The Tisbury Board of Health unanimously voted to adopt a regulation banning the local manufacturing, sale, and distribution of kratom during a public hearing on Tuesday. Tisbury follows in the footsteps of Edgartown, which banned kratom sales June 9.
Previously available for sale in Tisbury, kratom products are made with ingredients from a tropical Southeast Asian tree. These products can serve as stimulants, pain relievers, and opioid withdrawal relief. The compound 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) exists naturally in trace amounts in the kratom plant, but synthetic kratom products contain high amounts of this potent opioid.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration temporarily classified 7-OH products as Schedule I Controlled Substances on July 1 after the board planned the public hearing. According to the DEA, schedule I drugs are substances with “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse,” including heroin and LSD.
During the hearing, callers from around the country gave testimonies. Many shared personal experience with kratom, from it relieving chronic pain relief to causing family deaths.
Dan Gibbs from Ohio called in to share the story of his son dying from kratom.
“My son believed what many consumers believed, that because kratom was so openly marketed as natural, it was safe,” Gibbs said. “He paid for that belief with his life.”
All supported the banning of synthetic kratom products, but opinions differed on the natural leaf. Some also wanted the non-synthetic versions banned, while others wanted natural kratom to remain legal but regulated to not contain dangerous levels of 7-OH.
“7-OH is a synthetic, and I would really like it off the shelves as much as anybody else would,” Melody Woolf, a 12-year daily kratom user from Michigan, said. “The difference that [kratom] made in my life is that it’s given my mobility back … I just would like to keep it legal for the people who use it like I do.”
The local regulation doesn’t differentiate between synthetic and natural kratom.
“At this time, allowing the regulated sale of kratom in any form is not feasible due to the lack of oversight of manufacturing and distribution of kratom, and the absence of clear direction by the state of Massachusetts legislature,” Tisbury’s Assistant Health Agent Frederick Hehre said.
The regulation still allows for people to order kratom products through the mail.
“People who have found that it’s a miracle cure for their particular situation will still be able, presumably, to access from a place they feel confident in, and still have access to that natural kratom that’s helping them,” board member Betsy Carnie said.
The board members may revisit the regulation at a later date based on any additional information from the federal government.