Drug charges dropped against Lawrence CBD store owner

The owners of a Lawrence CBD store no longer face felony drug charges for selling hemp flower, which looks and smells like marijuana but is chemically different.

The Kansas City Star reports that Douglas County District Attorney Charles Branson’s office offered no explanation for Thursday’s decision to drop the charges against Annie Martin and Sean Lefler and one of their employees. The dismissal happened one day before the state had been scheduled to present evidence against the couple in court.

Martin says she’s “relieved” and believes the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, which twice raided the store, misunderstood the distinction between marijuana and hemp. Hemp doesn’t contain enough mind-altering THC to cause a high and is now legal to grow in Kansas.

The owners plan to close the Lawrence store later this month and open a business in Kansas City, Mo.

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