DHS chief maintains stake in company despite founder’s ‘abuse’ admission

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin maintains an investment of up to $1 million in Botanic Tonics, a company manufacturing Feel Free energy drinks.

Feel Free is widely known as “gas station heroin” due to its addictive properties, reports Punch Up.

The company’s founder, J.W. Ross, a convicted felon who has admitted deliberately testing abusive dosages before launching the product, said he knew people would abuse it.

Feel Free combines kratom and kava, plant-based compounds that act on the brain’s opioid receptors, exploiting neurological pathways that make opioids addictive.

“In February 2010, Cash pleaded guilty to a federal charge of falsely certifying the company’s financial controls. That November, U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot sentenced him to nine years in federal prison and ordered him to repay $5 million, rebuking him,” according to the FBI’s account of the hearing.

Notably, Mullin championed a federal crackdown in July that specifically spared Feel Free while targeting competitors.

Both Mullin and Ross are Oklahoma businessmen with connections to Broken Arrow, where Botanic Tonics operates.

The Department of Homeland Security declined to comment on whether Mullin and Ross have ever communicated or met.

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