American Police Consider Swiss Test Kit To Distinguish CBD Products From Marijuana

The difficulty in differentiating legal hemp products from marijuana could lead tot he wrongful arrest of people who possess legal CBD products.

Up until recently, it was impossible for police to distinguish between the two without testing the products in a lab. Fortunately for CBD users and the police, things have changed.

Chemists at the Zürich Forensic Science Institute have developed a new test kit with chemicals that turn purplish-pink when encountering products with a higher concentration of CBD and blue when marijuana is detected, according to NBC Washington.

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Dr. Michael Bovens, the Zürich lab's chief scientist, said that after the accuracy of the test was confirmed with lab tests, Swiss police began using the test in September 2018. 

"We are happy if the test is used successfully in other countries as well, of course," Bovens told NBC. 

The Swiss kit became available in the U.S. in June.

Virginia is evaluating the test to determine whether it can replace the field testing kits now used in the state. 

The only U.S. distributor of the Swiss tests, John Waldheim, reported obtaining around 25,000 orders from Florida police agencies, according to NBC. 

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