Chocolates are a nice treat for Halloween and just about any day of the year. But this comfort food has caused some trouble for an Ontario man who produces organic chocolate bars and beauty-care products.

Ron Obadia related that he and his wife were arrested at the Toronto Pearson International Airport on August 3 this year after the raw chocolate they were supposed to bring into the U.S. was field tested to be positive for THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), the active ingredient in marijuana.

The owner of the Living Libations company recalled that it all started with sniffing dogs used by American customs officers posted at the airport getting excited by their package. He said that he cannot remember whether it was U.S. or Canadian customs that later put his chocolate stash through a field test with an NIK (narcotic identification kit), a small packet-size tool used by the two customs authorities.

The couple was turned over to the RCMP and Peel police. They were charged with drug-trafficking. The charges were later dropped when a laboratory test invalidated the field-test results. According to Obadia, he had racked up $20,000 in legal bills.

Obadia said that after this experience, he decided to personally try the NIK on commercial chocolate brands. To his surprise, tests for such candies like Toblerone and Nielson Jersey Milk yielded a “false positive” for THC.

“It’s a false, yes,” Obadia told the Straight. “Meaning if I have, let’s say, an essential oil, or let’s say I have a chocolate bar, and I put the chocolate bar through, they’re gonna say, ‘Oh, yes, this is THC; yes, this is marijuana.’?”

Obadia recommends that travellers bringing along organic products like herbs may well avoid the hassle he’s been through by sending their stuff in advance through courier or regular post.

Shakila Manzoor, spokesperson for the Pacific region office of the Canada Border Services Agency, confirmed that Canadian customs authorities use NIK packets. Manzoor explained to the Straight that goods that test positive for narcotics are sent to the laboratory for confirmation. The CBSA spokesperson said that she couldn’t comment on the Obadia case.