Busted for Chocolate

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Busted for Chocolate

 

NOW Magazine | David Silverberg | Sweet treat triggers over-the-top narco

response at the border

 

http://www.thebetterhealthstore.com/newsletter/03-13-09_March_06.html

 

Feel like a little nip of organic chocolate while you're heading to the Big

Apple, Chicago or San Fran? Careful now. If you're crossing the border with a

fair trade sweet, you may get busted for drugs.

 

That's what happened to Nadine Artemis and Ron Obadia, owners of

Haliburton-?based alternative health company Living Libations. Sure, the New

York State Police dropped charges of trafficking a controlled substance late

last month – thousands in lawyer's fees later.

 

The culprit? Narcotics identification kits (NIKs), hyper monitoring mechanisms

ready to blow the whistle on your tea tree oil or natural toiletries.

 

The story starts in August 2008, when the two raw foodists were stopped at

Pearson Airport carrying their own brand of organic chocolate made of unrefined

cacao, maca root, hemp seeds and goji berries. When Canadian Border Services

applied a NIK test, their sweet treat registered positive for hash, and Obadia

was told he would be charged at a future court appearance.

 

The test, which takes a few seconds, involves a liquid interacting with the

substance in a vial. If it turns any shade of purple, arrest.

 

Not surprisingly, the more complicated follow-up test by the feds a few weeks

later came back negative, and the two were exonerated.

 

Fast-forward one month and those sketchy NIK tests nabbed them again, this time

in Lewiston, New York. On September 11, the chocolate they were carting over the

border to one of their clients tested positive – as did a bottle of tea tree oil

and a natural disinfectant. " The FBI agent had never heard of tea tree oil, so

it was comical and frustrating at the same time, " Obadia says.

 

Again, subsequent tests sometime later by the New York state lab revealed no

drugs in their organic products. But legal fees are still weighing down the

couple, who owe more than $20,000, and their time spent in court has affected

their business, which sells to Noah's Natural Foods, Live Food Bar and the Big

Carrot among others.

 

" Imagine all the other organic companies investing money in their product line, "

Obadia says, " and now the RCMP and customs can arrest you for tests that give

false positives. "

 

Are Canadian authorities relying on a useless test destined to snarl organic

consumers and producers in its trap? RCMP spokesperson Marc LaPorte doesn't

think so.

 

" In practice, these field tests are most often used at airports, " says Laporte.

" Officers never rely solely on these results. They gather their grounds on the

totality of the evidence. The evidence relied on in court is the Certificate of

Analysis from the Health Canada lab. "

 

Yes, but the follow-up test happens quite a bit later, after hapless victims

have already hired a lawyer.

 

At Forensic Source (formerly Armor Holdings), the Jacksonville, Florida, company

that manufactures NIKs used by governments on both sides of the border, rep Mark

Berman defends the product as " the benchmark for presumptive drug testing

nationally and internationally. "

 

But Obadia says he tried out a NIK he bought online, assessing not only his

chocolate but more commercial brands. All tested positive for illicit drugs, he

says.

 

He's not the only one in the alternative health field quarrelling with NIKs.

Mike Adams, editor of Arizona-?based NaturalNews.com and a consumer health

advocate, found two nutritional powders came up positive for marijuana. " With

these tests, anyone can find anything they want in the results, " he tells NOW.

 

And the U.S. Organic Consumers Association has been watching the situation with

alarm. According to Ronnie Cummins, the national director, his group tested

herbs and even they tested positive. " This whole thing isn't just incompetence.

It's terrible,'' he says. " People are in jail because of this worthless test. "

 

The Living Libations duo are supporting a study probing drug tests, funded by

the Marijuana Policy Project and Escondido, California-?based Dr. Bronner's

Magic Soaps. Police in Newport Beach arrested punk musician Don Bolles in 2007

when a test made by Armour of his Dr. Bronner's peppermint castile soap tested

positive for date rape drug GHB.

 

According to Dr. Bronner's Adam Eidinger, " The NIK's false positive rate is

about 10 per cent. This is an estimate from the hundreds of times I've

experimented. Our strategy is to raise awareness so politicians will tell law

enforcement agencies they can't use these tests. "

 

 

 

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