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Streator moves to ban synthetic kratom in city limits · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Streeter moves to ban synthetic kratom in city limits. Written by Michael
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  Urbanac and Emily Bebe. This article is being read by an automated
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  voice, brought to you by Everlet. A ban on synthetic kratom and
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  Streator limits will go to the City Council on Wednesday, october twenty
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  first, after the council discussed the ordinance during its committee of the
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  whole meeting Wednesday. Nurses from OSF Healthcare urged the Streeter City Council
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  in August to ban the sale of kratom and seven hydroxymitragenine products,
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  telling the council that patients are arriving in emergency rooms with withdrawal
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  symptoms that are difficult to treat. Seneca, Ottawa and Marseille already banned
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  kratom sales within their cities. City manager Yates McLaughlin said the ordinance
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  is tied to language associated with the one passed in Washington, Illinois,
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  a city south near Peoria. The ordinance primarily will prohibit the sale
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  and distribution of synthetic kratom products. And other synthetic alternative drugs, establish
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  concentration limits for mitragenine and seven hydroxymitragenine, which is what you see
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  with Kratom and total kratom alkaloids, McLaughlin said. Kratom products for
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  sale will need to contain specific labeling and product information, and retailers
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  will have to maintain a certificate of analysis for Kratom products. McLaughlin
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  said the ordinance will still allow the sale of natural Kratom to
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  people over the age of twenty one. McLaughlin said, The city will
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  work with police and code enforcement to enforce the ordinance. People will
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  still be able to purchase the product outside city limits. Councilmember David
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  Reid said the FDA is considering its own ban, which would supersede
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  the city's ordinance, but he isn't sure how quickly they'll actually get
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  to it. It might be two years before they get to it,
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  Reed said. According to an August Shaw local story, nurses said patients
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  who have used concentrated Kratom or 7OH products are presenting with unpredictable
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  symptoms that are difficult to treat, often requiring prolonged emergency are intensive
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  monitoring, and in severe cases ICU admission. Symptoms include anxiety, rapid heart
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  rate, agitation, nausea, vomiting, tremors, and signs of dependence and withdrawal. That
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  can make the patients difficult to manage and it requires them to
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  stay in the hospital longer. Kratom, is commonly used as a heroin
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  substitute for people who are trying to quit. LaSalle County is also
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  making moves toward a countywide ban on Kratom. LaSalle County Coroner Rich
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  Plock told the LaSalle County Board Public Safety Committee at its October
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  1st meeting that he supports a countywide ban on kratom, a substance
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  derived from a plant whose leaves produce a euphoria that mimics opiates
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  and heroin. Plock told committee members that Kratom is not a scheduled
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  drug and can be bought at gas stations, most commonly in capsule
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  form or as small shooter type bottles. Plock said the county has
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  had three or four deaths tied to it in the last couple
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  of years. I fully feel that we should think about banning that
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  countywide, obviously. And there's a lot of cities I believe that are
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  following suit, Ploch said. The discussion was prompted by Committee member Tom
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  Templeton and was based on news from Mississippi, where deaths tied to
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  Kratom, including two college students from the University of Mississippi are under
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  investigation. He said he wanted to try to get ahead of it
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  before LaSalle County faced something similar. Committee member Brian Dose asked for
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  a
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  presentation and if it went well, a resolution. Plock offered to bring
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  in the local Chicago DEA saying agents would be willing to come
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  and discuss it. He also said he could pull data from Northwestern
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  University, which he said has a partnership with the Illinois Department of
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  Public Health IDPH and collects coroner data more current that they state's
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  nearly two year lag statistics. The committee agreed to target a presentation
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  in December. Ploch
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  said he would also talk to local municipalities, police chiefs, and the
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  sheriff to see what each city intends, to bolster support for a
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  countywide ordinance. Committee member Ron Buchack, asking whether the county
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  should also ban energy drinks since people die from those and whether
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  companies can sue. I mean it's been proven that energy drinks, they
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  do the same thing if you drink too many of them. So
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  you can't just ban everything just because of small cases like that,
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  Blue said. Plock said, as for whether companies can sue, that would
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  be a discussion for the state's attorney.