Law360 (July 28, 2026, 8:50 PM EDT) -- A man arrested in 2023 after smoking a legal hemp cigarette is suing the city of Charlotte, North Carolina, and two of its police officers, saying the city had made the officers aware that they couldn't distinguish between cannabis and hemp by smell, but they still arrested him and a companion anyway.
In a
complaint filed Monday in North Carolina federal court, Anthony Lee says he and his companion, both Black, were victims of racial discrimination by the police force. The suit alleges the force arrests far more Black people for misdemeanor cannabis possession than people of other races.
"Black people in Charlotte have long borne the brunt of policing practices that have been shown, time and again, to be infected by racial discrimination," Lee's attorney, Janki Kaneria of
Southern Coalition for Social Justice, said in a press release Monday. "Using junk science to justify an unlawful arrest merely compounds a longstanding problem, and this lawsuit seeks accountability."
According to the complaint, Lee and non-party Christina Pierre were waiting at a bus stop Nov. 13, 2023, sharing a hemp cigarette after finishing their shifts at a fast-food restaurant, when they were approached by two officers of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.
Despite telling the officers it was legal hemp that they had purchased from a store, the officers arrested Lee and Pierre based solely on the smell of the hemp cigarette, assaulting Pierre in the process. Charges against Lee and Pierre were later voluntarily dropped after the Mecklenburg County District Attorney's Office determined it was unlikely to succeed on the charges at trial.
As a result of the charges, Lee says his professional and personal reputation suffered, his relationship with Pierre was strained, and he experienced significant emotional harm.
Lee says the officers should have been aware that the smell of hemp was indistinguishable from cannabis, and therefore could not form the basis for an arrest on that alone, since in 2019, following the legalization of hemp in the 2018 Farm Bill, the
North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation issued a memorandum saying as much.
Later publications, such as the CMPD Police Law Bulletin for Summer 2021, would have reinforced that, Lee says, as it discussed a North Carolina Court of Appeals decision that held an officer needs more than just the smell of hemp or cannabis to have probable cause supporting an arrest.
According to the complaint, the arrests are the result of systemic racial prejudice, as a report by the
RAND Corp. found that Black people in Charlotte were more likely to be stopped and experience use of force and be arrested by the CMPD.
In addition, the CMPD's own data shows that more than 81% of the people arrested for misdemeanor cannabis possession between 2016 and 2023 were Black, according to the suit.
"This case is about what happens when police recklessly and intentionally use junk science to stand in for a reasonable investigation," Dominique Erney of Southern Coalition for Social Justice, also representing Lee, said in the release. "CMPD knew for years that its officers could not distinguish between what is legal or illegal based on the mere sight or smell. They kept arresting people anyway. That's not a mistake; that's a choice. That should alarm every person who values their liberty."
The suit includes claims for violation of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments, false arrest, assault and battery, malicious prosecution, and failure to train.
Representatives for the parties could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday.
Lee is represented by Jacob H. Sussman, Janki Kaneria and Dominique Erney of Southern Coalition for Social Justice.
Counsel information for the defendants was not available Tuesday.
The case is Lee v. City of Charlotte et al., case number
3:26-cv-00605, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina.
--Editing by Janice Carter Brown.
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