A New Hampshire state senator has proposed a bill to classify kratom under the strictest level of drug controls, indicating it has a high potential for abuse.
Sen. Bill Gannon, a Republican from Sandown, wants the state to classify kratom as a Schedule 1 drug. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is also seeking to categorize synthetic kratom as a Schedule 1 drug, similar to heroin.
Schedule 1 drugs are deemed to have a high potential for abuse, to have no accepted use for medical treatment, and no accepted safe use under medical supervision. Schedule 1 drugs cannot be prescribed.
Gannon’s bill itself is not yet drafted. The proposed bill would be prepared ahead of the legislative session that begins in January.
State lawmakers debated synthetic kratom earlier this year. The state Senate and House debated bills that intended to make synthetic and semi-synthetic kratom illegal to prepare, distribute, make, sell, possess, or advertise — except for research.
No legislation ultimately passed both chambers.
In July, the DEA filed an intent to temporarily place synthetic kratom products, known as 7-hydroxymitagynine, as Schedule 1 drugs. The temporary scheduling would not apply to botanical kratom products, such that are found in the “Mitragyna speciosa” plant, a tropical evergreen tree indigenous to Southeast Asia and used in religious or communal ceremonies.
The American Kratom Association issued support for the DEA scheduling of synthetics that they say pose as natural kratom products. The association maintains it’s important to separate synthetics from natural kratom leaf products.
Several New Hampshire communities are considering taking steps to regulate or ban kratom products, called “gas station heroin” by critics.
The Manchester Board of Mayor and Aldermen is weighing a ban, and town leaders in Merrimack considered a proposal but recently tabled it, according to the Union Leader. WMUR reports Seabrook is also considering a ban on synthetic kratom.
