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Texas' new hemp law has created some controversy between the Department of Public Safety (DPS) and some District Attorney’s offices after the DPS sent a letter out stating it will not be conducting testing in misdemeanor marijuana cases.
Misdemeanor drug cases were usually only tested in the case of a special request because police officers determined whether a substance was indeed marijuana. Further testing was not required because all possession of any THC substance was illegal.
Now, HB 1325 allows hemp to have no more than 0.3% THC. The new testing is to prove that a marijuana substance is under the allowable THC levels and there are no state crime labs set up to do such a test.
According to Click2Houston.com, the letter also states DPS does not have the capacity to accept the more than 80,000 misdemeanor arrests for marijuana that are made annually and will not be offering any extra funding to handle the cases.
Waller County prosecutor Warren Deipramm said because of the astronomical prices of private testing and because DPS will not be doing testing, they will not be able to prosecute any misdemeanor marijuana charges, according to Click2Houston.com. They are still allowing for arrest, but they will not be prosecuting the cases.
"This just basically hangs small jurisdictions out to dry," Diepraam said to Click2Houston.com.
Although this is not an issue for some departments with local crime labs, such as Harris County, many small jurisdictions are putting these misdemeanor drug cases on hold until there is a resolution.
DPS Director Steve McCraw wrote a letter stating that it should have the testing available in the state’s crime lab by the summer, according to Click2Houston.com.
"If the state refuses to provide these services, then we will need to meet to develop an appropriate plan to move forward," District Attorney Jack Roady said, according to Click2Houston.com.
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