A former state official in a position to know tells us that federal authorities seized cannabis seeds in transit to the state’s first marijuana business operating legally, the cultivator Bold Team LLC of Cotton Plant (Woodruff County).
Where there’s smoke, there’s fire? Hardly, Bold Team appears to have done everything by the book, but all states with legalized forms of cannabis face the same Catch-22: Under federal law, marijuana remains an illegal Schedule 1 narcotic, and interstate transportation of products is strictly verboten.
Arkansas law allows licensed cultivation sites to grow cannabis for Arkansans with a medical qualification card, but interstate commerce is forbidden, and no provision was made for legally obtaining mother plants or seeds.
Federal authorities said they do not routinely reveal seizures of contraband until they emerge in legal filings as cases proceed. Bold Team Director of Customer Relations Robert Lercher, whose wife is one of four owners of the high-tech cannabis greenhouse operation in Woodruff County, responded carefully. “In regards to your seed question, what I will say is that Bold Team continues to move expeditiously to provide medical cannabis to the patients of Arkansas, and we have at all times complied with Amendment 98 and all Arkansas rules and regulations.”
Meanwhile, Lercher said the state’s first medical marijuana crop is only weeks from hitting dispensary shelves. “Making great progress,” he said. “The plants have doubled in size since you were here [Arkansas Business took a tour four weeks ago], and we took our first 650 and flipped them to flower a week ago today [Feb. 19].” (See Bold Team Provides Peek at Arkansas’ First Legal Pot Operation.)
State officials have said that cannabis products are likely to be available to qualified patients at some of the state’s 32 dispensaries by early to mid-April.
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