OAKLAND PARK, Fla. – A South Florida owner of a CBD oil distribution center said deputies raided his facility in Oakland Park this week.
CBD oil comes from the cannabis plant, but doesn't get you high.
"All of our product we had in barrels here and in bins," Paul Roger, owner of E-Z Puff Vapor, said. "They were vacuumed sealed."
The CBD-based products at Roger's business have little to no THC, which is the chemical that gets people high.
"The first thing we did when the product arrived was third party test all of the strains through a licensed lab here in South Florida," Roger said.
But on Tuesday night, Roger said Broward Sheriff's Office deputies raided the business and confiscated about 600 pounds of cannabis flower -- a product that looks and smells like the real thing -- except, again, it lacks the high-inducing active ingredient.
"They came in and searched the warehouse and seized all of our CBD flower," Roger said.
Roger said he had all the proper paperwork to back up his claims, and is even a properly licensed merchant.
"We took a serious blow," he said. "It put us temporarily out of business."
But the while the business is legal under federal law, state law states otherwise.
"The CBD industry has moved at a pace faster than the laws reflect," attorney Matthew Ginder said.
Ginder is a seasoned cannabis law attorney who is not representing the business.
He said the Florida Legislature passed a hemp bill earlier this month that will legally provide clarity on this issue, but so far, it has yet to be signed by the governor.
"It's gonna take some time for law enforcement to understand what is legal and what is illegal under state law and how these products are regulated, so there is a learning curve for everybody," Ginder said.