MANSFIELD - A jury trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 28 in Richland County Common Pleas Court for a Lewis Center man who is facing felony drug charges for an item he bought legally in a store for anxiety.

Cannabidiol (CBD) oil is not legal in Ohio. But because hemp is legally grown in some states under the 2014 farm bill, it has been allowed to proliferate in a legal gray area and it’s rarely enforced.

Robert Faulkner, 31, of Lewis Center, was indicted by the Richland County grand jury in June 2018 on two charges of aggravated possession of drugs, both felonies of the fifth degree. The charges stemmed from a July 2017 DUI arrest in Ontario when officers found a vial of CBD oil on the passenger seat.

"I had bought it a week before in a head shop in Columbus," Faulkner said Wednesday. He said the one-fluid ounce bottle was half full.

Ohio law makes no differentiation between hemp and marijuana, or the compounds they contain (including CBD and THC), in its definition of marijuana. And HB 523, which legalized medical marijuana, did not change that definition.

Ohio’s definition of marijuana excludes mature stalks/fibers (which allows things like hemp clothing, hemp seed cooking oil etc) to be sold in Ohio. But it includes flowers and “resin” from the plant. The resin is what contains CBD, THC and other cannabinoids (compounds in marijuana).

The Ohio Pharmacy Board clarified this in August, but it hasn’t really been enforced.

Faulkner was stopped at 7:10 p.m. on July 29, 2017 by Ontario police on charges of DUI and resisting arrest while driving at a high rate of speed on Lexington-Springmill Road. He was in the vicinity because he had been working construction in Ontario. Those two charges are behind him.

Faulkner, who has retained Mansfield attorney James Mayer III, said he is not taking a plea deal to a minor misdemeanor charge for the drug possession charges if he is offered a plea deal.

"I want a jury trial or the charges dismissed," he said by telephone.

On Friday, Faulkner's attorney said he is limited as to what he can say due to the pending nature of the case but indicated there have been recent changes in federal law and uncertainty in Ohio law.

"I believe this the first case of its kind in Ohio and certainly an area of first impression for the court," Mayer said. He also said there is not a single vendor in Ohio charged with selling CBD products - the same product his client was possessing.

"I can certainly appreciate why my client feels as strongly as he does. He selected and paid for his product off the shelf in good faith and was later charged with a felony offense," he added.

CBD oil does contains very low concentrations of THC. It does not cause the user to experience a high, Mayer said.

"Possession of marijuana in Ohio is a misdemeanor. Here we have an individual who purchased a substance with very low THC content, and a substance which is widely regarded in the medical community as an effective treatment for a number of medical conditions including anxiety and pain management," Mayer said.

Food trends in 2019:Seeds, meatless meat and CBD.

"The most recently passed version of the federal farm bill appears to legalize the cultivation and subsequent sale of CBD oil so long as the farmer/grower/manufacturer strictly adheres to a number of federal regulations in marketing CBD oil," Mayer said.

"It's my experience you can walk into any number of stores in Ohio like my client did and purchase this product and expose yourself to the same felony charges my client is facing and we are looking forward to working toward a favorable resolution on this case and seeking clarification on an otherwise complicated legal issue," Mayer said.

According to the Ontario police investigative report supplement, which the News Journal obtained, Ontario police received the lab results from Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation on Feb. 5 of 2018 from the liquid vial found in Faulkner's vehicle.

"It came back positive for Delta-9-THC (Schedule I) and Canndabidoil Extract (Schedule I) and Cannabidiol Extract (Schedule 1). It had a net weight of 18.34 grams. I will put together a packet to send to the Richland County Prosecutor's Office for felony possession of drug charges," Ontario police Sgt. Jeromie Barnhart wrote in the report.

The CBD oil bottle was labeled, Queen City Hemp Oil, according to the report.

Richland County Chief Criminal Prosecutor Brandon Pigg said, "We are prosecuting the cases as the law dictates. And we are prosecuting this case."

On Jan. 9, Faulkner is scheduled to appear before Richland County Common Pleas Magistrate Jeffrey P. Uhrich on a hearing on a motion to amend his bond.

Faulkner continues to wear an electronic ankle monitor and he said he would like to get the court to allow him to take it off. He said he isn't a flight risk and hasn't tested dirty for marijuana while he remains on probation.

He said he is always having to explain the ankle monitor at the gym or at the store. He has no curfew but must plug the device in each night or he will receive a call from a probation officer. Faulkner said he's been wearing the device since shortly after his arraignment on May 30, 2018.

"I've never fought anything in my life if I was wrong. I've been in trouble in my life before but I always plead guilty or no contest. But I did nothing wrong here," Faulkner said.

LWhitmir@nncogannett.com

419-521-7223

Twitter: @LWhitmir

(O) "Marihuana" means all parts of a plant of the genus cannabis, whether growing or not; the seeds of a plant of that type; the resin extracted from a part of a plant of that type; and every compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture, or preparation of a plant of that type or of its seeds or resin. "Marihuana" does not include the mature stalks of the plant, fiber produced from the stalks, oils or cake made from the seeds of the plant, or any other compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture, or preparation of the mature stalks, except the resin extracted from the mature stalks, fiber, oil or cake, or the sterilized seed of the plant that is incapable of germination.