BOISE — Dozens of individuals from across the state crowded into the House Health and Welfare Committee on Wednesday and Thursday to testify on a bill seeking to ban kratom in the state. While users and sellers of the supplement spoke to its utility for pain relief, public safety officials cautioned about its susceptibility to abuse.
House Bill 864 seeks to classify derivatives of mitragyna speciosa — known as kratom — as a Schedule 1 controlled substance starting July 1. If added to Idaho’s Uniform Controlled Substance Act, it would criminalize users and distributors across the state — in line with marijuana and other substances with Schedule I classification in the state.
The supplement, which currently lacks any regulation in Idaho, comes from the leaves of a tropical south Asian tree and is currently sold for a range of purposes including pain relief, anxiety and opioid withdrawal, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
In July the FDA issued a recommendation for scheduling of 7-hydroxymitragyninen under the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA). More commonly known as 7-OH, it is a synthetic, concentrated byproduct of kratom that makes up less than 2% of the kratom plant’s psychoactive contents. When distilled down to this concentrated version, the FDA described the substance as having greater potency than “classical opioids such as morphine.”
When it came to recommending action to restrict the kratom plant itself, however, the FDA stated it was “not focused on natural kratom leaf products.” This position is in contrast to the one held by U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), who signed onto a letter urging the FDA to add both whole leaf kratom and 7-OH to the CSA.
Some states have opted for regulation instead of an outright ban. Utah’s 2019 Kratom Consumer Protection Act banned any kratom product with a greater than 2% concentration of 7-OH in addition to introducing labeling, testing and product registration requirements.
Divided testimonyThe several hours of testimony on how Idaho should approach the issue centered around whether a distinction should be made between the kratom leaves and its synthetic alternatives.
Users, sellers and kratom advocacy groups were widely opposed to moving kratom to Schedule 1 and criminalizing current users, but offered support for new regulation. Law enforcement, physicians and individuals who lost family members to kratom, favoring more restrictive action, spoke in support of the bill.
Luke Cuccia, co-founder of the Eagle Creek Ranch Recovery, a drug and alcohol treatment provider in Canyon County, disagreed with kratom being promoted as treatment to ease opioid withdrawal as the substance was itself leading to consumption-related ailments.
Cuccia said he has observed a 225% increase in kratom use disorder at his recovery center. Under current Idaho law, kratom can be acquired by simply walking into a convenience store, but addiction has to be treated “the same way that we treat heroin,” Cuccia said.
This position was echoed by Tracy Basterrechea, the Meridian Police chief who spoke on behalf of the Idaho Chiefs of Police Association. He said the association stood in support of the total ban as other states have already taken similar action.
“It is not a substance for recovery, it is a substitute,” Basterrechea said. One dependency is replaced with a another under the false assurance of safety.”
Andrea Jackson, president of Jackson BevCo, said her company has been able to “safely and responsibly” sell kratom for 15 years by only selling natural leaf kratom and having its kratom product suppliers provide testing results from a qualified lab.
Lora Romney, a kratom user, said she has taken kratom’s leaf form daily for nine years to address pain from a facial nerve condition. Since she began taking the drug, Romney said she has been able to reduce her pain to a “livable level.” Though open to restrictions for 7-OH, she cautioned a total ban would result in Idahoans looking for other, more dangerous substances.
If kratom were classified as a Schedule I drug, Romney said she would be made a “criminal for just trying to control my pain.”
Allie Mathes, a Coeur d’Alene resident, shared a similar story. She spoke of her experience being adopted from Guatemala and lacking access to her family’s medical history. This led to her being diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis a few years ago, at which point it had developed into a “severe state” and had “already caused irreparable damage.”
Though prescribed opiate painkillers to manage the pain, Mathes said they either didn’t work or came with significant side effects that made it “impossible” for her to function normally.
“Natural kratom has been different,” Mathes said. “It has helped me reduce my pain in a way that allows me to live a normal, functional and productive life.”
Bonneville County deathsIndividuals from across the state shared their relationships or concerns surrounding kratom, but it was the impact of the drug on Bonneville County in particular that was repeatedly broached across the two days of testimony.
Bonneville County Coroner Shante Sanchez previously issued a public warning on kratom use in October in the wake of six kratom-related deaths being reported in the previous 18 months. The release stated four of these deaths “were determined to be solely due to acute drug toxicity of mitragynine,” which is the “primary active compound of Kratom.”
Sanchez delivered testimony on behalf of the Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday and highlighted the death of Kielee Rustici, a 23-year-old who was found to have died from kratom intoxication last year following an autopsy and toxicology report. In this case — as well as in all the “multitude” of other kratom death investigations she participated in — Sanchez said the death was the result of the “pure kratom leaf,” rather than kratom’s synthetic alternatives.
Sanchez said her desire is to have a total ban rather than regulation as leaving the pure leaf untouched would establish a “safe baseline,” resulting in people indulging in the product without being aware of any negative consequences.
Tia Rustici, the mother of Kielee Rustici, delivered tearful testimony on Thursday as she noted it was just over a year ago that she received a call regarding her daughter’s death, which led to a seven-week investigation that found Kielee died from acute intoxication from kratom’s primary active component.
Tia Rustici said she later discovered her daughter was using kratom over a two-year period to cope with pain from Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), a genetic disorder affecting joints, skin and connective tissue.
“Kielee trusted the word ‘natural,’ she used natural kratom powder because it was marked as a safer, herbal option for pain,” Tia Rustici said. “She was not using extracts or 7-OH — she was using kratom powder.”
Committee deliberationFollowing testimony, the committee was divided on what course of action to take, with several noting they were unaware of kratom and its uses prior to this legislative session. Rep. Megan Egbert, D-Boise, brought forward the first motion, opting to send the bill to the House floor with no recommendation. Though preferring regulation, Egbert said she feared the legislative session concluding without any action taken on the substance.
Rep. Rob Beiswenger, R-Horseshoe Bend, said the committee should avoid making a “bigger mistake” by recommending a ban on kratom. Beiswenger noted that Schedule 1 drugs are deemed to have no medical value, a classification he said contradicts with the testimony delivered try the public.
“We’re going to potentially put people in jail for using this and I can’t stomach it,” Beiswenger said.
Ultimately it was the motion from Rep. Ilana Rubel, D-Boise, to postpone a decision until March 25, that prevailed in an 11-5 vote.
This motion was informed by a separate bill to regulate kratom that is due for introduction in the Senate on Friday. Rubel said her hope is to have an indication by this point as to whether this bill was likely to pass through the Senate. If that is not the case, she said her desire is to have a ban advanced to the House floor so the session doesn’t conclude without any action taken on kratom.
“I feel that the current status quo is totally unacceptable,” Rubel said. “I would not be OK leaving the building this year with kratom being fully for sale to minors, to anybody at gas stations … that’s not OK.”