Police enforcement for "no offense"

In the history of the "war against drugs," both in the U.S. and in Europe, a couple of shining examples stand out. About 20+ years ago, a wannabe trafficker was arrested in Switzerland, coming up from Italy and headed to Germany, with a large cargo of "presumed" weed. After waiting in jail for a court appearance, it was discovered that the weed was a "pretend" substance, clover or something green and "halfway" convincing. The judge released the guys, 2 or 3 of them, with the suggestion that the investors further north would probably make life difficult for the traffickers for losing a substantial investment.

And this moves us to Los Angeles, where police would brag about getting arrests and convictions for a couple of seeds found in vehicles. So aggressive was enforcement of marijuana possession laws in California, and especialy in L.A., that arrests for seed and stick debris were common enough that the car wash vacuums were in almost constant use by tokers hoping to avoid such arrests. And in those days, 50's and 60's, being caught in stings for selling non-cannabis products as weed had penalties on same level as selling actual weed.