Legally Grown- Episode 4: Kratom Transcript - Norris McLaughlin, P.A., Attorneys at Law

Episode 4: Kratom

Transcript: Ben Sheppard

Welcome to Norris McLaughlin’s Legally Grown, a limited podcast series where we weed through the topics of cannabis law in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and beyond. I’m your host, Ben Shepard, associate in the Cannabis Law Group at Norris McLaughlin. In this episode, we will be covering kratom. Normally we talk about cannabis and hemp, we’re going to move on to a different type of plant this time.

We’re going to be talking about kratom. Now, kratom, I’m sure is something that you’ve seen in gas stations, smoke shops, and online on occasion, but let’s try to unpack what kratom is, and let’s try to learn about the substance and the plant in general. So, this comes on recent news on April 4th, 2024. That the Maryland legislature passed, legislation to regulate Kratom.

Now, the legislation will require purchasers to be at least 21 years old and mandates clear labeling of the product. In fact, this move was actually heralded by a lot of people in the Kratom industry and they welcomed the legislation. And this just follows last March where Kentucky has enacted such legislation.

Now, like I said earlier, you know, we see Kratom. We see it advertised at our gas stations, accompanied by CBD, Delta 8. But what exactly is Kratom though? Well, Kratom is an herbal supplement. It’s derived from a South Asian tree, has varying effects, and can be sedative or psychoactive. It’s related to the coffee plant, but its main active compound, mitoregiganin, can mimic opioids at high doses or act as a stimulant when consumed in smaller amounts.

Now, the interesting thing is, and there’s been studies that have been done on this, unlike alcohol, or even for that matter, certain strains of CBD or THC, it can be unpredictable what, how kratom impacts the user. You may purchase the same product. Use that the same dose in July and you may have a sedative effect.

You may be very sleepy. You may get a nice, nice night rest sleep, but then. Just one month later, you may purchase that same product, use it at the same dose, and you may have a very, very psychoactive effect. And that’s precisely what’s very strange about Kratom is. It can be very varied with the results of it can be.

And now, ultimately, the other thing I want to point out too is, people who are interested in consuming these products need to be aware about potential side effects. Kratom can produce seizures for individuals. And it can have other adverse health effects, palpitations, upset stomach, et cetera.

Unfortunately, as well, and we’ve seen this in Pennsylvania and across the United States, when consumed in high doses, it can also lead to death. And there’s been a number of lawsuits that have been filed as well against Kratom manufacturers about this topic, including there’s been some filed in Pennsylvania.

Now there’s no federal law governing Kratom. It’s not governed by the Control Substances Act. It falls outside of that umbrella. that typically regulates drugs and schedules are in some cases like cannabis outright bans, but the recreational medicinal use with limited exceptions for research, the Controlled Substances Act doesn’t do anything there.

Now there is one agency that does play a role federally in the regulation of Kratom. That’s the Food and Drug Administration known as the FDA. The FDA, as we talked about previously in our other episodes, bans the unlawful marketing of Kratom. That’s really all that it really does. So, for example, a Kratom manufacturer could not list on the product without scientific evidence that this Kratom product will cure cancer, cures baldness, or it might make you live longer.

A product like that, the FDA is naturally going to have an issue with. And it may issue a warning letter requesting that the manufacturer pulls the product from the shelf and ceases marketing such product. Now, in theory, the manufacturer could, change the product and change the label, but that’s really about it.

Now there’s been another five states that have outlawed Kratom and this includes Wisconsin. So, in Wisconsin, they’ve completely outlawed Kratom. Now there’s other states like what we just talked about. Maryland, Maryland’s taking a different path. Maryland has decided to implement the clear labeling requirements and require the individual be 21 years of age or older to purchase.

Now, what have Pennsylvania and New Jersey done? Other than some legislation from what I can see in Pennsylvania and New Jersey that has not been passed, these states have not chosen to regulate kratom whatsoever. Perhaps the better path forward in these substances is not creating a so called metaphorical black market for them or allowing them to be sold without some form of regulation.

Perhaps the best way is for a safer product. Allow agencies to review, almost review the formulas just like the alcohol tax trade tobacco does with alcoholic beverages. If there’s an unusual ingredient, perhaps the state agencies should review the products to understand what’s going on with them. They should obtain the metaphorical, not formula approval, but ingredient or composition approvals to ensure that they’re safe for people to use.

I think as well, we should think about having some form of a label approval. List the side effects, unsafe for individuals while operating machinery or heavy equipment, unsafe while driving. You should also put serving sizes, for example. How much should you consume? More disclose the negative effects that we talked about such as seizures.

And we should also probably as well implement age limits as well for purchase to ensure that we don’t have individuals who are maybe young, young adolescents or school children purchasing these products. And we should also make sure that these labels are clear and conspicuous and also maybe mandating things such as tamper-proof or child-proof locks on Cannabis products.

I’ve seen some of these products and the child-proof locks are incredibly difficult to open even for, you know, someone in their like 30s or 40s, they can be very difficult. So perhaps adding that component is also necessary. And just as a reference, since this is a cannabis podcast, there’s a fantastic YouTube video, I believe it’s from True Leaf, where there’s a joke where it’s, um, they say about how difficult it is to open the childproof locks that they have on their cannabis products, and they have one user to be who’s trying to open the lock, and he thinks of all the creative ways, such as trying to bash it with a hammer.

throw it off like a 10-story building and none of it is ever broken whatsoever. So perhaps we need to mandate some, some sort of a test like that. But I think with these in mind, people can learn about the substance and understand and appreciate potentially its effects, both potentially positive and negative.

But I think the answer is, is that Pennsylvania, New Jersey government officials have to act and have to step in. Otherwise, these products are not going to be as safe as they could be. And they have the potential to be improperly licensed, and we can work with the Kratom industry as well. As we saw in Maryland, they’re willing to work with individuals on this to make sure that the product is safer.

And perhaps maybe the FDA needs to promulgate more guidelines on this topic as well. So that was just an introduction to Kratom. This is a bit of a more different area, but it’s good that we’re expanding outside the world of cannabis. And I’m sure in the future, we’ll be talking about all sorts of different things, including various psychedelics as well, that we can talk about that are starting to become much more of a major thing.

So, we can also look at that because notably, I would just say on the point of psychedelics is that there’s Oregon has now legalized therapeutic psilocybin and so has a Colorado as well. So, we now have two states where that’s legal. So, I think we’re going to see. that it’s not just going to be one world of cannabis.

There’s going to be a bunch of different substances and drugs and plants that people are going to be consuming. And we can all break those down future episodes. And we’re also seeing adaptogens even kind of take over. I even just saw that at a local brewery in Pennsylvania. So, we’re going to be, while we’re cannabis-focused, we’ll always be talking about these other things and keeping informed.

But this episode is kind of a taste of that, that new, that’s this new era as well. So, without further ado, that concludes the Kratom episode of the Legally Grown podcast. This has been Norris McLaughlin’s Legally Grown, a limited podcast series where we weed through the topics of cannabis law in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and beyond. I want to thank you, the listener, for being a part of the conversation. Be sure to tune in next time for a brand-new episode. If you’d like to learn more, please email me at legallygrown@norris-law.com.