President Joe Biden commuted the federal drug sentence of the former owner of an infamous downtown Duluth head shop.

Jim Carlson, 67, the ex-owner of Last Place on Earth,  is among the 1,499 individuals whose sentences Biden announced he would commute on Dec. 12 in a sweeping act of clemency aimed at “individuals who were placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic and who have successfully reintegrated into their families and communities.” A White House fact sheet said those receiving a commutation had been serving sentences at home “for at least one year.”

Carlson received a 17½-year federal prison sentence in 2014 after a Minneapolis jury convicted him on Oct. 7, 2013, of 51 charges related to the sale of synthetic drugs, product mislabeling and money laundering. He served part of that sentence at a low-security federal prison in Michigan and, in 2016, had a projected release of December 2028.

A crowd of customers waits for the Last Place on Earth to open. (AP Photo/The Duluth News-Tribune, Steve Kuchera)

However, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator, the Residential Reentry Management field office in Minneapolis monitors Carlson, who will be released on Dec. 22, 2024.

Federal Bureau of Prison officials did not immediately respond to the Duluth News Tribune’s request for comment Sunday.

A prison official told Perfect Duluth Day, which first reported Biden’s commutation of Carlson’s sentence, that Carlson was serving “in a half-way house or in-home confinement.” The article noted that the United States Probation Office would oversee Carlson for three years as his probation sentence was not commuted.

Carlson openly sold synthetic drugs from his store, 120 E. Superior St., under names such as “Spice” and “K2,” claiming that his products were legal at all times because he avoided chemicals that were specifically banned by federal authorities.

However, prosecutors successfully argued that Carlson’s products violated the Controlled Substance Analogue Enforcement Act, which makes illegal all compounds that are substantially similar to controlled substances in both chemical structure and pharmacological effects.

Carlson sold synthetic drugs out of his shop from late 2010 until a judge’s order shut the store down in July 2013.

During that time, emergency room personnel told of a continuing toll from aggressive, delusional patients brought in after ingesting synthetic drugs labeled as incense and bath salts. Operators of other businesses in that area complained they were losing customers. Residents said they were afraid to be outside anywhere near the head shop. Police told of an extraordinary number of calls to the 100 block of East Superior Street, where Last Place on Earth was.

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St. Louis County Sheriff Gordon Ramsay, who served as Duluth’s police chief during the Last Place on Earth’s final years, posted  on Facebook on Saturday that Carlson’s actions “contributed to the spread of addiction, increased crime and hurt the safety of our neighborhoods.”

“The decision to commute the sentence is concerning and frustrating, given the damage caused by Carlson’s actions. … Accountability is a cornerstone of justice, and leniency in cases like this sends the wrong message to those who exploit our communities for personal gain,” Ramsay said.

Titanium Partners LLC purchased and renovated the former Last Place on Earth building in 2015. It first housed Blacklist Brewing Company, and when that moved a block west, Duluth’s Best Bread took over the space.