Texas hemp businesses say in federal lawsuit they were targets of illegal raid

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A group of Texas hemp businesses and a smoke shop operator have filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Allen, law enforcement agencies and officials, claiming they initiated an illegal raid on hemp stores and unlawful arrests.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday by the Hemp Industry Leaders of Texas (HILT) and Sabihe Kahn in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, alleges the municipality and police agencies violated the plaintiffs’ Fourth, Fifth, Eighth and 14th Amendment rights in raiding a legal hemp business.

According to court documents, the plaintiffs claim legal hemp products were seized through an “overbroad search warrant” and that a testing lab failed to use updated testing methodologies that altered the concentrates of legal THCA into illegal delta-9, rendering the probable cause for the search warrant “inaccurate and lacking.”

The plaintiffs are seeking temporary and permanent injunctive relief, all seized property returned, improved testing standards, search warrant bans based solely on THC and attorney fees.

The defendants include:

  • City of Allen police department.
  • Allen Police Chief Steve Dye.
  • Collin County Sheriff Jim Skinner.
  • U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
  • Sheriff’s deputies and DEA agents.

The lawsuit further claims that certificates of analysis (COAs) show the hemp products seized at Kahn’s store, Allen Smoke & Vape, contained less than 0.3% THC, the legal federal limit established by the 2018 U.S. Farm Bill.

The suit also alleges that the DEA violated a court stay on ordering subpoenas by circumventing the stay by working alongside the Allen Police Department, which initiated the search warrants.

In late August, Khan and several HILT members were arrested and charged with manufacturing and delivering a controlled substance, a second-degree felony.

“Many members of the public now associate hemp businesses, including those within our association, with illegal activity despite our members’ strict adherence to the law,” HILT said in a news release.

“This stigma has already caused substantial harm to Hemp Industry Leaders in Texas and its members.”