If someone offered you “drinkable sunscreen,” would you try it? Unless you’re Charlie from “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” I really hope you said no…and apparently so does the state of Iowa.

Iowa’s Attorney General has filed a consumer fraud lawsuit against the makers of two brands of drinkable sunscreen for using “seriously flawed testing” to trick consumers into buying “ordinary water at premium prices.”

Two brands of “drinkable sunscreen” have been accused of fraud by the Iowa Attorney Generalhttps://t.co/JDYsiWS5zs

— mat honan (@mat) March 15, 2017

AG Tom Miller named Osmosis, LLC; Harmonized Water, LCC; and their joint owner Benjamin Taylor Johnson in the lawsuit. Both companies have advertised their enhanced water as the “world’s first drinkable sunscreen.” The UV neutralizer is said to contain a form of radio frequencies called scalar waves that when ingested “vibrate above the skin to neutralize UVA and UVB, creating protection comparable to an SPF 30.”

via GIPHY

But Miller isn’t convinced, calling Johnson’s claims “almost certainly pure bunk” and “pseudoscience at its worst.”

“It’s flat-out dangerous to consumers to make them think without any proof that this water protects them from what we know is proven–potentially cancer-causing exposure to the sun,” reiterated Miller in a statement on Tuesday.

Each bottle of the “harmonized water” retails somewhere between $30-$40, and the company claims it has only sold 35 bottles of the UV neutralizer in Iowa in the five years it has been for sale.

Miller also called “BS” on Johnson’s so-called mosquito repellant, Harmonized H2O Mosquito, and its anti-bug “vibrating shield”–admittedly, like his other products, its only listed ingredient is “frequency-enhanced” water.

And then there’s Johnson’s past run ins with the law. Even though he frequently references his medical degree in promotional advertisements, Johnson lost his license to practice medicine in Colorado in 2001 after two patients complained to the Colorado Medical Board about his laser hair removal services, according to the lawsuit.

He was previously reprimanded by the board in 1999 for selling Viagra online without providing any sort of physical exam, according to medical board documents reviewed by BuzzFeed News. He does, however, still hold a medical license in California.

Johnson defended his products in a statement to Buzzfeed, writing:

I think it is important to note that we have been selling this remarkable product for about 5 years. We have had thousands of re-orders. Surely people understand that as a successful skincare company it would make no sense that we would sell people a fake sun protection water….and if we did, how long does one think those sales would last?

Even so, the attorney general’s office says the seller failed to provide a reasonable basis for the benefits touted by the products, a requirement under Iowa law.

“It’s bad enough when a consumer wastes money on a product that doesn’t work,” Miller said. “But it’s much worse when someone relies on a product to prevent serious harm, and it just doesn’t deliver.”

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Conversion therapy is a discredited practice that has been used on those who identify as LGBT. California has banned conversion therapy–even though challenges to the ban made it all the way to the Supreme Court. New Jersey has also outlawed the practice. Now, conversion therapy has hit a bump in another court, albeit a very interesting one. Conversion therapy practices are going to have a very hard time operating in New Jersey after a ruling by the consumer fraud court.

Conversion therapy is based on the idea that homosexuality, or basically anything that is not heterosexuality, is a “disorder” that can be cured. That’s, of course, an antiquated, unscientific, and horrifying view. Homosexuality was removed from the DSM (the guide to classifying psychological disorders) in 1973, but that just means that people can’t be diagnosed with any sort of disorder related to homosexuality.

What the DSM removal didn’t do was prevent anyone from calling homosexuality a disorder–there was no law against that. So conversion therapy practice capitalized on that discrepancy and advertised that they could “cure” anyone who identified as LGBT. In a lawsuit that was decided this week, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) filed a suit against the New Jersey-based Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (JONAH). SPLC brought the suit on behalf of four men who claim that they were subjected to awful treatment by JONAH. They report details incidents of abuse, or reenacting past abuse, and role-playing abuse.

The suit was brought under the contention that JONAH advertising classified homosexuality as a disorder, which violates the Consumer Fraud Act. Superior Court Judge Peter F. Bariso Jr. ruled that it did violate the CFA. This is a groundbreaking ruling in an interesting context because it is the first time that an American court of any kind has ruled that homosexuality isn’t a mental disease. Bariso also ruled that in addition to incorrectly characterizing homosexuality as a mental illness, JONAH also defrauded consumers by advertising that they had “success” statistics. He had earlier ruled that JONAH could not bring forward expert witnesses who would argue in favor of conversion therapy, because their theories would be outdated and refuted.

The SPLC applauded Bariso’s decision; David Dinielli, the SPLC’s legal director stated:

For the first time, a court has ruled that it is fraudulent as a matter of law for conversion therapists to tell clients that they have a mental disorder that can be cured. This is the principal lie the conversion therapy industry uses throughout the country to peddle its quackery to vulnerable clients. Gay people don’t need to be cured, and we are thrilled that the court has recognized this.

This judgment was made as part of an ongoing lawsuit in which the plaintiffs are seeking damages for the abuse levied against them. The trial will be this summer; this ruling is just part of preliminary matters. Eventually it will be up to a jury to decide. That being said, these preliminary matters are a great step in the right direction. Hopefully the men wronged by JONAH will get the ruling they deserve.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

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