Senate committee introduces bill to regulate, rather than ban kratom

BOISE — The Senate State Affairs Committee moved to introduce an Idaho Kratom Consumer Protection and Safety Act on Friday, which would restrict kratom sold in the state to natural leaf products and limit sale and consumption to adults aged 21 years and older. 

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Tammy Nichols, R-Middleton, aims to establish the first regulation of the supplement in Idaho after the state has faced increased scrutiny from other states that have banned or introduced regulations on kratom.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has also recommended action to schedule kratom’s synthetic derivatives, guidance framed as aligning with efforts to curb opioid addiction. Under the U.S. Controlled Substances Act, scheduling levels are divided across five regulatory tiers corresponding with a substance's medical utility and potential for abuse or dependency.

The supplement comes from the leaves of a tropical South Asian tree. It sells for a range of purposes, including pain relief, anxiety and opioid withdrawal, according to the FDA. 

In past testimony concerning kratom's ban in the state, proponents have argued that it allowed them to get pain relief without the side effects of various prescription opiate alternatives. Supporters of an outright ban, including Meridian Police Chief Tracy Basterrechea, have framed kratom as a substitute for other substance dependencies.  

In an effort supported by the National Kratom Association, Nichols previously introduced a kratom regulatory bill — with a lower age restriction of 18 years of age and a prohibition on individual lawsuits — that died in committee, as was previously reported by Boise Dev.

Her new effort comes on the heels of a hearing in the House’s Health and Welfare Committee seeking to ban kratom in all of its forms in the state. Given that the regulatory bill is pending, committee members opted to temporarily hold off on deciding whether to support a ban until Wednesday.

As was the case with Nichols’ previous effort, the bill’s purported intent is to preserve adult access to natural kratom while banning the sale of “unsafe, adulterated, or synthetic products,” which typically contain concentrated levels of 7-hydroxymitragynine, also known as 7-OH. 

While 7-OH is found in trace amounts in natural kratom leaves, the ban will only apply to concentrations exceeding 2% of the substance's alkaloid content or more than 1 milligram per serving. This threshold aligns with FDA findings when differentiating between natural and synthetic kratom products. 

Kratom products will also be considered adulterated when containing heavy metals that exceed federal limits, contain microbial contamination — such as mold, salmonella and E. coli — or contain controlled substances like fentanyl. Kratom will continue to be able to be sold when including vitamins, minerals, botanicals and extracts not prohibited by law. 

In addition to being banned from selling adulterated products, kratom processors and distributors will also be prevented from intentionally mislabeling or misrepresenting a kratom product’s alkaloid content. 

A labeling requirement will require all kratom products to include the name and business address of the kratom processor or retailer, a batch number and a statement or QR code indicating the product’s contents, its lack of FDA approval, and age-related restrictions.

If a consumer or retailer violates the Kratom Consumer Protection Act, they would be subject to a civil penalty not to exceed $1,000 for a first violation and $2,500 for subsequent violations. If a business were to violate the bill on more than two occasions within two years, it may not be allowed to sell kratom products.

Retailers and distributors will have limited liability protections for violations from inaccurate or fraudulent information when a kratom processor wrongfully certifies a kratom product is unadulterated. 

The retooled bill also states that a private cause of action, or an individual lawsuit, may be filed only in accordance with the state's consumer protection or product liability laws. That is definitely more opportunity for legal remedies than was allowed in the prior kratom regulatory bill, which entirely prohibited a private cause of action.

If passed into law, the bill and its associated regulatory provisions would go into effect July 1 of this year.