A young woman from North Texas was caught up in a months-long legal nightmare after purchasing a delta-8 vape oil cartridge that she believed to be legal.
Kendall Reed bought the vape cartridge from a local snack shop in Firewheel Town Center, but shortly afterward, she was arrested and charged with a felony for possessing a controlled substance. Although the charge was eventually dropped, the arrest has had a lasting impact on her life, she told The Dallas Morning News.
According to the police report, in July 2022, Reed was pulled over by a Plano officer due to an expired vehicle registration. During the stop, the officer detected a strong odor of marijuana and noticed a vape cartridge in Reed’s possession. Despite Reed’s insistence that she had purchased the product legally, the subsequent search of her vehicle resulted in her arrest.
Reed’s trouble stems from Texas’ continued complex legal landscape surrounding hemp products. In 2019, Texas legalized hemp-based items with less than 0.3% delta-9 THC, but delta-8 THC, a lower-potency psychoactive compound found in hemp, is not regulated. Delta-8 products are sold widely at convenience stores and hemp shops throughout the state.
According to Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis, forensic testing of Reed’s vape oil cartridge showed that the amount of delta-9 THC in the product was about seven times over the legal limit, DMN reported.
Apparently, this is not an isolated case. Just last month, law enforcement officials in Allen, Texas, raided nine different stores for selling products that allegedly contained concentrations of delta-9 THC that were higher than the state’s legal limit, as The Dallas Express reported.
Despite presenting evidence that she had bought the vape from a reputable store that claimed its product met legal requirements, Reed faced months of lost wages, high court costs, and the stigma of a felony charge, according to DMN.
Fortunately, Reed’s case was eventually dismissed, as she had not committed any crime buying the product marketed as fully legal.
“The future of cannabis in Texas remains uncertain, largely due to ongoing confusion between hemp and regulated THC cannabis. For whatever reason, elected officials have been misled into believing that hemp is somehow different from cannabis. The fact is that hemp and cannabis are different varieties of the same plant and can be equally potent,” Jason Vedadi, the CEO of Story Cannabis, recently told The Dallas Express.