Cops are confusing hemp for marijuana. A laser tool can tell them apart, study says
How can you tell the difference between marijuana and hemp?
It’s a tricky problem for police that’s led to wrongful arrests across the country. Now researchers at Texas A&M University say they’ve found a solution with the help of a hand-held laser device.
The federal government legalized hemp in late 2018, and the product was transported across state lines, the Associated Press reported. When police officers stop drivers, they sometimes can’t determine whether it’s hemp or marijuana because they smell and appear alike, the AP reported.
Measuring the tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, content is the only way to know, the AP reported.
That requires the substances be sent to a lab, “making THC diagnostics extremely time and labor consuming,” according to authors of the Texas A&M University study.
Wrongful arrests over hemp
The confusion has led to wrongful arrests and incarceration.
Texas cops thought they landed a huge marijuana bust when what they actually found was about 3,000 pounds of hemp in the back of a U-Haul, McClatchy News reported. The driver spent nearly a month in jail, his attorney said.
In November, New York City police arrested a man transporting abut 100 pounds of hemp from a Vermont farm to his brother’s CBD shop after the field test was positive for marijuana, WNBC reported. The charges were dropped about a month later, the New York TV station reported.
North Carolina’s top law enforcement wants to ban “smokable hemp” because it’s too difficult to tell apart from marijuana, McClatchy reported.
Lasers to identify marijuana
So, can the tool suggested by Texas A&M researchers solve these problems? They say yes.
Right now, law enforcement uses high pressure liquid chromatography, or HPLC, to confirm that a substance is marijuana, according to the study.
“These sophisticated tests are destructive, time consuming and can only be performed in certified laboratories,” researchers say. “This drastically delays the times of analysis for potential drug substances.”
Additionally, other tests that rely on a change in color of substances are expensive, destructive and ineffective in telling the difference between hemp and marijuana, researchers said.
Enter the Raman spectrometer: a hand-held device with a laser used to map the structure of a substance.
Dmitry Kurouski, an author of the study, told KUT Radio that the tool is about the size of a lunchbox.
“The accuracy is 100%,” Kurouski told KUT. “We can differentiate between hemp and cannabis, and that’s really remarkable.”
What’s next for marijuana testing?
The device will be “highly advantageous for police and border control officers” because it’s portable, researchers said.
But it can also be valuable in identifying different types of cannabis as well as a tool for hemp farmers to analyze their product, according to the study.
But don’t expect it on the market or in police cars anytime soon. Kurouski predicted it could take several years to mass produce the device, KUT reported.