Bouncing Bear Botanicals Raided

*Update April 14, 2010

I am ecstatic and some what relieved to see this great injustice taking steps in the right direction. Lets not forget this terrible incident and be prepared to fight any attempts to change law in favor the Inquisitions ability to incarcerate good people, steal their property, children and by many other means, destroy the lives of people who do no harm to society. Wishing Jon and his family all the best and I hope he sues the hell out of the abusive authorities that did this to him.
-E

By Janet Reid
April 10, 2010
LJWorld.com

Lawrence is a focal point for the current debate in the Kansas Legislature about banning the active ingredient in an herbal substance known as K2. Follow the debate and the progress of the Kansas bills here.

Oskaloosa — The Jefferson County Attorney’s office has dismissed all criminal charges against the owner of a botanical plant distribution warehouse that was at the center of the K2 controversy.

Lawrence resident Jonathan Sloan, owner of Bouncing Bear Botanicals in Oskaloosa, was arrested in February and charged with eight felony drug offenses, including the unlawful manufacture and distribution of controlled substances.

The arrest came after federal, state and local authorities raided Sacred Journey, 1103 Mass. in downtown Lawrence, seizing the marijuana-like substance K2.

Sloan’s warehouse, which supplied Sacred Journey with K2 and a number of other herbal products, was also raided.

Investigators seized more than $700,000 in cash from the business and bank accounts and took several items from the warehouse, including thousands of cactus plants and 20 toads.

Sloan was scheduled to appear in Jefferson County court for a preliminary hearing in the case on Tuesday. Sloan did not return calls seeking comment.

Jefferson County Attorney Caleb Stegall said while the charges are dismissed, the investigation is on-going.

“My office expects to refile charges if they are warranted once the investigation is complete,” Stegall said.

Bouncing Bear Botanicals is back in operation, according to the business’s Web site. The warehouse, located on Hwy. 59 north of Lawrence, is one of the largest suppliers of ethnobotanicals in the country.

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Original Post

By: EROCx1
Date: Feb 6, 2010

I am sorry to report that the Inquisition has decided to persecute the Internets biggest Ethnobotanical vendor and a retail herb store they supplied. On Feb 4th the FDA and local police raided Bouncing Bears Botanicals and arrested its owner Jonathan Sloan. Their main reason appears to be a smoking blend named K2 that is NOT even illegal yet, although the state of Kansas had a law in the works. This product presumably contains a LEGAL synthetic chemical substance that acts as a cannabinoid agonist like the more commonly known Spice which was proven to contain JWH-018 which is also NOT illegal. My assumption is that law enforcement agencies wanted to seize a bulk of the supply prior to the law passing so it did not find its way in to the black market. These tactics also are used to make an example out of the victims they bust in an attempt to scare of others involved.

The other charges are equally unjust. The Cacti and seeds in question have the same alkaloids as those commonly found at every Nursery including those at Home Depot & Walmart. Every Human and many other forms of life all contain DMT as did the Toads and plant material seized in this raid. Could his being targeted be due to the manner in which he offered these plants, his customer base being mainly the psychedelic community, his providing information and documentaries on how these plants are illegally used? Or was it simply because he was the biggest or his local authorities are most oppressive in the United States? It is believed that the retail store was targeted for organizing opposition against the bill to ban the ingredients in K2. If this is true, it is terrorism against civil rights.

The media is reporting that Bond was set at $150,000. However Jon's father claims it is set at one million dollars.

The current charges against Jon are:

• Unlawful manufacturing of controlled substances: Dimethlyltryptamine (DMT)

• Unlawful manufacturing of controlled substances: Mescaline

• Unlawful manufacturing of controlled substances: Lysergic Acid Amide

• Unlawful cultivation or distribution of controlled substances: Mescaline

• Unlawful cultivation or distribution of controlled substances: Dimethlyltryptamine; Chacruna; Illinois Bundleflower; Epena; Cebil Seeds.

• Unlawful cultivation or distribution of controlled substances: Bufotenine, Epena, Chaliponga, Cebil Seeds, Colorado River Toads.

• Unlawful cultivation or distribution of controlled substances: Lysergic Acid Amide, Morning Glory Seeds, Rivea Corymbosa.

• Unlawful possession of certain drug precursors and drug paraphernalia: Plastic jugs and filters used or intended for unlawful use to manufacture, cultivate, plant propagate, harvest, test, analyze or distribute a controlled substance.

Authorities may be possibly adding additional charges including drug smuggling. They seized more than $300,000 worth of product and more than $700,000 in cash from both Jon's business and personal bank accounts leaving him NEGATIVE $55,000 in the bank so that he can not hire a lawyer or post bond.

Please share this information with the entheogen / ethnobotanical community and any news as it becomes available. If you reside in Kansas protest and letter writing is defiantly in order. This truly is an injustice and I pray that this turns out as best as it possibly can.

Links:
County Attorney's Office - Press Release 
Local TV News Story
Lawrence Journal-World
Photos of the aftermath

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*Update Feb 7, 2009 a message from Jon

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick note letting everyone know I am out and thanking everyone for the support they've been sending my way. I really appreciate it. I can't talk much about anything. I imagine everyone knows what my view of these ridiculous charges is already, though.

I am not allowed back in the building yet as part of my release agreement. I just now saw those pictures of my office and the warehose for the first time. And... I'd just like to say to all the people who have asked many times "Could your office be any messier?" now you know. Yes, it could.

For the people asking about donations, we have a defense fund set up already that my family has contributed to. I'm not exactly sure how it works and don't really feel right asking for donations. I've always prided myself on my independence, so it's a bit weird suddenly needing help and not being in control of my own life. I, at the very least, want to make sure if all the money isn't needed or we are able to get damages from the government, that contributors would be refunded.

My main concern is for my family. It's pretty F'd up when the government can seize the money from my 6-year-old-son's savings account to pay a drug tax for something his father hasn't even been convicted of yet (and isn't even illegal). Innocent until proven guilty? Land of the Free? Man.... This is all so insane..... I just don't want anything else to happen to them... Stopping the rant now. Probably already talked too much. Just wanted to say thanks to everyone.

Oh. All the products that weren't seized in the raid will still be shipping as normal and all orders should be caught up on Monday.

Lab analysis of JWH-018 & JWH-073 effect on brain

Kansas lab looked at synthetic marijuana's effect on brain
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
From: columbiamissourian.com

Marijuana, K2 and other synthetic marijuana variants contain active chemicals that cause psychoactive effects when consumed. They are part of a class of compounds known as cannabinoids. The cannabinoid in marijuana is the naturally occurring delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. The Johnson County Crime Lab in Kansas has identified two synthetic cannabinoids in K2: JWH-018 and JWH-073.

Cannabinoids act by binding to two types of nerve receptors known as CB1 and CB2. Both receptors are linked to proteins that regulate neurotransmission. ¦  Jashin Lin

COLUMBIA — A legal substance that mimics the effects of marijuana is responsible for some hospitalizations across the country but has not proven to be a significant presence in mid-Missouri.

K2, a substance that state Sen. Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, wants to ban in Missouri, is a “non-issue” in Columbia, said Jessie Haden, Columbia Police public information officer. The Columbia police have not received reports of incidents involving the legal substance.

K2 is a combination of plant materials and two synthetic cannabinoids, according to Jeremiah Morris, a forensic scientist for the Johnson County Criminalistics Laboratory in Mission, Kan. The laboratory, an arm of the Johnson County Sheriff's Department,  ran an analysis on K2 in October 2009 after noticing an increase in use in Johnson County.

“They found K2 to contain lab-produced drugs that act on the same part of the brain as marijuana,” Morris said.

But the compounds in K2 are three to five times more potent than THC found in marijuana. Morris compared the effects of K2's compounds to a lock-and-key mechanism in which the lock is a receptor site of the brain and the key is the drug's compounds. The "keys" in K2 compounds are keys that fit the brain's "lock" better than those in marijuana.

The psychoactive drug can cause users to experience rapidly increased heart rates, loss of consciousness, paranoia and, occasionally, psychotic episodes. One hospitalized user claimed he could see his heart beating out of his chest. Individuals have different reactions to the drug, though users do not have to smoke excessively to experience potentially harmful symptoms, Morris said.

K2 compounds were produced in a laboratory at Clemson University in 1995 by a group of research students working under professor John Huffman, who was trying to explore how drug substances latch on to receptor sites in the brain. Morris said he believes that manufacturers of K2 created and sold the substance for drug use by studying Huffman’s research, published in 1998.

Morris said there has been little scientific research exploring the toxicity of K2 in the United States, but hospitalization cases have appeared in Florida, Maine and Arkansas, in addition to St. Louis, Springfield and Kansas City.

Scientific studies on K2 compounds were done using a drug called Spice that emerged in Germany in 2008. It was made up of plant materials and the same compounds as K2 and caused psychotic episodes that resulted in increased hospitalizations and accidents, Morris said.

These studies showed that those who ingest K2 compounds exhibit typical drug dependency signs, withdrawal symptoms and addictive behaviors associated with other drug use. Morris said that K2 and Spice are basically the same product with different names.

“We’re seeing exactly what Germany saw in 2008 and 2009,” Morris said.

Morris said that as people have begun to smoke K2 instead of marijuana, calls to poison control centers and emergency rooms have increased.

Though K2 has psychoactive properties, it is currently legal in Missouri and federally. Schaefer and other legislators hope to change this.

The House Public Safety Committee unanimously voted to pass a bill that, among other things, would make one of the ingredients in K2 illegal.

The bill's next step is passage by the House Rules Committee. It could then go to a vote of the whole body.

Kim Dude, assistant director of the MU Wellness Resource Center said the center has no plans to incorporate K2 into their educational programs until more information is found about the drug.

“The noise is from the media; it’s not from the students,” Dude said. “I think a lot of people are unaware.”

Also see: Bouncing Bear Botanicals Raided

Drugs can Kill!!

Drugs can Kill! or make that Cops looking for drugs can kill.

Sorry for the cheesy headline. But I thought that title may grasp a few readers attention given that most people visiting my blog will be against the war on drugs. This is a very disheartening story, however these incidents can not continue and public outrage will be the only path to putting an end to Police Raid violence.

from Drug War Chronicle, Issue #577, 3/20/09

Grand Valley State University film student Derek Copp is an avowed marijuana aficionado, reform activist, and a "a left-wing hippie peace-keeping liberal," according to his Facebook page. As of last week, he is also a victim of the drug war, or, more precisely, of police heavy-handedness in enforcing what appears to be a petty violation of the marijuana laws. Copp was shot and seriously wounded March 11 by a police officer who was part of a task force raiding his residence with a search warrant.

According to a compilation of local media accounts of the shooting, an Ottawa County deputy coming through the apartment's back door shined a flashlight in Copp's face, causing him to raise his right hand to cover his eyes. The officer then fired one round, striking the student in the chest. Copp said he had no idea the man who shot him was a law enforcement officer.

"He never even had a chance to even see who was coming at him, with a bright flashlight in his face," said his mother, Sheryl Copp. "He had no clue. He heard someone knock on his door, and he had no clue."

According to the Ottawa County Sheriff's Office, Copp was shot in the chest by a sheriff's deputy acting as a member of the West Michigan Enforcement Team, which consists of Ottawa County deputies and members of the Michigan State Police. Police have not identified the deputy, nor is it known whether he has been suspended. Investigators said Copp, 20, did not threaten or confront police when they entered his home. Nor have they revealed the search warrant, what they were looking for, or what they found.

But an attorney hired by Copp's family after the shooting said it was all over a very small amount of marijuana. In a Tuesday statement, attorney Frederick Dilley said: "I have been asked what drugs may have been seized by those executing the search warrant at Derek Copp's apartment. To my knowledge, the raid resulted in the seizure of a few tablespoonfuls of marijuana, and nothing more," Dilley continues, "The primary concern remains the manner in which this raid was carried out. And the apparent lack of any justification whatsoever for the use of force... much less deadly force in executing a search warrant."

Dilley is not alone in his concerns. The Grand Valley State University Student Senate issued a statement the same day wishing "Derek a full and complete recovery" and questioning police conduct. "Even though this incident took place off-campus," the statement said, "Student Senate is greatly concerned with the actions of the law enforcement team. Student Senate will await a full and complete explanation from the Michigan State Police. Like all students, we want to know why the West Michigan Drug Enforcement Team entered Derek Copp's apartment and why a firearm was used."

Even the university president demanded to know what had happened to one of his students. In a Monday e-mail to the university community, President Thomas Haas wrote: "The fact that this incident took place off-campus diminishes neither my interest nor my concern. The university's campus security staff was not involved. Like many of you, I await a full and complete explanation from law enforcement, and I have made a formal request for such information. I want to know what brought the Enforcement Team to Derek's apartment and why a firearm was discharged."

The shooting has also led to at least two protest demonstrations by students demanding answers. "Justify This Shooting!" demanded one sign held by a demonstrator. "We want answers!" read another. "Marijuana or not, unjust shot!" and "Our campus is not a war zone!", students chanted at a campus demo on Friday.

The Michigan State Patrol is investigating the shooting. That means the state police are investigating themselves, since the Western Michigan Enforcement Team consists of state police and Ottawa County sheriff's deputies.

Police Department advertises we pay snitches in newspaper!

Albuquerque police want ad: We need snitches
'Make some extra cash! Drug use and criminal record OK'
From: The Associated Press
Date: Nov 22, 2008

During these difficult times, as people struggle to pay for their homes and care for their families. Some turning to the classifieds looking for work will see "Make some extra cash! Drug use and criminal record OK". That right, the Albuquerque police department ran an advertisement that they will pay drug informants to drop the dime and snitch! Even if they themselves are convicted criminals. This isn't the first time they did it either. The last time a similar advertisement was ran so many phone calls were received that they were forced to turn off the hotline!

Is this the best means for the police to obtain accurate information that may be used as evidence to raid the homes of American citizens?

What about those who may pass on unreliable information just in hopes of receiving some desperately needed cash? Unhappy with someone, why not turn them in as retaliation and get paid for doing it? Who knows the motives of these paid informants. However enticing them with cash is only going to increase the amount of questionable information that is passed on to the authorities.

Through out history there have been numerous examples of tragedies created by paid informants. Ann Frank and her family were arrested and sent to Auschwitz based on information collected by a Gestapo paid informant. Turning people against each other have always been a powerful method to maintain control over a population and to imprison its "undesirables".

If you haven't done so already, please read my entry's Police raids end in tragedy and Police Raid Mayor's Home and Kill His 2 Dogs. The consequences of police raids are horrific to say the least. Not to mention the enormous danger the informants are putting themselves in. As was the recent case of 23 year Rachel Hoffman who was murdered for her involvement with the police.

 

JUST SAY NO TO THE POLICE!
For everyone's safety!

Police raids end in tragedy

No One Is Safe
From: Drug Policy Alliance

It's the day after Christmas in 2001. You're 21 years old. After finally putting your 18-month-old daughter to sleep, you're relaxing in your favorite recliner, nodding off in the flickering light of the television show you're only half-watching and the string of Christmas lights around your front window. When you hear the sounds of someone trying to kick in your door, you run to your daughter's bedroom; when someone does break in and kick down her bedroom door, you shoot. It turns out the man you shot is the (white) police chief's son, and as he dies of internal bleeding en route to the hospital you (a black man) are arrested, beaten so badly your bleed from your ear for a week, and are put on death row for five years (until a judge overturns what was a wrongful sentencing). The drugs the cops were looking for (using a warrant that named no one in your household) were never found. This is the case of Mississippian Corey Maye, who is still locked up.

Or: you are 57 years old, getting ready for work in mid-May 2003. It's shortly after six in the morning. A battering ram breaks down your door, and in gets tossed a flash grenade. You can't breathe, you're coughing, and the police don't believe you - they're looking for a stash of drugs and guns they'll never find. Taking no notice of your worsening condition, they handcuff you, and in little more than an hour, though you're finally on the way to the hospital, the heart attack caused by this traumatic violation takes your life. This was Alberta Spruill, a church volunteer and city worker in Harlem.

Or it's November 2006. You're a fierce 92-year-old woman, frightened by the sounds of someone prying off the burglar bars that cover your front door, but determined to protect your home: when your door is broken down you fire one shot at the intruders, before being shot 39 times, handcuffed and left to die while the police (who are the intruders, and as it turns out, have broken down the wrong door) realize their mistake and plant drugs in your basement. This was Kathryn Johnston of northwest Atlanta; two of the cops responsible for her death pled guilty to manslaughter last year, and a third was recently convicted of lying in the cover-up.

In December of 2006 police burn down the home of a 73-year-old man with Alzheimer's in Arizona. They launched a diversionary grenade through a bedroom window that started a fire that destroyed the entire house and all the families possessions. According to the search warrant they were looking for $7,000 in cash, electronics, weapons, a pit bull and rims from a Cadillac Escalade because a vehicle they believed to have been used in a robbery had this poor families address on its registration.

Imagine instead it's 2008. Coming home one night in late July, you find a large package which happens to contain marijuana. You are the mayor of a wealthy DC suburb and as it turns out, also victim to a drug smuggling scheme that targets innocent addresses in the UPS system. You bring the box inside - only to watch as moments later SWAT officers break in and shoot your two beautiful Labradors. As the dogs lay there dying, bleeding all over your nice floors, you are held in the very same room, handcuffed for hours. The law enforcement officials don't - at that time - actually believe that you are the mayor of this suburban town, and to date have yet to apologize for the killing of your family's pets.

No one is safe. Last month's case involving Berwyn Heights mayor Cheye Calvo is one of perhaps 40,000 (yes, forty thousand) such raids each year. (see Cato Institute report, Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America). What has made it so widely covered is simply the (white, class) privilege and power of the victims. Many, many lives are lost or ruined by these paramilitary operations. You're in extra danger if you happen to be poor and/or a person of color. Ellen blogged about these raids recently: check out her post and the Cato Institute's map of raid casualties.

This is not the world I want to live in. Take action now - check out our most recent action alert and encourage the U.S. Conference of Mayors to protect themselves and their cities from further unthinkable violence in what has honestly become a police state.

Links:
Scotto's post at DoseNation
1000 cop raid in London
Police SWAT teams: Overused?
Police Raid Mayor's Home and Kill His 2 Dogs

Police Raid Mayor's Home and Kill His 2 Dogs

Here is just more evidence of the inhumanity demonstrated by the War on Drug and how they can make victims of anyone at any time. This is an obvious setup. By someone unhappy with the Mayor possibly even his own Sheriffs Department. Perhaps he shot down a motion to supply free daily doughnuts to law enforcement officers. Wait, the proprietors of doughnuts already pay that tribute for protection.
From: The WashingtonPost.com
June 31, 2008

A police SWAT team raided the home of the mayor in the Prince George's County town of Berwyn Heights on Tuesday, shooting and killing his two dogs, after he brought in a 32-pound package of marijuana that had been delivered to his doorstep, police said.

Mayor Cheye Calvo was not arrested in the raid, which was carried out about 7 p.m. by the Sheriff's Office SWAT team and county police narcotics officers. Prince George's police spokesman Henry Tippett said yesterday that all the residents of the house -- Calvo, his wife and his mother-in-law -- are "persons of interest" in the case.

The package was addressed to Calvo's wife, Trinity Tomsic, said law enforcement officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing.

Tippett said police are working to determine for whom the drugs were meant.

Calvo said yesterday that he did not know how the drugs wound up on his doorstep. He works part time as the mayor and serves as director of expansion for the SEED Foundation, a well-known national nonprofit group that runs urban public boarding schools.

"My government blew through my doors and killed my dogs," Calvo said. "They thought we were drug dealers, and we were treated as such. I don't think they really ever considered that we weren't."

Calvo described a chaotic scene, in which he -- wearing only underwear and socks -- and his mother-in-law were handcuffed and interrogated for hours. They were surrounded by the dogs' carcasses and pools of the dogs' blood, Calvo said.

Spokesmen for the Sheriff's Office and Prince George's police expressed regret yesterday that the mayor's dogs were killed. But they defended the way the raid was carried out, saying it was proper for a case involving such a large amount of drugs.

Sgt. Mario Ellis, a Sheriff's Office spokesman, said the deputies who entered Calvo's home "apparently felt threatened" by the dogs.

"We're not in the habit of going to homes and shooting peoples' dogs," Ellis said. "If we were, there would be a lot more dead dogs around the county."

Calvo, 37, has been mayor of the 3,000-person town near College Park since 2004. His wife is a finance officer for the state, he said.

The investigation that led police to their house in the 8500 block of Edmonston Road began in Arizona, officials said. There, a police dog at a shipping facility identified the package as being filled with marijuana. Prince George's officers posed as deliverymen and brought it to Calvo's home.

Calvo said he came home early from work Tuesday. While walking the dogs, Calvo said, he noticed several black sport-utility vehicles and a woman parked in a car down the street.

"I figured someone was having a party," he recalled.

It was the police. They were watching, waiting for someone to bring the package into the house.

As Calvo returned to the house, he said, he spotted the large package that his mother-in-law had told a deliveryman to leave on the porch. He placed it on a buffet table near the front door and went upstairs to change.

"I brought it inside because I figured it was something we'd gotten for the garden," he said.

Moments later, just after he had undressed, Calvo said, he heard his mother-in-law scream that someone was coming toward the house. He looked out his bedroom window and saw officers in SWAT gear running across the lawn.

"I heard a loud crash and then 'bang, bang, bang,' " he said, recalling the sounds of the police shooting the dogs. "I hit the floor."

As the police came in, Calvo said, they shot his 7-year-old black Labrador retriever, Payton, near the front door and then his 4-year-old dog, Chase, also a black Lab, as the dog ran into a back room. Walking through his house yesterday, Calvo pointed out a bullet hole in the drywall where the younger dog had been shot.

"I understand they have a job to do, but it didn't have to go like that," Calvo said. He said the police could have knocked on his door and asked him about the package. "I've never done drugs in my life. Anyone who knows me knows that I am so adamantly opposed to them."

Police said yesterday that, when they seized the package during the raid, it was unopened.

Berwyn Heights Police Chief Patrick Murphy said county police and the Sheriff's Office had not notified his department of the raid. He said town police could have conducted the search without a SWAT team.

"You can't tell me the chief of police of a municipality wouldn't have been able to knock on the door of the mayor of that municipality, gain his confidence and enter the residence," Murphy said. "It would not have been a necessity to shoot and kill this man's dogs."

Cops Raid Legal Herbalists in Nebraska

Cops Raid Legal Herbalists in Nebraska

Cory Matteson
Lincoln Journal Star
March 13, 2008

A legislative bill that would make Salvia divinorum an illegal drug in Nebraska has little chance of passage during the last six weeks of the legislative session.

Lincoln Police on Monday made a Salvia bust anyway.

Citing a state statute that prohibits Nebraskans from selling certain compounds that will induce an intoxicated or otherwise mind-altering state, officers executed a search warrant on Exotica, 2441 N. 48th St. The Lincoln store sells the herb, a cousin of sage, generally smoked to create a short-term hallucinogenic experience.
Exotica owner Christian Firoz said four officers entered his store early Monday evening, took all his Salvia and issued him a citation for selling certain compounds.

“They said they’re going to hit everybody that’s selling Salvia and take everything,” Firoz, 35, said.

Firoz said his court date is April 16, and that he’s going to challenge the citation.

“I signed (the citation),” Firoz said. “I’ll be in court. We plan to fight it because we’ve been selling it for a while and it’s a lot of our sales.”

He also said the information that he has leads him to believe it is legal to sell Salvia.

Sen. Vickie McDonald of St. Paul sponsored the bill to ban Salvia on behalf of Attorney General Jon Bruning. The bill has no priority status, and there’s little movement to add it as an amendment to another bill.

But Lincoln Police determined that a law currently on the state books outlaws the sale of Salvia.

One day after Firoz was quoted in the Journal Star about Salvia divinorum’s trance-like effects, his quotes ended up in a Lincoln Police report, Lincoln Police Capt. David Beggs said.

“It’s all psychological,” Firoz said in the article. “It puts you in a trance. It’s very hard to explain.”

State statute 28-420 bans the sale of any substance which will induce an intoxicated condition when the seller “knows or has reason to know that such compound is intended for use to induce such condition.”

The “intoxicated condition,” as defined by Sec. 28-419, can include a “condition of intoxication, stupefaction, depression, giddiness, paralysis, inebriation, excitement, or irrational behavior, or in any manner changing, distorting, or disturbing the auditory, visual, mental or nervous processes.”

Beggs said an undercover officer purchased some Salvia earlier at the store Monday. Then the search warrant was executed, resulting in the seizure of 8.5 grams of the substance.

From: Infowars.com