Press Release Details Dismissal Of All Charges In CBD Case

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JENNINGS H. JONES
DISTRICT ATTORNEY GENERAL SIXTEENTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT
320 WESI MAIN Srn.fft – SUl’JE 100 MURFREESBORO, TENNESSEE 37130 615 / 898-8008
February 28, 2018
The District Attorney’s office initiated actions to enforce the law in this case because the TBI assured us that the items being sold at various businesses in Rutherford County were infused with illegal controlled substances. It is the duty of all law enforcement to prevent the sale of controlled substances. Attached to this release is a copy of the marijuana statute which exempts all industrial hemp products and copies of all lab reports where cannabidiol was found to be present in products sold by the markets. All criminal charges will be dismissed and records expunged. All public nuisance actions will be dismissed and all property seized under the court’s orders will be returned.
Before my office acted in this case, two of my assistants and officers from two law enforcement agencies met with TBI officials at their headquarters. They made TBI officials aware of our concerns that several lab reports they had issued declared that edible products that had been purchased by police officers contained a substance called cannabidiol and listed that substance as a Schedule VI controlled substance. That conclusion by the TBI meant that the substance the TBI lab detected on the candy products was prohibited under Title 39 of the Tennessee Criminal Code, which only exempts cannabidiol when used for medical and research purposes as provided for by the statute.
At that meeting, TBI officials assured us that they were standing by their determination that the “cannabidiol” substance found on the edible products was a Schedule VI controlled substance and that their previous reports were accurate. My assistants at that meeting advised the TBI that since these stores were selling what TBI reported as controlled substances, my office intended to take appropriate enforcement action including seeking injunctions as public nuisances and criminal indictments. TBI lab reports issued after the meeting also found that the cannabidiol detected was a Schedule VI controlled substance.
After all the TBI lab reports were received in this investigation, the information concerning the investigation coupled with the findings of the TBI lab were presented to the Rutherford County Grand Jury and then to Circuit Judge Royce Taylor. These TBI lab reports were filed with the court by my office and constitute public records. The Grand Jury returned true bills because the TBI lab reports stated that the substances within the edible products contained illegal controlled substances. The TBI lab reports and reports of the investigations were also presented to Judge Taylor as part of a petition to declare these businesses as public nuisances under the law. State law declares that any building used in the selling of controlled substances constitutes a public nuisance. Judge Taylor found probable cause that each business was operating as a public nuisance based, in part, upon the findings contained in the TBI lab reports that the products contained a Schedule VI controlled substance. Judge Taylor then ordered law enforcement agencies to padlock each business pending a hearing in court.
Chemists from TBI have now informed my office that they cannot determine whether the cannabidiol detected on these products came from a hemp plant or marijuana plant. I was also informed that the TBI lab cannot determine the level of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in any of the products they tested.
It now appears that the TBI lab reports, if they had been accurately written, should have stated that their findings were “inconclusive” as to whether cannabidiol is a controlled substance. The cannabidiol substance detected by the TBI lab in the edible candies is identical in composition to the same extract from hemp products, which are distinct under the law from marijuana products. Since the TBI lab cannot conclusively establish in court that the cannabidiol they detected was derived from a marijuana plant, the State cannot prove the substance is actually a Schedule VI controlled substance. The TBI lab reports constituted the foundation of all indictments and nuisance actions in this case.