Drug Trafficking

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Marijuana: Is the Whole Plant Illegal? No!

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This is a forgotten issue but has reduced many marijuana cases from trafficking to felony possession, when the state is weighing a marijuana plant the entire plant is not criminalized by the state of Georgia.   In short the stalk of the plant should not, but is sometimes included, in the weight of marijuana presented in court.

An example why this important.  If you are prosecuted for marijuana trafficking and the weight is close to the legal cutoff for trafficking, for instance if you are being prosecuted for eleven pounds, the stalks generally carry a third of the plants weight.

“Marijuana” is defined by O.C.G.A. 16-13-21 as  “all parts of the plant of the genus Cannabis, whether growing or not, the seeds thereof, the resin extracted from any part of such plant, and every compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture, or preparation of such plant, its seeds, or resin; . . .  and shall not include the completely defoliated mature stalks of such plant, fiber produced from such stalks, oil, or cake, or the completely sterilized samples of seeds of the plant which are incapable of germination.”