The Harvey County Board of Commissioners is facing a suit for damages and the return of property from a Kansas hemp product distributor. According to district court documents, Sugarleaf Distributing LLC, based in Hutchinson, alleges that the Harvey County Sheriff’s Department seized $44,915.15 worth of hemp products legal under Kansas law in a March 2022 traffic stop and has since not released the items. Jonathan Nicol, an attorney for the company, said that the products have since spoiled. “The difficulty is it’s a big chunk of product,” he said. “Much of it is spoiled at this point.” Nicol said the driver of the vehicle that had the items seized was a contractor for SugarLeaf Distributing, LLC. The company sources hemp-derived products from other states and supplies them to area hemp, smoke, and CBD shops in Kansas. Nicol said that the products seized are legal under the law and contain no more than .3 percent Delta 9 THC on a dry weight basis. He said they have filed affidavits attesting to the legality of the items. The suit states that the products are legal under federal law and that law enforcement improperly applied the state of Kansas’ definition of industrial hemp in a more restrictive manner than is allowed under federal law. The suit asks for a judgment against the county for the property’s value, as well as damages for wrongful detention. It also asks the court to declare the property legal under both Kansa and federal law, declare portions of the Kansas Hemp Act to be preempted by federal law, and award the plaintiff its cost in attorney fees.
Source: Harvey County Now
