Saw this post by @anon1342 and thought it worthy of a new discussion in a needed new Hemp subcategory. May pin this thread depending on how the discussion evolves
What are your methods?
Receiving all the hemp slanger samples I’ve seen most people include COAs, a copy of their license, and a disclaimer/declaration/“its hemp dummy” letter.
For shipping liners across state lines:
Documents included from sender:
-COA from DEA certified laboratory.
-Phytosanitary certificate from state regulatory agency
-Grower license/permit showing that we are permitted to grow hemp.
-BOL
Documents included from buyer:
-State transportation form (from department of Agriculture)
-Grower license/permit (if they are growing the hemp that we ship)
-DEA Certificate
If needed, letter of approval from department of agriculture to transport materials to said state. Lead State Affairs notifies department of Agriculture of incoming material and communicates delivery to state plant inspection. Copies of these documents are shared to drivers and sent as a PDF packet to all parties. Upon shipment arrival, material is inspected by Department of Agriculture and signed off.
If shipping biomass across state lines:
-COA
-BOL
-Growing License
-Destination Extraction permit/license
We notify County Chief of Police and provide them with transportation route along with proper documentation. They in turn dispatch to local authorities along the transportation route along with time-frame of when the carrier will be in their range. This prevents any surprises along the way.
We take our shipments seriously and make sure the system is air-tight.
Good for anyone who gets results with a lawyerly letter, but as far as the actual law goes, it is virtually impossible to get your seized property back by suing. That’s the rationale behind taking extensive precautions. Once they seize the property, it’s all over. The best bet to get your stuff back is to buy it from the cops at their auction, as sad as that is.
Lets not forget you can also insure your USPS packages (although it maybe a moot point, not sure how it applies to seizures) … could be helpful. - inputs welcome
USPS Packages Suspected of Containing Marijuana:
uspsoig.gov/sites/default/files/document-library-files/2016/HR-AR-17-001_Redacted.pdf
Can anyone share the version that is not redacted?
https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/judicial/admin-decisions/2018/mlb-18-39-fd.htm
As linked above. Pretty sure that’s exactly how kab got theirs back?
Strongly advise against FedEx, especially since USPS is ok (as long as you save records for two years). If you get your product seized, definitely try asking for it back… nicely, persistently, and only using laws and logic… and that’s no guarantee, sadly. I truly feel for everyone who has had to deal with this, and @anon1342 makes a damn good point for protecting against seizures involving USPS… so here’s the script I read on a conference call with DSP to get our plants back from their evidence lockup…
9am, Friday morning, DSP seized 140 of our plants while they were en route to Maryland from North Carolina (via FedEx). The troopers disregarded the certificates of authenticity that were included in the shipment, and have taken our property without due diligence or due process. Neither myself nor the seller were contacted in an attempt to validate the contents of our shipment. The only information we received was a FedEx signature comment that read “seized by police.”
FedEx explained that two State Troopers (from DSP Troop 2) took custody of our shipment during a “routine” inspection. 9pm Friday night, I called DSP Troop 2 and informed Corporal X that I was on my way to recover our plants. When I arrived at DSP Troop 2, I met with Sergeant X, and we spoke at length about the origin of the package and its contents. Sergeant X said; “we don’t know the difference between marijuana and hemp.” I thoroughly explained that hemp is everything under 0.3% D9THC and marijuana is everything over 0.3% D9THC.
After educating Sergeant X on the difference between hemp and marijuana, I provided him with a folder containing copies of all relevant documentation, and then proceeded to cite Federal law:
After citing Federal law, I cited Delaware law:
• “Industrial hemp” means the plant Cannabis sativa L. and any part of such plant, whether growing or not, with a delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol concentration of not more than 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis.After citing Delaware law, I cited Maryland law:
After citing Maryland law, I cited North Carolina law:
• Industrial hemp. – All parts and varieties of the plant Cannabis sativa (L.), cultivated or possessed by a grower licensed by the Commission, whether growing or not, that contain a delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol concentration of not more than three-tenths of one percent (0.3%) on a dry weight basisAfter presenting proof (beyond a reasonable doubt) that our shipment was legitimate, the State of Delaware conversely determined that it was not. DSP maintains that our plants tested positive for (what they claim is) THC, and for this reason alone they are refusing to release our package.
Every official source has claimed “the plants tested positive for THC,” but this is relatively improbable for a number of scientific reasons:
• Hemp clones are alive and must be dehydrated/dried before testing for D9THC.
• Hemp plants with less than 0.3% D9THC (at full maturity) are biologically incapable of producing more than 0.3% D9THC (at two weeks of age).
• Presumptive testing for marijuana is not a valid substitute for presumptive testing for hemp.
• Only DEA-approved laboratories (with a GCMS or HPLC) are legally capable of testing Schedule-1 narcotics… specifically, the presence of a unique compound (like THC).
In fact, a presumptive test for “hemp” does not yet exist, and therefore, it is my interpretation that any “hemp” result obtained from a “marihuana” field test kit (both positive and negative) is unequivocally invalid. It is also my understanding that a federal ruling against field testing for cannabis sativa L. (to include hemp and marijuana) may have implications reaching far beyond our industry… perhaps even a moratorium cannabis sativa L. field tests altogether.
If I put heroin in a marijuana test kit, and it tests positive, does that make it marijuana? No
If I put cocaine in a marijuana test kit, and it tests positive, does that make it marijuana? No
So if I put hemp in a marijuana test kit, and it tests positive, does that make it marijuana? No
Judges are consistently misled to believe that hemp and hemp products were field tested by police and presented a preliminary positive result for THC, but that’s factually incorrect. ‘Marihuana’ field tests can only qualify the presence of cannabinoids, and cannot quantify the percentage of any single cannabinoid. Therefore, a plant with zero THC and any amount of CBD, CBN, or CBG (all of which are legal if derived from hemp plants) will absolutely fail the presumptive test and present a false positive result… of which prosecution is enabled (and in most cases required).
“The purpose of this notice is to gather information to determine if there are vendors in the marketplace capable of providing field test kits (color tests, instruments, etc.) that can distinguish between hemp (non-controlled cannabis with a THC content of less than 0.3%) and marijuana (federal controlled cannabis with a THC content above 0.3).”
DSP does not have the capacity to quantitively test for THC in the field.
DSP does have the capacity to qualitatively test for cannabinoids in the field.
DSP has made an honest mistake and should return our property today.
and within 24 hours, 70% were back home… albeit somewhat fucked. they recovered, and so did we!
Lawsuits can get expensive because they have unlimited resources to hold your product and/or property. Good luck Steve, let me know if I can help!
I was thinking more about cops than usps. Good for them, though. I can only wonder about their legal bill. Footnote 2 of the decision mentions that “66 related cases are pending before the Postal Service’s Office of Administrative Law Judges” so we may see similar decisions coming.
What about hemp derived cbd oil? I checked with the dept that regulates hemp in my state and they told me I don’t need a license if I’m not working with biomass or making products. So if the THC content is sub 0.3% can I ship with no permits?
I don’t have a legal answer, but would your intent be to ship a product to people you know or to sell and ship? If you’re trying to sell and ship across state lines you could still run into some issues potentially. I would reach out to one of the verified slangers and see if they’d help or offer to consult on your business plan.
I don’t have a business plan. I just want to buy oil and fuck around as a hobby.
Moral of the story is there are no guarantees that any of the common carriers will deliver hemp products. As long as there is a lack of education and a surplus of ignorance, we will continue to see shipments delayed, stopped, or seized. That is why Fide Freight decided to get involved. We do not use common carriers, we hire dedicated drivers to move from your place to your customers. There are not extra stops, we carry more paperwork than the law requires, and we know what areas to avoid.
We do run into law enforcement on about 10% of our shipments, but since we have all our T’s crossed and I’s dotted, they let us go without any issues.
Our superior SOPs have helped us maintain a 100% success rate with hemp shipments both domestically and internationally. I cringed every time another farmer, processor, wholesaler, or hemp enthusiast loses his shipment or worse get’s arrested for it. There are better solutions out there and the service/experience we provide/have is worth more than the risk incurred through shipping via USPS.
See my article about our shipment in Wyoming. The Wyoming State Police stopped a small shipment of hemp flower (most commonly seized item)
If you need more information I encourage everyone to read through our blog. We are 100% transparent with everything and we share it on our Hemp Blog. You can see how much each truck can hold, which solutions we have based on value, size, and urgency. We have built a company to help.
Do you have a solution to my particular problem?
Feel free to email me Jon@fidefreight.com or private message me.
I have some questions first. 
Following up on this thread.
Shipping has, in the last two months, been increasingly more difficult. The DOT and Highway patrol are more educated on the documents you need to ship hemp compliantly.
A recent conversation with a DOT officer revealed that they will be looking for a select few things that other shippers (our competitors) have failed to provide in the past. These are specific things on the BOL, COA, and Hemp License. The police are also checking and validating COA’s by calling the lab. So falsified information will be caught. Fide will do this ahead of time to mitigate the risk.
Among other things, the police are going to make it more “difficult” to ship hemp. Fide is going to stay ahead of this and make sure to obtain all proper permits, verification forms, and even going one step ahead with our own in house documents to ensure a smooth transit.
Feel free to contact us if you would like more information. We are happy to talk to our hemp professionals and make sure, whether they use us or our competitors, that their product arrives without issues.
313 651 7060
That is good to know. It’s probably another criminal charge for the falsified document. Later in life if you apply for any sort of professional license, they call something like that a “crime of dishonesty” and look upon it very unfavorably, to say the least.
Hi Braxton, welcome to the forum. Now kindly fuck off with your advertising. You need to be verified, nobody is going to buy shit from you here.
I’m gonna save your number and use it for robo calls.
They insure hemp derived products?
Lots of packages going missing through major carriers and folks shipping hemp LTL to save on cost. Worse is the wrong class of freight is put down many times and folks cannot put in a real claim.
Lots of pretenders in the logistics world who claim they ship hemp but don’t understand the way to do it properly which puts the entire supply chains reputation and investment on the line.
