One local smoke shop is reporting that law enforcement officials have seized several Cannabidiol oil products from its inventory.
This week, the Green Gorilla Smoke & Vape Shop announced that officials with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration seized CBD oil products from the store on Monday. In a Facebook post, the Green Gorilla called the event a "temporary set-back" and stated that the store is still operating under regular business hours.
Staff with the store referred the Amarillo Pioneer to the store's lawyers, Jeff Blackburn and Ryan Brown. Brown returned our call and said that what took place with the raid was unjustified.
"What they seized is CBD oil with no THC," Brown said. "This stuff is available at Wal-Mart, Natural Grocers, Amazon, everywhere. They basically took legal medicine and $170,000 from these guys."
Brown also said that the Green Gorilla intends to fight the seizure and hopes to reclaim the money that was seized.
"If there's no crime here, which there wasn't, then they have to return the money," Brown said.
The law office also weighed in on the incident in a Facebook post, stating the sale of CBD oil is legal in Texas, as long as it does not contain other products.
"Texas law says it's legal for shops to sell CBD oil as long as there aren't certain substances in it, like THC (the most active ingredient in marijuana, that gets someone high)," Blackburn & Brown stated. "The DEA took CBD oils during the raid and $170,000 has also been confiscated from one of the owner's homes for something that is not drugs regardless of how [U.S. Attorney General] Jeff Sessions squints at it."
DEA officials have not issued any statements on the raid, however KVII-TV in Amarillo reported on Tuesday that the Amarillo Police Department confirmed that the raid took place.
According to Leafly.com, CBD is a non-intoxicating compound found in cannabis. As with Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), CBD is derived as a natural product of cannabis. However, CBD offers more "functional effects without the euphoric high associated with high-THC strains."
For more information on the Green Gorilla, please visit https://www.facebook.com/TheGreenGorillaSmokeshop/.
*Correction appended
