Dear Editor: Congratulations to the new Commissioner for Police Tai Joseph!

I would like to know if the police are going to continue to make controversial arrests for people consuming hemp and pakalolo?

How do the police know the difference between  pakalolo and hemp since hemp was legalised in 2021?

The short answer is there is no way to tell,at least not by looking at it and the police drug dog can't even smell out the difference because both plants contain THC, which is illegal under the Drug Act of 2004.

When hemp was legalised in 2021, it was done arbitrarily. The public doesn't know who legalised it,was it Customs?Was it the Police?

Who knows? The only thing that matters is it was legalised and it doesn't matter if it was done on the basis of random choice or personal whim rater than any reason or system like the passing of a Farm Bill in New Zealand where legal hemp was defined as contain no more than 3% THC and anything over that is pakalolo.

So you see Mr. Commissioner there is no law in the Cook Island that you can point to and say this is legal hemp and this is illegal pakalolo.

I have a suggestion, don't be like the police Commissioners that preceeded you since hemp was legalised in 2021, and rightfully declare that the law has not determined the legal amount of THC allowable in hemp and therefore having no definitive amount of THC allowable in hemp it cannot be determined what is hemp and what is pakalolo.

Are you going to make history Tai by upholding the law on hemp and pakalolo as it stands now, where the criminal justice system cannot legally define the difference between hemp and pakalolo, which makes it impossible to legally enforce?

Or is it going to be the same old same old-meet the new boss same as the old boss?

Steve Boggs.