New Year’s Revolution, Part II • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
: ZONKED Zonka vs. Partners Against Narcotics Trafficking (PANT) By Kandy Krush
Billy,
owner and entrepreneur of the Arizona-based business, Zonka, makes chocolate bars, lollipops and hard candies for his medical edibles dispensary. Zonka bars were first available in 2011 in flavors including chocolate and sugar-free peanut butter. These edibles are perfect for medical patients who want to enjoy the healing benefits of cannabinoids.
Some would say that Billy is an angel. He has an entrepreneurial vision of helping people and raising the awareness of the option of medical Cannabis to his patients. Whether for a migraine, nausea or sleep deprivation, medical patients in Arizona turned to Zonka bars for the help they needed. These candy bars are not the crude brownies of yesteryear. Rigorous testing is done on the bars and the other candy to ensure proper potency and purity. Zonka bars and candy are produced within strict adherence to the state laws. Billy was trying to follow the Arizona law to the best of his ability.
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FEBRUARY 2014
On Sept. 12, 2012, the Arizona SWAT team, as well as the entire sheriff’s department and three town officials were waiting for Billy at an intersection on his way to drop his kids off at school (who at the time were ages six, 11 and 13.) As Billy drove up to what looked like a closed intersection, the SWAT team charged with masks on and guns drawn. They claimed to have felony arrest warrants. Billy and his wife were pulled out of their truck and put into handcuffs. Billy was taken away and his wife and children were driven to the police station for questioning. Law enforcement personnel raided Zonka and everything was seized: all paperwork, tax, and copyright information for their distribution, even the family’s extra clothes and money. The business was closed. Billy was identified as the “chef” who developed the various food products all containing Cannabis. He was booked on charges including: possession/sell/manufacture of narcotic drug, leading an organized crime operation, possession of marijuana and narcotic drug
SATIVAMAGAZINE.COM