Naperville City Council bans retail sale of kratom products
The Naperville City Council unanimously voted Tuesday night to ban the retail sale of kratom products in the city, adding its name to the list of communities in Illinois that have imposed local restrictions on the drug.
Effective Oct. 1, businesses in Naperville will not be allowed to sell any products that contain either natural leaf or synthetic kratom. Individual possession of kratom will be allowed for anyone 18 or older.
Kratom is a tropical tree native to Southeast Asia. Its leaves, which contain two major psychoactive ingredients called mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH), can be brewed in teas, smoked or consumed as gel capsules.
But the federal government has taken note of new synthetic variations of 7-OH. Recently, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration announced a temporary ban on products containing certain synthetic variations of kratom.
According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, there are no prescription or over-the-counter drug products containing kratom that are on the market legally in the U.S. Kratom is not lawfully marketed as a dietary supplement or food additive in conventional food.
In Illinois, state lawmakers have proposed stricter regulations for kratom while some communities have already taken action. Winnetka, Plainfield and Bloomington are among the towns that have voted to ban the sale of kratom products.
Speakers on Tuesday pushed back against a total ban in Naperville, emphasizing the benefits they have found in natural leaf kratom products.
“Natural kratom is the only thing that has restored my functional ability after a lifetime of painful, congenital, neurological conditions,” said Heidi Sykora, chief science officer for the International Plant and Herbal Alliance, speaking on her own behalf. “Pharmaceuticals cause life-threatening side effects. Natural kratom does not intoxicate me or impair me.”
Allison Smith, director of government affairs for the Global Kratom Coalition, emphasized that 7-OH levels found in kratom leaves in nature never have a concentration level greater than 2%. Any kratom product with a concentration greater than that is considered synthetic or adulterated.
“Please make no mistake: concentrated 7-OH products, which are driving the public safety concerns that local governments are now confronting, is not the same as natural kratom,” Smith said.
Despite the differences raised by speakers, city officials emphasized that regulating a partial ban of kratom products could be difficult.
Naperville Police Chief Jason Arres said that even if the city only banned the retail sale of synthetic kratom products, the DuPage County Forensic Science Center lab would not test the products being sold in stores since they would be part of a municipal ban.
“We heard from some of the testimony the last time from some of the folks in the crowd that said they were upset with the packaging because it really doesn’t distinguish that this is a 7-OH product,” Arres said. “So if we did a partial ban, the lab wouldn’t even test that for us.”
It was unclear Tuesday how the DEA’s temporary ban would change that reality, he said.
“Our top priority, as far as I’m concerned as a councilman here, is public safety, public health of our community,” Councilman Benny White said.
While he understood the benefits some people found from using natural leaf kratom products, White said he did not believe those benefits outweighed the harm that some kratom products were causing.
“It doesn’t sound like there’s a huge amount of, you know, local business advocates that are telling us that, ‘We serve customers here and we need to be able to serve our customers and help people,'” said Councilman Josh McBroom, leading him to ultimately support the ban.
Mayor Scott Wehrli emphasized the harm some kratom products have already caused people in Naperville.
“In Naperville alone, we are aware of one mitragynine death and four overdoses in this year,” Wehrli said. “And folks, one mitragynine death in our city is too many.”
cstein@chicagotribune.com