Don’t Bogart that hibiscus, my friend. We’ve got hemp on exhibit at the Pennsylvania Farm Show now.

The saga continues for the Buffalo Township church pastor and his wife, both in their 60s, after Buffalo Township police patrolmen went all narc patrol on them last summer when a Nationwide Insurance adjuster mistakenly identified their hibiscus for marijuana and turned them in.

Ed and Audrey Cramer sued the police and the township, along with Nationwide. They announced this week they’ll try to settle their case next month before a mediator, their attorney, Al Lindsay said Tuesday. If the mediation fails, a lawsuit will move on to federal court in Pittsburgh.

The case became notorious for two reasons:

- As criminal suspects go, the Cramers are about as unlikely as you can imagine.

- As garden plants go, hibiscus is no twin of marijuana.

The experts got it wrong on both counts — embarrassingly so. They subjected a kind, law-abiding couple to ridicule and abuse. Audrey Cramer was cuffed and stuffed in the back of a sweltering cruiser for several hours before police admitted it was all a big mistake. She has said she might never trust a law enforcement officer again.

It’s more than just ironic that police officers and insurance adjusters are highly trained observers. They’re supposed to be able to give reliable testimony that determines justice and fairness in both legal and civic cases.

We rely on them to know what they’re talking about.

Bearing this in mind, we offer some substance that might be insinuated into the upcoming mediation:

After an 80-year ban, the United States has legalized the production of industrial hemp in 2016. Groups pushing for its reemergence include the Pennsylvania Hemp Industry Council, which exhibited at the 2018 Farm Show. They stress the U.S. imports $500 million a year in hemp and hemp products, all of which could be grown and processed in the USA.

The state Department of Agriculture authorized Penn State to plant its first research hemp crop in 2017. It’s only beginning.

The Hemp Industry Council says the resulting industry will create good paying jobs, stimulate investment in research and development and build a bio-based economy that can provide solutions to real-world problems.

There’s only one problem: Hemp still looks like a crook. Industrial hemp and marijuana are both members of the cannabis family. But hemp has only traces of tetrahydrocannabinol — THC — so you can’t get high from smoking or eating it.

But hemp does look just like marijuana — not like hibiscus.

Nationwide would be smart to turn its PR lemon into lemonade. This emerging bio-based economy could be its opportunity because it will be a customer for insurance and security services. Nationwide might go out of its way to develop methods and protocols for distinguishing between marijuana, hemp and other plant-related industries, and in the process become a leader and expert within the insurance industry for such businesses, rather than an accidental persecutor.

Would police departments pay attention to innovative thinking? Most likely. Municipalities have to shop for insurance coverage, too.

We’re all aware Buffalo Township is not going to pay any upcoming settlement to the Cramers out of pocket, aren’t we?