After 2 months of interstate commerce harassment, the new District Attorney for Osage County is trying to quietly end the saga by dropping charges against the 2 actual truckers. D.A. Mike Fisher now admits that he doesn't have evidence of a crime, much less a citation, of the 2 truckers. It's not certain what is the status of the half-million dollar shipment or the semi tractor/trailer rig that was used in the federally-protected interstate commerce of legal hemp commodities. According to reports, the payload & truck are at an undisclosed location in Osage County.. Typically, the District Attorneys are as aggressive to seize the vehicles and payload, to enhance their own operating budgets and staff payrolls. And due to federal abuse of piracy laws, the govt. now acts like the very pirates they claim to be policing. It now falls upon the truckers and their employers to prove that no federal infractions occured, rather than the onus of proof falling upon the prosecutors. | The local testing took place after criminal charges were filed. Fisher declined to reveal results of that testing Friday. |
Fisher is now making vague statements about the security company not being licensed in Oklahoma, as though there is some requirement for interstate commerce participants to attain some unspecified security license in each state they traverse. Such matters fall under the authority of the federal govt. to oversee & enforce according to federal statutes. Fisher did not cite any federal statute in his recent press statements, nor has he even filed specific security-related charges in the matter.
The next court date is scheduled for August 7th. Interest in this matter is high and several states have an interest in opposing the rogue actions of any prosecutor or city cops who might hamper interstate commerce.
The shippers specifically ordered that the shipment avoid Illinois & Kansas because of their legacy of harassment. Oklahoma now has a growing reputation because of this trucking interference.
Unlike real marijuana, which typically tests at 10.0-25.0% of THC (the federally controlled substance); Hemp typically tests well under 1.0%. Oklahoma state law says that it must be under 0.3%, or face confiscation of the exceeding product. According to past reports, the Kentucky shipment sat drying for several days before it was tested. Then some of it tested close to 0.5%. Because of the weeks of delay before testing, it's not even clear that any of the product was above 0.3% on the night that it came through Oklahoma.
Fisher is insisting that any Industrial Hemp which goes over 0.3% is to be considered Marijuana and that drug trafficking charges should aggressively be enforced. But the Oklahoma Industrial Hemp law states that no criminal prosecution action is called for if the THC is under 1.0%.
The Tulsa World has written extensively on Friday's developments.