WICHITA, KAN. - A former coffee shop owner from Salina, Kan., has been sentenced to a year on federal probation for selling a misbranded product known as Aromatic Potpourri that contained a substance mimicking the active ingredient in marijuana, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said today.
Erick Srack, 44, Salina, Kan., pleaded guilty to one count of introducing a misbranded drug into interstate commerce. In his plea, he admitted that while he owned The Grind, a coffee shop in Salina, he sold Aromatic Potpourri, which contained synthetic chemicals generally known as "JWH compounds" that mimicked the effects of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.
Aromatic Potpourri was intended to be used as a recreational drug that would be smoked. Srack sold the Aromatic Potpourri in zip lock plastic bags with a paper label. The label did not list JWH Compounds among the ingredients.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is the federal agency charged with enforcing federal health and safety laws pertaining to drugs sold for human use. The federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act requires that drugs be labeled so that a layperson can administer the drug safely for the purposes for which it is intended. The FDA considers street drug alternatives like Aromatic Potpourri to be unapproved new drugs and misbranded drugs that violate the FDCA.
Srack is serving a sentence in state prison in Kansas after being convicted in state district court of selling illegal drugs.
Grissom commended the FDA and Assistant U.S. Attorney Tanya Treadway for their work on the case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
