KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Blue Springs City Council voted down a proposed ordinance that would have banned the sale of kratum products in the city.
At Tuesday night's meeting, some council members wanted to approve a measure to move the ordinance to a future work session for further discussion, but that was ultimately also voted down.
Several people spoke before the council spoke about how the ordinance would have impacted them.
Kratom, a traditional herbal remedy hailing from Southeast Asia, has been at the center of multiple Kansas City metro cities and attempts to regulate the product. It's unregulated at the federal level, leaving it up to individual states. Neither Missouri nor Kansas has officially regulated the product.
A synthetic derivative containing a high dosage of one of the naturally occurring alkaloids in kratom, known as 7-OH, has caught the attention and concern of numerous city leaders, lawmakers and medical experts. Referred to as "gas station heroin," the unregulated and unrestricted product has been reported to be 14 times stronger than morphine and highly addictive.
Last month, the Blue Springs City Council voted to regulate kratom, limiting high dosages of synthetic alkaloids, like 7-OH.
But the ordinance that failed last night, would have banned sales outright.
Missouri lawmakers have proposed several bills in the House and Senate to regulate kratom and ban 7-OH. You can find more coverage on the KSHB 41 News I-Team series, Strong High Weak Laws, here.
