Cannabis Law News

Media Report: Texas High Schoolers Are Being Jailed on Felony Charges For Vaping Cannabis

Published

2 years ago

February 27, 2023

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Police often can’t tell if a cannabis vape pen is derived from marijuana or legal hemp, but that doesn’t stop them from making felony arrests

The 74 reports

SPRING BRANCH — When kids walk into the gas station near the high school in this rural stretch north of San Antonio, they come face to face with Texas’ booming market in psychoactive hemp derivatives.

Just inside the door, a glass cabinet entices shoppers to a smorgasbord of fruity and doughnut-flavored vape pens dressed in vibrant, shiny packaging. The store, like many across Texas, is promoting its collection of delta-8 and other new strains of purportedly legal tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the mind-altering part of the cannabis plant.

Any adult over age 21 can buy the vapes at this Valero. But if the Comal Independent School District catches one of its students down the road at Smithson Valley High School with a pound cake-flavored vape, they may end up in county jail, facing felony charges that would follow them the rest of their life.

School officials and local law enforcement are attempting to stymie the sometimes dangerous youth vaping craze by drawing a hard line. Students are offered $100 for anonymously reporting classmates with THC vape pens to the police.

And since sheriff’s deputies assigned to the schools often can tell if a vape pen contains THC, but not whether it’s delta-8 or the illegal delta-9 cannabis oil, they assume the worst, slap on the cuffs and leave it for someone else to figure out.

That’s what happened to Myles Leon, a Smithson Valley senior arrested at school in October with what he says was a delta-8 vape pen. At 17, he is considered an adult in Texas’ criminal system, facing a felony charge based on the as yet unproven assumption that the vape pen he was caught holding might have contained the illegal delta-9.

“They instantly just think it’s [illegal] THC. I don’t think they really care about the difference,” Myles said in December, hunched next to his mother on their living room couch. “Because even I said that it was delta-8 and it didn’t matter. They’re still gonna arrest me anyways.”

When Texas legalized hemp in 2019, the lower-potency THC naturally found in small amounts in the cannabis plant — delta-8 — suddenly no longer fit the state’s definition of illegal marijuana and THC. The market capitalized on the notion of a legal strain of THC, and companies began boosting the concentration of delta-8 to make hemp-derived vape pens and edibles that produce a high similar to pot.

The legality of these lab-produced delta-8 products is still under scrutiny, but for more than a year, stores and users have freely sold and purchased them without issue. If teens get caught with vape pens that are proven to contain only delta-8, the worst criminal penalty they would most likely face would be a ticket, similar to getting caught with cigarettes or alcohol.

But delta-9 THC, the most prolific psychoactive compound in marijuana cannabis plants, remained illegal in Texas in concentrations higher than 0.3%. Vape pens with marijuana-derived extracts are legal in many states, like New Mexico and Colorado, but not in Texas, and the criminal punishments for such derivatives are harsher than for marijuana.

Possession of even one illegal THC vape pen can carry a punishment of up to 10 years in prison and a lifelong label that makes it more difficult to get into college, get a job or find housing. Having up to 4 ounces of flower marijuana is a misdemeanor.

In Comal County, deputies have arrested students on felony charges, not knowing what their vape pens actually contained.

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Cannabis Law News

EWeb Page / SEC Docs – SEC Charges Acreage Holdings, Inc. For Accounting Violations

Published

3 days ago

January 24, 2025

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ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEEDING
File No. 3-22389

January 10, 2025 – The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced settled charges against Acreage Holdings, Inc. for violating the books and records provision of the federal securities laws when it created false records regarding a transfer of approximately $4 million that was temporarily moved into the company’s bank account a few days before the end of Acreage’s 2019 fiscal year.

According to the SEC’s order, Acreage caused an affiliated entity to transfer approximately $4.2 million into Acreage’s bank account on December 26, 2019, with the express understanding that Acreage would return the full amount at the beginning of the new year, which it did on January 3, 2020. Acreage then allegedly created journal entries and other records that mischaracterized the round-trip transfer, first as a repayment of debt owed by the affiliate and later as a short-term loan to Acreage. The SEC’s order further finds that after certain employees’ concerns about the round-trip nature of the transaction were escalated to a member of Acreage’s board of directors, Acreage recorded an additional journal entry that effectively reversed the transaction.

The SEC’s order also finds that during the audit of Acreage’s fiscal year 2019 financial statements, Acreage created and provided written documents to the accounting firm conducting the audit that misrepresented and omitted material facts about the round-trip cash transfer. As a result, the SEC’s order finds that Acreage violated Section 13(b)(2)(A) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 by failing to make and keep books, records, and accounts that accurately and fairly reflected the round-trip cash transfer.

Without admitting or denying the findings in the SEC’s order, Acreage agreed to cease and desist from committing or causing violations or future violations of Section 13(b)(2)(A), and to pay a civil penalty of $225,000.

The SEC’s investigation was conducted by Kiran Patel, Nandy Celamy, Russel Feldman and George N. Stepaniuk, and was supervised by Thomas P. Smith, Jr., all of the New York Regional Office.

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Homberg Leaves Dentons For New Post At Gunnercooke

Published

3 weeks ago

January 4, 2025

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Peter Homberg writes on Linked In Today

After more than 12 exciting years at Dentons, I’m delighted to share that I have joined the international law firm gunnercooke.

I’m excited to offer my clients truly exceptional service, leveraging gunnercooke’s flexibility, innovation, and collaborative culture to support them closely through their legal challenges, while also shaping and expanding my practice in a direction I’m passionate about.

I look forward to the many exciting projects and cases to come, please reach out if you’d like to know more.

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Cannabis Law News

Germany: The Conference of Ministers of Justice propose a resolution to amend the Cannabis Act, allowing authoriries to re-access surveillance for illegal cannabis growers and distributors

Published

2 months ago

November 30, 2024

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German Cannabis Business Association

Conference of Justice Ministers calls for adjustments following partial legalization of cannabis

2024-11-21 | The Conference of Ministers of Justice (JuMiKo) will discuss a proposed resolution to amend the Cannabis Act on November 28, 2024. Berlin Senator for Justice Felor Badenberg criticizes the fact that important investigative instruments such as telecommunications surveillance, online searches and acoustic home surveillance for the fight against commercial cannabis trafficking have been restricted since the Consumer Cannabis Act (KCanG) came into force. In particular, the collection of traffic data and location data for cannabis-related offenses is now no longer permitted, which makes prosecution more difficult, LTO reports.

The JuMiKo is calling on the Federal Minister of Justice, Volker Wissing, to take this problem into account when evaluating the KCanG. Inadequate adaptation of the Code of Criminal Procedure could lead to ongoing investigations failing due to a lack of evidence. In one notable case, a dealer of around 450 kilograms of cannabis was acquitted because findings from the EncroChat software could not be used.

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