Iowa State Patrol Criminally Charges Man For Possession Of CBD As CBD Advocates IGNORE Personal Responsibility

Feb 22, 2021

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Yet again disingenuous and ethically bankrupted CBD businesses in Iowa have left an Iowan man out to dry.

With friends like these…

In a phone call with the Cedar Rapids based Your CBD Store today about a recent criminal charge against an Iowa man for possession of over-the-counter CBD, an employee tells WeedPress that it is “legal in the county” while ignoring state law. (Legality in a particular county is dubious as a claim — the reality is more like, the police ignore the law and look the other way refusing to enforce the law. At best, it’s decriminalized, from what we understand of the law but we aren’t lawyers.) The employee advised that she was not well versed on the law and gave us the phone number to speak with the owner of the Cedar Rapids Your CBD Store. Past conversations with other Cedar Rapids CBD businesses and sales reps around Iowa have also been full of half-truths about whether CBD is legal in the state of Iowa — it isn’t according to the State Attorney General.

Here is the statement from an Iowan man posted to a public group on Facebook earlier this month:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/594403940988295/permalink/1135774546851229/

This Iowa man likely believes CBD is legal in the state of Iowa due to places falsely claiming it is legal to sell CBD in Iowa. While CBD is legal if you have a medical cannabis card it has been repeatedly reported on WeedPress that without a medical cannabis card you too will face persecution like the unfortunate Mr. Ellis. We have even gone on the news to warn people not to get fooled by fake news about Iowa CBD laws.

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Had this man who possessed CBD flower in December 2020 and was arrested for it in Iowa followed us here at WeedPress on Facebook maybe this entire situation would have been avoided. Below is our coverage of CBD laws, and CBD sales people intentionally lying about the laws, over the past four years. Such little compassion from CBD advocates here is a travesty, and is indicative of why marijuana itself remains illegal: Iowans clearly want CBD and marijuana to remain illegal and won’t advocate effectively to change CBD illegality as long as they can get away with smoking black market products — and selling CBD for profit — instead. I personally think they just like the drama and intrigue that lifestyle brings. Heartache can be quite attractive to some.

Here’s what we said on the 10 o’clock news three years ago:

Jason Karimi is a medical marijuana activist. He is the executive director of Iowa patient’s for medical marijuana. But he agrees with Story County, and says the law is the law.

“I sympathize with people, I sympathize with their customers, I definitely understand the pain, because I deal with it as well,“ Karimi said. “I could benefit from using CBD. But I can’t do that in good conscious or tell other people to do it when I know for a fact it is illegal because I can read the law in plain English like anyone else.“

Watch the full interview with the news about CBD legality here.

WeedPress does not as a rule interview people who are undergoing possible criminal charges in court. Hopefully Mr. Ellis is able to retain an attorney, and does not incriminate himself in public posts on Facebook in the meantime.

The man arrested for possession of CBD flower said on Facebook that he was unfortunately denied a public defender due to having too much income:

According to other publicly available Facebook posts, the man arrested for CBD flower currently resides in the city of Des Moines but was charged for illegal possession of CBD in Franklin County.

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As per usual terrible legal advice from the so-called medical marijuana advocacy community have told this poor man incorrect legal assertions. CBD is illegal in Iowa — especially Franklin County — regardless of THC level. Some Iowans have falsely attempted to play lawyer by telling this man to find out if his alleged CBD products contained THC. THC levels are irrelevant. If you possess CBD purchased at Cedar Rapids stores or anywhere else in Iowa you could be arrested, lose your children to DHS, and even face jail time and felony charges.

Best wishes to this man, whose name was retracted at his request. WeedPress offers sincere condolences to those who have been duped, mislead, or even outright lied to by CBD stores or salespeople. I do not understand why these companies do not first legalize CBD to protect clientele in Iowa. It must be because if they did that, they would go out of business, as CBD is extremely popular and keeping it illegal protects market shares.

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Here are the details retrieved from Iowa Courts Online on the charges against the Iowa man for possessing a substance that so-called advocates sell illegally: