State by State Kratom Update

On January 14, Chairman of the American Kratom Association Dave Herman sent a message to the AKA’s email subscribers stating

In just the past week, I have had my email inbox flooded with reports from across America on how Scott Gottlieb is spreading his campaign to demonize kratom to Health Departments, Boards of Pharmacy; and law enforcement agencies in virtually every state in America.

Trust me, Scott Gottlieb is hopping mad because he has not been able to bully the DEA into placing kratom into Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, so now he is increasing his efforts to peddle his lies about kratom to the state regulators.

But as a result of the AKA and other kratom advocates, we have also had encouraging news coming from states who are in the midst of swearing in new regulators.

Here is some good news and hope for 2019 that we’ve noticed just in the past couple of weeks.

New York

A bill sitting in the New York General Assembly’s Senate Health Committee would restrict the sale of kratom to anyone under the age of 18 in the state. For a majority of kratom advocates, it’s an encouraging sign when a state moves to put reasonable restrictions on a substance, rather than a reactionary, ill-advised ban on it.

Utah

The Utah Senate is proposing a bill called the Kratom Consumer Protection Act. If passed into law, the Act would require “a person that prepares, distributes, sells, or offers to sell a kratom product to follow certain labeling requirements; prohibits a person from preparing, distributing, selling, or offering for sale certain kratom products;” and “requires the Department of Agriculture and Food to make rules to administer and enforce the Kratom Consumer Protection Act.”

It’s unclear which kratom products would be prohibited. But this is another sign that more and more states are willing to regulate rather than ban kratom. In fact Mac Haddow of the American Kratom Association, according to this report by KUTV in Salt Lake City, gave the language in the bill to Sen. Curt Bramble, who supports protecting kratom consumers. Bramble was quoted in the report as saying “I’ve had people tell me kratom is an alternative for addictive opiates, and that’s what convinced me.”

Georgia

After the Georgia House study committee hearing on December 28, where many kratom advocates testified, Georgians are waiting to hear whether the legislature will decide to regulate kratom.

Based on the hearing, a Fox 5 report published yesterday out of Atlanta is suggesting that, as a result of the hearing, kratom may become regulated instead of outright banned in the state.

Ohio

As we covered last week, the Ohio Board of Pharmacy, who was considering recommending a ban on kratom, voted to defer any action until March 2019. As a result of kratom advocacy by the American Kratom Association, affiliated scientists, and citizen activists, Ohio appears to finally be listening to the science on kratom.