RAPID CITY, S.D. — No charges will result from May’s police seizure of hemp-derived CBD oil containing THC at a Rapid City health-food store.
„In order to prosecute somebody for the distribution of THC, which is a schedule 1 (drug), we would have to prove that they did so knowingly. And when they’re relying on manufacturer representations, which turn out to be wrong, it would be kind of hard to prove that they did so knowingly,” Pennington County State’s Attorney Mark Vargo said Monday, Aug. 12.
„They were under the impression that there was” no THC in their products, Vargo said of the staff at the Staple and Spice Market.
„I didn’t do anything wrong,” Carol Pugh, owner of the store, said when asked Monday how she felt about the decision.
Rapid City police officers and Pennington County deputies seized 16 individual or bundled packages of Plus CBD Oil products worth about $3,000 on May 23, according to Pugh and a search warrant inventory.