The state House is moving forward with new regulations for kratom. Lawmakers say the tropical plant with drug-like effects shouldn't be available to people under age 21.
The bill would also ban sales of synthetic forms of kratom that have higher concentrations of the active ingredient. Kratom retailers would be licensed, and selling the products to anyone under age 21 would result in fines and criminal charges.
Leaves from the kratom plant are crushed and used in teas and as a pill, and they're currently sold in North Carolina with virtually no regulations. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, it creates "stimulant effects with users reporting increased alertness, physical energy and talkativeness," but it can be addictive and its abuse has led to "several cases of psychosis."
Sheldon Bradshaw, a former FDA attorney who now works for a lobbying group called Botanicals for Better Health and Wellness, said the legislation walks "a very nice line" between regulations and "a pathway for kratom, which is a promising botanical used in Southeast Asia for centuries to help individuals with minor aches and pains."
But he says the synthetic version, known as 7-Hydroxymitragynine, or 7-OH, for its chemical composition, can be dangerous and should be banned.
"Consumers often think because there's a picture of a plant on the front, that they're getting a natural plant, when in fact, 7-Hydroxy is not natural," Bradshaw said.
Rep. Jeff McNeely, R-Iredell and the bill's sponsor, echoed Bradshaw's concerns.
"This is kind of like pulling out the part of the plant that's going to be the most — I didn't want to say the word addictive, but the most abused — and that's why we're regulating it at a level that we are," he said.
Producers of the synthetic products say the bill would put them out of business. Isaac Montanya is CEO of Charlotte Extraction Labs.
"We manufacture a very good, efficacious and ethical product," Montanya told legislators. "I think it's more about a turf war between an industry that would like to regulate another industry, because it impacts that particular industry's bottom line."
Montanya wants to see his products regulated rather than banned. "I believe we should have proper labeling, and it shouldn't be marketed to kids, and it shouldn't be put out in an unsafe way," he said.
The bill passed its first committee vote Tuesday. McNeely said the kratom legislation doesn't include regulations for hemp and CBD products, but he's hopeful those bills will pass as well.
"We should have had kratom and hemp regulated at least two years ago, if not four years ago," McNeely said. "If we had done this at the beginning, then (Montanya) would have never created his business. Because it's been unregulated, we've allowed things to happen — good, bad, indifferent."
