Allegations of a 'turf war' arise in debate over regulating kratom in NC
A laptop displays the website of an online kratom retailer. (Photo: Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current)
North Carolina legislators are once again looking to put restrictions on kratom, which is currently unregulated in the state.
The House Regulatory Reform Committee on Tuesday advanced House Bill 468, which would require retailers to obtain licenses to sell kratom and prohibit sales to or purchases by people younger than 21. The bill now heads to the House Finance Committee.
According to the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, kratom is a stimulant at low doses and a sedative at high doses. It is derived from a southeast Asian tree leaf and sold in the United States as tea, powered in capsules, or as liquid.
The DEA sought to temporarily ban kratom in 2016, but backed off after a public outcry. That year, North Carolina legislators sought in separate bills to ban kratom or limit sales to people over age 18. Neither of those bills became law.
Last session, a proposal to regulate kratom died in the battle between the state House and Senate over legalizing medical marijuana.
Kratom has been a factor in hundreds of fatal overdoses since 2020, according to the Washington Post and the Tamp Bay Times. A handful of states have banned it.
The committee debate Tuesday centered on provisions in the bill that would ban synthetic versions of the compounds that produce psychoactive effects. The argument centered on the compound known as 7-OH.
'At the time, we choose not to have any synthetic products on the market in North Carolina,' said Rep. Jeff McNeely (R-Iredell), the bill's sponsor.
Isaac Montanya, CEO of 7-OH producer Charlotte Extraction Labs, said the bill inserted itself into a turf war. He called its prohibition on synthetics 'a sly way to regulate 7-OH out of the market.'
His company manufactures an ethical product, Montanya said.
Jeff Smith, national policy director for Holistic Alternative Recovery Trust, told the committee that people use 7-OH to ease opioid withdrawal.
'Banning 7-OH would turn patients into criminals,' he said.
Sheldon Bradshaw, a former chief counsel with the FDA representing the industry group Botanicals for Better Health and Wellness, called 7-OH 'dangerous' and deceptively marketed.
'It has no business being on store shelves and in products that are being labeled as natural kratom and marketed as herbal supplements,' he said.
McNeely said the ban on synthetics addresses the part of the plant that's going to be the most abused.
'We should have had kratom and cannabis regulated two years ago if not four years ago,' he said. 'Because it's been unregulated, we've allowed things to happen — good, bad, indifferent.'
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