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Streator weighs kratom ban as vendor, scientist argue natural leaf is safe · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Streeter weighs Kratom ban as vendor scientists argue natural leaf
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  Speaker 1: is safe. Written by Emily Beebe. This article is being
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  Speaker 1: read by an automated voice brought to you by Everlit.
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  Speaker 1: A tobacco store owner who sells Kratom and a scientist
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  Speaker 1: presenting counter data both told the Streeter City Council during
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  Speaker 1: their Committee of the Whole meeting on Wednesday the same thing.
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  Speaker 1: The danger lies in concentrated synthetic products, not natural leaf.
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  Speaker 1: Their arguments came as the council weighs action on Kratom
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  Speaker 1: following the last city council meeting on August 19th, where
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  Speaker 1: OSF healthcare nurses urged a ban on the sale of
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  Speaker 1: 7OH products and the retail sale of Kratom products, citing
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  Speaker 1: emergency room visits and withdrawal cases. Kenny Dobson, vice president
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  Speaker 1: of Ware Brands, who owns 35 tobacco stores, including the J.B.
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  Speaker 1: Hawks Discount Tobacco and Vape Store located at 105 East
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  Speaker 1: Sumner Street, spoke during public comment. He said he sells
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  Speaker 1: natural kratom, but wants 7-hydroxymetragynine, or 7-OH, banned. It is
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  Speaker 1: an adulterated name of natural kratom because they share an alkaloid.
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  Speaker 1: It is not natural kratom, Dobson said. It is taking
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  Speaker 1: one chemical and synthesizing it and compounding it into something
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  Speaker 1: that hurts people. It needs to be banned. He told
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  Speaker 1: the council the Drug Enforcement Administration last week scheduled 7-OH
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  Speaker 1: as a Schedule 1 controlled substance. However, the DEA has
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  Speaker 1: not scheduled 7-hydroxymitragynine as a Schedule 1 controlled substance. A
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  Speaker 1: notice of intent published in the Federal Register on July
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  Speaker 1: 6th proposes temporary Schedule 1 placement for 7-OH above a threshold,
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  Speaker 1: specifically sparing natural whole-leaf kratom below it. The final order
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  Speaker 1: has not been issued, and the temporary placement remains pending.
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  Speaker 1: What went into effect on August 26th was the placement
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  Speaker 1: of three synthetic 7-OH-related substances. Mitragynine Pseudo-Indoxyl MGM-15 and MGM-16
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  Speaker 1: into Schedule 1 under Federal Register 91 FR 54948. Dobson
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  Speaker 1: said his company has never sold 7-OH, and that across
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  Speaker 1: roughly 10 million doses of natural kratom sold over 10 years,
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  Speaker 1: he has never had a single reported issue. Dr. Heidi Sikora,
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  Speaker 1: a doctor of nursing practice and volunteer chief scientific officer
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  Speaker 1: at the International Plant and Herbal Alliance, presented to the
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  Speaker 1: council on kratom's science and safety. She said natural kratom
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  Speaker 1: comes from a tree, not a drug, and that the
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  Speaker 1: leaf has not been shown to cause respiratory depression, which
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  Speaker 1: is what kills people from opioids. She said that natural
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  Speaker 1: kratom can be life-saving for people who use it. On 7OH,
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  Speaker 1: she told the council it is a trace part of
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  Speaker 1: the plant, less than 2%. She said that concentrated and
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  Speaker 1: synthesized kratom is far more like opioids. which are capable
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  Speaker 1: of causing respiratory depression and serious side effects. She said
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  Speaker 1: patients in emergency settings are not being tested for what
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  Speaker 1: they actually took, and that the word kratom is being
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  Speaker 1: blamed for harms caused by concentrated and synthetic products that
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  Speaker 1: share its name. It goes right to the media, and
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  Speaker 1: the media spreads that kratom caused all these problems, and
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  Speaker 1: it really doesn't distinguish between the concentrated problems, Sykora said.
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  Speaker 1: She cited the U.S. Department of Justice, which stated August 25th.
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  Speaker 1: This action is directed at deliberately manufactured and concentrated opioid products,
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  Speaker 1: not traditional botanical kratom. Streeter Mayor Tara Bedi asked how
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  Speaker 1: the city would enforce a ban or how they would
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  Speaker 1: tell the difference between products. Sykera said the responsibilities should
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  Speaker 1: be on vendors. They would submit certificates of analysis and
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  Speaker 1: results from third-party independent laboratory testing to a registry. The
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  Speaker 1: city would not need to test products, but instead only
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  Speaker 1: check whether what is on the shelf matches what was submitted.
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  Speaker 1: The city council took no action Wednesday.