Bouncing Back

In early February of this year, the FDA raided the "lawfully" run Bouncing Bear Botanticals shop in Lawrence, KS, as well as its warehouse just outside of town.  Now, I have the honor of removing the quotations around the word lawfully as the Jefferson County Attorney’s office has dismissed all criminal charges against the owner, Jonathan Sloan.

During the raid the FDA seized more than $700,000 in cash from the business and bank accounts--one of the accounts being Jonathan's six-year-old son's trust fund--as well as thousands of cactus plants and 20 toads.

Because all charges have been dropped, Jonathan is refunding all the money that was donated to his defense fund and for contributing to the payment of his hefty bond that was set at $906,000. While it is great news that the court is dismissing the charges, the website savejon.org is reporting that they are not returning any of his property, and it looks like Jonathan is still faced with the Kansas Drug Tax, about which the site declares, "We will be fighting that in court."

If you would like to stay updated with this story, swing over to savejon.org for all the details as they unfold.

Image by active metabolite on Flickr Courtesy of Creative Commons Licensing.