, the issue lies in the disconnect between Florida\u2019s law and federal law.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">It comes down to a 1978 Florida Supreme Court case. Before the case, cannabis was illegal in Florida except for the parts of the plant that were processed into hemp \u2014 the seeds and stems.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">In 1978, a man named John Lee Purifoy used this exemption to his advantage. He was convicted of possessing more than 5 grams of marijuana \u2014 a felony conviction at the time. Officers weighed his weed in at 7.05 grams, and he was sentenced to three years in prison, according to court records.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Purifoy fought the charge, arguing marijuana stems were legal and therefore didn\u2019t count. Police separated the stems from the seized weed and found the remaining parts of the plant weighed less than 5 grams.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The court ruled in Purifoy\u2019s favor, and his conviction was voided, according to an Associated Press article from 1978.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Law enforcement agencies were frustrated by the result of the case, according to a 1979 United Press International article, because they said it\u2019s impossible to separate stems from seized marijuana, especially when they seize a large amount.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">So the legislation passed a law that both changed the marijuana felony possession amount to 20 grams and struck out the \u201cseeds and stems\u201d exemption.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cThat\u2019s not a loophole,\u201d Jones said. \u201cThat\u2019s just selective enforcement of prohibition. To me, that is one hand not speaking to the other.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">But he doesn\u2019t blame law enforcement agencies for doing what they\u2019re supposed to do \u2014 enforce the law.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cThey\u2019re trying to do their job with their hands tied,\u201d he said. \u201cIt all gets pointed back to these lawmakers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Until the laws change, business owners like Drawdy are operating in a gray area, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">That\u2019s why his organization wrote and supports the Hemp Industry Development Act, a Florida bill that would once again legalize hemp sale and production.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Senate Bill 902 has already sailed through all but one committee. Its sister bill in the house \u2014 House Bill 363 \u2014 is at a dead stall. This isn\u2019t the organization\u2019s first attempt at changing marijuana laws.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">A version of the hemp bill in the last session morphed into the Charlotte\u2019s Web legislation, which legalized a specific strain of medical marijuana for patients with certain illnesses. Currently, the group has their eyes on 10 bills involving the spectrum of uses for marijuana.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Change is coming, Jones said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cIf you believe that medical marijuana is just smoked or hemp is just rope, you\u2019re so far off the mark,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s so 1990s.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Until the law changes, Drawdy said she\u2019s holding her breath. Even though she\u2019s mostly confident she won\u2019t get arrested, she still occasionally wakes up in a cold sweat and runs to the store to tear the skunky smelling supplements from the shelf.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">But she always puts them back.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cIt\u2019s worth it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em>[A version of this story ran on page 1 &#8211; 8 on 4\/15\/2015 under the headline \u201cPet cannabis raises questions about hemp in Fla\u201d]<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Joy Drawdy has an emergency arrest plan. If the police come, she\u2019ll call her lawyer. She\u2019ll send her friend to care for her store. She\u2019ll have her partner care for her cats, dogs and chickens. But she hasn\u2019t had to use it \u2014 yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[52,56,9,70,1,3,61],"tags":[2922,2636,4182,4082,5,6],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4127"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4127"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4129,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4127\/revisions\/4129"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}