<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div dir="ltr">Just seven miles to the west of Moscow, a same-sex couple can get married and light up a bong at their wedding reception, and all the local authorities are going to tell them is not to drive.<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><br></div>Courtesy of today’s (November 11, 2019) Lewiston Tribune.<div><br></div><div>———————————————</div><div><br></div><div><h1 itemprop="headline" class="headline" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 42px; margin: 0px 100px 0px 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.1; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">What new federal hemp rules mean for Idaho</span></h1><h2 itemprop="alternativeHeadline" class="subhead" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.1; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin: 10px 100px 10px 0px; font-size: 24px; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Development could affect lawsuit brought against state by a Colorado firm after $1.3 million worth of its product was seized</span></h2></div><div><br></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">BOISE — Attorneys representing a Colorado-based company suing the Idaho State Police for seizing a shipment of hemp in January are pointing to new federal rules governing hemp production and transport to bolster their legal arguments.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The new rules also mean the Ada County Prosecutor’s Office will not prosecute people who are transporting hemp grown under 2014 and 2018 federal legislation in states where it is legal to do so, provided there is full compliance with the rules and proper documentation.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Big Sky Scientific is roughly 10 months into its lawsuit against ISP, after police in January seized 6,701 pounds of hemp the company had bought and was transporting through Idaho. Portland trucker Denis Palamarchuk, 38, was transporting the hemp for Big Sky, from an Oregon farm to Colorado, when he stopped in Ada County and troopers seized the shipment and arrested him.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">They did so because hemp, under Idaho law, is legally considered marijuana. Hemp, like marijuana, is a strain of cannabis, and often contains small amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol, the compound in marijuana that creates a high. Under the 2018 Farm Bill, hemp is legal, and must contain 0.3 percent or less THC, which is not enough to produce a high. Industrial hemp is legal in some capacity in almost every state in the country, and is used in everything from rope to lotion to beer.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">While Palamarchuk was originally charged with trafficking marijuana — a felony carrying a mandatory five years in prison given the amount of the plant he had — prosecutors later made an agreement with him by which he pleaded to possessing a faulty bill of lading instead, which is a misdemeanor.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">ISP, however, has not returned the $1.3 million worth of hemp to Big Sky Scientific, prompting the lawsuit. The company’s attorneys, in an Oct. 30 motion, invoked a new set of interim rules governing the hemp industry the U.S. Department of Agriculture published last month, saying those rules make the seizure of the hemp illegal.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Scott Graf, spokesman for the Idaho Office of the Attorney General, told the Idaho Press he could not comment on the case, since it is still pending.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><strong style="font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><br></strong></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><strong style="font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">INTERIM RULES</strong></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">In 2014, the federal government allowed hemp pilot programs to be established at the state level, and farmers began to cultivate the crop. After President Trump signed the 2018 Farm Bill, hemp became legal at the federal level — although it is still illegal under Idaho law. The 2018 Farm Bill included a section called “Subtitle G,” that called for states to establish their own hemp-growing programs if they so desired. States were to submit their plans to the federal government for approval.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The new interim rules, released in October, offer states a road map to submit those plans. Much of the rules are not currently germane to Idaho, since the state is one of only a handful without a hemp program or immediate plans to establish one — efforts to legalize the crop were unsuccessful in the 2019 legislative session. The Ada County Prosecutor’s Office has in the past held that until those programs are set up and approved by the federal government, there is no legal hemp in the country.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Portions of the new rules speak to the interstate transport of hemp, a topic very much at issue in Idaho politics. Elijah Watkins, the attorney representing Big Sky Scientific in the lawsuit against the Idaho State Police, said he believes those portions require states to allow hemp to be transported across their borders if it was grown under the 2014 pilot programs, as Big Sky Scientific’s hemp was.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">“No State or Indian Tribe may prohibit the transportation or shipment of hemp or hemp products lawfully produced...under (the 2014 Farm Bill pilot programs) through the State or territory of the Indian Tribe, as applicable,” the new rules read.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">These new rules are the first to reference the 2014 Farm Bill specifically, according to Scott Bandy, Ada County’s chief criminal deputy prosecuting attorney,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">“The 2018 Farm Bill did not include that language,” he said.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><strong style="font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">MOVING FORWARD</strong></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Bethany Calley, spokeswoman for the Ada County Prosecutor’s Office, said prosecutors will evaluate any future hemp-related cases on a case-by-case basis. If those transporting hemp through the state have the necessary documentation proving the hemp being transported was produced in accordance with either the 2014 pilot programs or the 2018 Farm Bill, they will not be prosecuted, she said. That’s a result of the USDA’s new rules.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Bandy said the office would track which states establish programs under the new regulations. In the future, if a person is transporting hemp through the county and that hemp was produced under a federally approved state plan, and the person can prove it, they will not be prosecuted, he said.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">“It has been our hope to see such a regulatory system in place so those with an interest in transportation and/or shipping through Idaho are not at risk of violating Idaho’s law,” he said in an email.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Meanwhile, in the lawsuit involving Big Sky Scientific, the company’s lawyers have listed the new rules as a “supplemental authority” — meaning the attorneys believe the rules can help a judge make a decision in the case. The case’s next hearing is scheduled for Friday.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><br></div><div>———————————————<br><br><b><i><u>LEGALIZE IT</u> ! <u>REGULATE IT</u> ! <u>TAX IT</u> !</i></b><br><br></div><div><img src="cid:89EA2712-7849-49F5-8293-DC3EB88FDFD7"><br><br>I have one last thing to say . . .</div><div><br></div><div><b>“Don’t Bogart That Joint”</b></div><div>www.tomandrodna.com/MoscowCares/Songs/Dont_Bogart_That_Joint.mp3</div><div><br><div dir="ltr"><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>