According to the Huffington Post, a teenager who allegedly made and sold hash brownies could now serve life in prison because of the ingredients that he used. The brownies confiscated by Round Rock officials allegedly weighed around 1.5 pounds. A pound and a half is a lot of hash oil, but the teen had made just one batch of hash brownies.
Officials in Round Rock, Texas, have charged 19 year old Jacob Lavoro with a first-degree felony because he chose to use hash oil rather than marijuana to make the brownies. Hash oil is also known as wax, nectar “dabs”, or “budder”‘ and is a form of cannabis. Hash oil can be the most potent part of the main cannabis products because of its high THC content, which can vary depending on the plant.
ABC News has reported that, under Texas law, that the oil can be treated like a far more serious narcotic, ecstasy. Because a few drops of oil were cooked in, police weighed the brownie batch, sugar, and flour, and charged him with possessing a pound and a half of drugs. Lavoro did not have anywhere near 14 ounces of hash oil, the cutoff for the 10-year minimum sentence. But because he mixed hash oil into brownie and cookie batter, the weight of the baked goods was counted too, according to Forbes.
A spokesperson for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, Erik Altieri, told the Huffington Post in an email that, “This case highlights both the absurdity and devastation of our nation’s ongoing war on marijuana.”
“While Colorado and Washington have ushered in the age of legalization, many states still harshly criminalize marijuana and hand out egregious sentences for its possession,” Erik Alteri said, according to the Huffington Post.
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