Cops criminalize cannabis industry for profit

By David Sergi, Kyler Rucker of Sergi and Associates

In Texas, legality doesn’t always equal safety, especially if you’re in the hemp business.

Across the state, lawful hemp retailers are being raided, employees arrested, and businesses shuttered. The reason isn’t just outdated law enforcement tactics, it’s a forensic trap being exploited by police and crime labs to turn legal hemp into “illegal marijuana.” And no one profits more from this science fiction than Armstrong Forensic Laboratory (AFLAB), the preferred testing partner for dozens of Texas law enforcement agencies.

The Science Trick That Turns Hemp Into Felonies

At the heart of this issue is THCA, a non-psychoactive cannabinoid and precursor to delta-9 THC, the compound responsible for marijuana’s intoxicating effects. Texas law is clear: hemp is legal if it contains no more than 0.3 percent delta-9 THC by dry weight. Critically, THCA isn’t regulated by the statute at all.

But when labs use gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to test hemp products, the heat from the machine causes decarboxylation, chemically converting THCA into delta-9 THC. In short, a legal compound becomes “illegal” during the test itself.

That’s not just scientifically misleading. According to the Texas Forensic Science Commission, it risks creating entirely false criminal evidence.

“The GC-MS method DPS used in this case did not incorporate a derivatization agent. This method is known to cause decarboxylation and convert tetrahydrocannabinolic acids (THCA) into their neutral tetrahydrocannabinol form (THC).”
 — TFSC Final Report, April 2025

This means the THC being reported may not have been present in the sample at all; it may have originated from legal THCA and been chemically altered in the lab.

“Although the conversion is not 100% complete, the ‘total’ THC identified by the laboratory may have originated from THCA in the evidential item.”
 — TFSC Final Report

AFLAB charges nearly $300 per sample, far above industry norms, and consistently produces results that justify raids and arrests. Law enforcement gets headlines and conviction stats. AFLAB gets paid. And no one has to answer tough questions about the science.

Internal communications obtained by our office show AFLAB director Dr. Kelly Wouters offering officers her own legal interpretations, stating that “THCA is not a legal substance”—a statement that directly contradicts Texas law and the position of the Texas Department of Agriculture.

“The laboratory’s results are being reported as total THC, which may include THC, THCA, or both.”
 — DPS Quality Incident Report, March 2025

Translation: the lab can’t tell the difference, but it will label your product illegal anyway.

Raids as Political Theater: Manufacturing Fear to Pass SB3

These raids aren’t just scientifically flawed; they’re staged performances, carefully timed to gin up fear and build public support for Senate Bill 3, a sweeping anti-hemp bill being pushed by Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.

The strategy is simple: raid legal hemp stores, seize products, run them through a lab that inflates THC numbers, arrest people, and then point to the growing number of cases as evidence that hemp is a threat to public health and safety. It's the classic "create the problem, then pass the solution" routine.

The timing isn’t subtle. These arrests have surged during the legislative session, just as Patrick pushes SB3 to ban most hemp-derived THC products. Patrick oversees the Department of Public Safety. DPS leans on AFLAB. AFLAB delivers the lab reports. Those lab reports get paraded as justification for sweeping new laws.

“Significant efforts are currently underway at the Texas Legislature to ban intoxicating THC products.”
 — TFSC Final Report

This isn’t policymaking; it’s manufactured panic designed to fast-track a ban that couldn’t stand up to honest debate.

And make no mistake: by using GC-MS to “convert” legal THCA into illegal THC, the state is doing through the back door of enforcement what it can’t yet do through the front door of legislation, outlaw hemp by mislabeling it.

The Legal Consequences Are Staggering

Convicting someone based on chemically altered evidence isn’t just a scientific failure; it’s a constitutional one.

“There is a risk that the customer (courts and/or law enforcement) may misinterpret the results.” 

— DPS Quality Incident Report

“It is undeniably in the public interest that crime laboratories be transparent and clear in their reporting statements... and disclose any relevant limitations to guard against making invalid inferences or misleading the judge or jury.”
 — TFSC Final Report, quoting ISO 17025 & Texas Administrative Code

But transparency isn’t the goal. The goal is conviction. And in this new reality, it doesn’t matter what the law says; it only matters what the lab report says.

If you think the war on hemp is about safety, think again.
 It’s about control.
 It’s about money.
 And it’s about keeping the war on drugs alive, even when the science says it’s over.