I’ve heard of people getting arrested for many reasons, but here’s a new one, a couple arrested for carrying chocolate. Not once, but twice in less than two months.
The couple runs Living Libations, a company that sells beauty care products and natural food. After the first arrest they armed themselves with a certified letter from the Department of Justice. The letter clearly outlined the organic chocolate they were carting across the U.S. border was,just that, chocolate.
The couple was arrested and charged with exporting a controlled substance.
“It was absolutely crazy,” said Artemis, 37. “We don’t know what it is that sets the dogs off, but it does.”
This was Sept. 11. Just one month earlier, on Aug. 3, the pair had attempted to board a plane bound for Minnesota at Pearson airport.
“I’m a botanical formulator, so we’re carrying all this strange stuff – little vials of jasmine, vanilla.
“We have a lot of exotic stuff,” she said.
They had also packed some raw, organic chocolate – made of unrefined, unprocessed cacao, maca root, hemp seeds and goji berries.
“At first the (customs officials) said, ‘Oh, you guys are just holistic.’ Then the dogs came.”
The animals went nuts over the chocolate. A rapid drug test was done, which returned a false positive result for hashish.
The couple hired attorney, Marcy Segal, who arranged for secondary forensic testing. The test proved the chocolate was simply chocolate, with no added ingredients. Once again, showing the original results were false positive.
Their attorney, Marcy Segal, stated “Clearly, these NIK (rapid drug) tests are unreliable. Whether or not anything is going to be done about it is yet to be determined.”
My biggest issue with this scenario is the use of perfectly good chocolate being put into a body lotion. What a waste!
