Katz selling hemp oil again
When Katrina Evans opened her store Katz on Monday, she placed a sign outside that read “hemp oils sold here!”
It’s a move she anticipates will lead to her arrest. In fact, she already knows what she’s going to tell officers, if they come in.
“I am just going to ask them if they have a warrant, I’m going to be very polite,” Evans said. “And tell them, unless you have the mayor and the chief of police and the city attorney sitting out in the parking lot…then you can just turn around and walk out.”
Evans dealt with local law enforcement in October, when she was told she had to stop selling CBD oil in her store.
Under Idaho law, it is illegal to sell any product that contains even a trace amount of THC, which these CBD products do.
Federally, hemp, which is defined as any derivative of cannabis that contains less than 0.3 percent THC, is legal and no longer part of the Controlled Substances Act.
This move, made by the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, legally separates the crop from marijuana. Now hemp, considered a crop like corn or potatoes, is under the Department of Agriculture’s domain and no longer on the drug schedule.
But here in Pocatello, lots of stores sell hemp products that do contain trace amounts of THC, minimal as they may be.
That’s why Evans decided to purchase the products she is now selling from these local stores, in this case Walmart and WinCo.
With the receipts hanging on the wall, Evans says she’s just trying to open a dialogue with the city.
“We want to sit down with the city and talk to ’em so that we can understand why they are saying “no, you can’t do this,” and to educate them,” Evans explained.
In the time since Evans has stopped selling the product she estimates that she’s lost a significant amount of potential income.
“I figure that I could have probably made roughly $30,000,” she said.
Now, tired of seeing others selling the products without consequence, Evans decided it was time to try again.
“I mean I really don’t want to go to jail,” Evans said. “But I’m willing to do what I need to do to open a dialogue with the city.”
