A hemp merchant is suing Tennessee police for $850,000, claiming that authorities allowed hundreds of pounds of federally compliant hemp seized in a traffic stop to spoil and become illegal marijuana.
According to a federal civil rights complaint filed Friday, Andrew Smith was transporting 216 pounds of hemp, obtained from a licensed grower in Oklahoma, to a merchant in North Carolina , in October 2023 when he was stopped by police in Sevierville, Tennessee.
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After using a “roadside test called MobileDetect,” police seized the shipment, which the lawsuit claims was accompanied by lab tests as well as approval from the “Tennessee and Oklahoma Departments of Agriculture” – demonstrating it was compliant with the 2018 Farm Bill that legalized hemp nationwide.
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