Edwardsville on track to ban kratom

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EDWARDSVILLE — Two city committees discussed banning the use, possession, distribution or delivery of kratom during Tuesday meetings.

While not illegal statewide, several area municipalities have already banned it — Jerseyville, Alton, Glen Carbon, Maryville and Wood River, as have Indiana, Wisconsin and Arkansas.

Kratom, also known as Mitragyna Speciosa, is a tropical evergreen tree in the coffee family that is native to Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and Papua New Guinea, where it has been used in traditional medicines since at least the 19th Century.

Police Chief Jay Keeven came to the public safety committee to amend kratom to the illegal substances under the city’s existing bath salts ordinance, which has been on the books for 10 to 15 years ago.

“What we’re finding now is kratom creates an opium-like high,” Keeven said. “It’s like an opioid-drug high.”

He said typically quick-marts or smoke shops sell kratom, much like bath salts.

Alderwoman Janet Stack noted that there have been no reports of injuries or deaths due to Kratom but then she noted the same was said for vaping until recently.

Resident Dylan Jerrell, who attended the meeting, said he knows people who use kratom, including himself.

“It’s not like bath salts; it’s not some synthetic high,” he said. “One guy used it to curb the craving for heroin; it’s actually very beneficial. A friend of mine I’ve known since high school has cerebral palsy and he uses it to treat the chronic pain in his muscles.”

Jerrell denied kratom gets anyone the kind of high that leads to impairment. He described a “strong disinformation campaign” designed to make people think kratom is similar to bath salts.

He said there have been no kratom overdoses and overdoses on record have occurred from other substances and kratom coincidentally happens to be in those people’s systems.

Keeven said the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warns people not to use kratom. They are concerned that kratom affects the same opioid brain receptors as morphine and appears to have priorities that expose users to risk of addiction, abuse and dependence.

The committee voted to move the item to the administrative and community service (ACS) committee for first reading, which gives public safety committee members time to research the topic. ACS voted unanimously for the ban, sending the ordinance on to the full city council for first reading.

Police Lt. Mike Lybarger said he worked narcotics in the early 2000s and he remembers receiving intelligence briefings on kratom, but it never reached the Midwest.

“It’s finally here in our community; it’s sold at a couple of shops in town,” he said. “It simulates an opiate and a stimulant. There’re arguments made that it can help with opiate withdrawal. I sit on a partnership for drug-free communities and I go to meetings at the hospital, which is staffed by medical personnel and I’ve never heard the word ‘kratom’ brought up.”

Lybarger said FDA and the Mayo Clinic recommend against using it. “The side effects far outweigh the benefits of anything this will do. The danger is we don’t know the dangers,” Lybarger said.

City Attorney Jeff Berkbigler said kratom is not regulated.

“People ingest it, thinking it’s safe but there might be stuff other than kratom added to it,” he said. Lybarger mentioned reading about a study involving kratom that was tainted with salmonella.

Berkbigler said the city is trying to get ahead of the state, which will probably eventually prohibit kratom. In other action, the public safety committee approved the following items:

• An ordinance prohibiting parking at all times on both sides of Cass Avenue east of North Jefferson Avenue

• An ordinance approving a four-way stop at the intersection of Whiston Lane and Buckland Court in the Hawthorne Hills subdivision

The next city council meeting is Feb. 18 at 7 p.m. in city hall, located at 118 Hillsboro Ave.

Reach reporter Charles Bolinger at (618) 659-5735