It won’t get you high! Accused tells court £90k cannabis is legal

A BUSINESSMAN yesterday claimed £90,000 of cannabis he had bought was not illegal because he was using it to make health products.

Darren Dougall, 43, also told a court the bags of ‘industrialised hemp’ seized by police could not be classed as narcotics because they did not produce a ‘high’.

He claims he runs a company selling CBD products derived from cannabis plants. The court heard Dougall even called police to tell them they had left a 10kg bag of cannabis behind when they raided his home in Linlithgow, West Lothian.

Prosecutors claim that many of the CBD products seized by police qualified as cannabis.

Construction manager Dougall is charged with fraudulently evading an import ban on cannabis, being concerned in the supply of cannabis and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and possessing the Class A drug cocaine between March 2019 and September 2020. His landmark trial before a jury at Livingston Sheriff Court is the first prosecution of its kind in Scotland.

Dougall admitted he was importing the hemp, seized by Border Force officials at Edinburgh Airport, and that he was selling CBD products. He claims they cannot be classed as narand cotics because they contain virtually none of the psychoactive ingredient THC, which gets cannabis users high.

THC is present at levels of 15 to 30 per cent in the illegal drugs marijuana and hashish.

Dougall told the court industrial hemp has a verified THC content of less than 0.3 per cent can’t be used to get high. The court was told a scientist from the Scottish Police Authority confirmed that the Misuse of Drugs Act classified anything from the cannabis plant as a controlled drug.

Jurors heard some of the products Dougall sold featured names associated with full strength cannabis, such as ‘Stormy Daniels’, but none were found to have THC levels of more than 0.2 per cent.

When arrested, Dougall told officers: ‘I’d like you to know it’s industrial hemp. That is not an illegal substance.’

Giving evidence yesterday, he said: ‘It’s non-psychoactive. It’s not got THC which gives you a high, so you can’t get high off CBD hemp.’

The jury was told hemp can be used to relieve pain and improve sleep disorders. It can only be grown legally in the UK under licence. The trial continues.

‘That is not an illegal substance’