3 arrested for driving hemp through Idaho given probation

Three truck drivers who were originally charged with felonies for transporting industrial hemp through Idaho have been placed on unsupervised probation.

The three men, who were charged in two separate cases, all had the felony charges reduced to misdemeanors earlier this year. The Idaho Press reports Ada County Magistrate Judge Michael Oths also gave the men withheld judgments on Thursday, which means the convictions won’t show up on their criminal records.

Denis Palamarchuk was arrested in January when he was stopped while transporting a shipment of industrial hemp from Oregon to Colorado on behalf of Big Sky Scientific. Andrew D’Addario and Erich Eisenhart were arrested in 2018 after Idaho State Troopers found that they were driving industrial hemp plants from Colorado to Oregon.

Though hemp products like lotion and food items are sold in stores throughout the state, the plants themselves are illegal because Idaho’s anti-marijuana laws are very broadly written.