Police released body camera footage on May 21, 2019, of a 69-year-old woman being arrested at a Florida amusement park for possessing cannabidiol (CBD) oil without a state medical cannabis card.
Hester Burkhalter, a grandmother who suffers from arthritis, was arrested after an off-duty Orange County sheriff’s deputy discovered the oil in her purse at a checkpoint at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom in an April 2019 case that made news around the world.
The newly released video shows Burkhalter being handcuffed and placed in the back of a patrol car, where she began to feel claustrophobic and said, “I can’t breathe. I feel like I’m going to pass out.” One deputy said that she threw up, according to WKMG-TV, Orlando’s CBS affiliate.
Burkhalter, who said her doctor in Tennessee recommended CBD, later spent 12 hours in custody and was released on $2,000 bond.
Burkhalter requested to be transported to the jail alone, as opposed to being transported along with another individual who was arrested for possession of a cannabis vaporizer, and a deputy made a call to accommodate her. She was allowed to be taken to the facility in the front seat of a separate patrol car.
“The older female said she gets claustrophobic and feels like she’s going to pass out, and wants somebody else so she can go by herself,” the deputy said on a call.
Once she was in the front seat with the air conditioning on, she said she felt better and thanked the deputy.
“I couldn’t breathe back there,” she reiterated.
When the arrest was first reported, reform advocates condemned the park and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office for subjecting an older woman to an arrest on a family vacation for simple possession of a non-intoxicating compound that is known to treat pain and inflammation.
CBD is legal for medical purposes in Florida, but individuals must be registered to possess medical cannabis in the state. Hemp-derived CBD was federally legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill, though the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not yet developed regulatory guidelines allowing for its lawful marketing as a food item or supplement.
Prosecutors dropped the charges against Burkhalter earlier in May 2019, finding her case unsuitable for prosecution. She’s since announced plans to file a lawsuit against Disney and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.
“Horrific treatment that they placed upon this church-going, law-abiding grandmother,” her lawyer said at a press conference.
In a similarly confounding recent case, a 72-year-old woman was arrested at a Texas airport after security discovered CBD oil. She was charged with a felony that carried a maximum sentence of 20 years, and she stayed in custody for two days.
“To be honest, I did not even think about the possibility of my CBD being illegal or being challenged,” said Lena Bartula, who was going to visit family in Oregon. “It is such an integral part of my wellness that it got thrown into my bag along with vitamin C and oregano oil.”
“Had I thought about it, I would have remembered that I could buy it in Portland,” she said.
The charges in that case were also dropped about two months after the arrest.
In other recent cannabis enforcement action called out as excessive by reform advocates, Missouri police officers searched through the belongings of a man with stage IV pancreatic cancer in March 2019 after a security guard reported the smell of marijuana.
The officers found nothing, but video footage of the search sparked public outrage over the harassing behavior of the officers toward a sick man who said he does benefit from medical cannabis.
Meanwhile, Florida crackdowns continue. In Miami, on May 21, 2019, the Associated Press reported that Phoenix Suns center and forward Richaun Holmes, 25, and former Brooklyn Nets forward James Webb III, were arrested for misdemeanor possession of cannabis after a Miami-area traffic stop. Authorities said they found a recently used marijuana joint inside their vehicle.
Feature Image: Disneyworld in 2010, photo courtesy of Jorge Royan on Wikimedia
This article was republished from Marijuana Moment under a content syndication agreement. Read the original article here.
