BOISE — Three-tenths of a percentage could be a key number when it comes to legally differentiating hemp and marijuana.
"The samples that ISP took and sent off to a lab in Kentucky, out of those 31 samples, not one registered above that .3 percent," said attorney Elijah Watkins.
Back in January, Idaho State Police said they made the biggest marijuana bust in agency's history, but turns out; it was hemp, not marijuana.
Four different labs confirm the green, leafy substance identified by troopers was hemp; a discovery prosecutors wanted to seal.
"The ninth circuit recently denied Ada county's motion to keep that information sealed and have then released that lab result to the public," said Watkins.
Initially troopers smelled an odor of marijuana in the truck and performed a field test, but none of the 31 samples in the lab's report tested positive for marijuana.
"In fact, if you add it up and average it out, the average is .17 percent delta-9 THC, so well below the .3%," said Watkins.
The House voted to kill Idaho hemp legislation, which would have allowed hemp-loaded trucks to cross Idaho legally. Currently, hemp is illegal in Idaho, but there are federal protections through the farm bill passed by Congress last year.
