By Christine Stapleton for Palm Beach Post February 27, 2015
Kratom, a popular herbal drug, would become a Schedule 1 controlled substance under a bill filed by freshman Rep. Kristin Jacobs.
Jacobs, D-Coconut Creek, unsuccessfully pushed to ban kratom last year in her final weeks as a Broward County commissioner. HB 287 fulfills Jacobs’ campaign promise to file a bill banning the drug during the upcoming legislative session.
Kratom, the leaf of a tree that grows in Southeast Asia, is in the same family as the coffee tree and has been used as an herbal drug. But it can produce opium-like effects, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
On July 16, 2014, Ian Mautner, 20, drove his Isuzu Trooper to a bridge above Interstate 95 in Boynton Beach, parked his car, walked across the street, removed his sandals and dived off the 23rd Avenue overpass into the highway’s southbound lanes. Mautner had been battling a kratom addiction for several years.
In November, Palm Beach County commissioners stopped short regulating the popular plant often consumed in chilled tea drinks. But they directed staff to develop a plan that would include requirements for posting warning signs.
The plan, which is expected to come back to the commission for a formal vote early this year, would affect at least seven kava bars in the county as well as convenience stores, smoke shops and other places that sell kratom in any form.
It could also calls for asking kava bars and kratom distributors to voluntarily “discourage” the sale of kratom to people under the age of 21. The commission also agreed to spend $25,000 on an educational campaign about kratom, led by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and the Palm Beach County Substance Abuse Awareness Coalition.
Although there are no federal or Florida state laws making kratom illegal, it is on a DEA watch list because the agency says it can be addictive. It is banned by the Army and Navy.
If passed, Jacobs’ bill would make kratom a Schedule 1, controlled substance, meaning it has a high potential for abuse and has no currently accepted medical use. No companion bill has been filed in senate.
