ADVOCATES SEEK CHANGES TO NEW GEORGIA KRATOM LAW DUE TO LEGAL LOOPHOLES

A back-and-forth over the best way to enact kratom protections led to the passage of a new law in Georgia and has set the stage for a showdown over best practices for a regulated market for the herbal supplement. 

More protections and regulations for kratom consumers seem like a good thing. The only issue is that House Bill 181 was introduced by an opponent of kratom who had worked with trial attorneys and law enforcement to try and take action against the plant. That bill is set to take effect on January 1, 2025, meaning advocates only have months to take action and “fix” what the Georgia legislature has done. 

Seven different legislators are listed as sponsors of HB181 but the architect behind the bill was Rep. Rick Townsend. Originally the bill’s intent was simple: Repeal the previously passed version of a Kratom Consumer Protection Act (KCPA) and switch kratom to a Schedule I substance. 

Bargaining From the Beginning

That appeared to be a ploy by Townsend to start the discussion on his terms, as the bill was immediately switched with a substitute that took on the true issues that Townsend and others have expressed in the past. During the 2023 session, Townsend sounded a similar alarm about kratom and was diverted down a path toward compromise. 

“It seems like the primary issue you have is labeling,” said Rep. Shea Roberts in a hearing in 2023. “Wouldn’t it be better possibly to bring a bill that requires labeling instead of banning it?”

During those same hearings in 2023, expert witnesses admitted that kratom is a low priority in relation to other substances, including those that are scheduled at the federal level. Dr. Jeffrey Smith testified using his expertise as the Chief Medical Examiner for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and when questioned about whether kratom should be scheduled said “the short answer is no.” 

That hearing led to Townsend’s attempt to ban kratom being dismissed in lieu of the existing law surrounding the plant. 

The law that Townsend is trying to change is a 2018 law that established a KCPA in the state and protected kratom at a time when other states were banning the plant. Townsend raised the same issues as advocates for kratom: The bill was passed without true enforcement measures, leaving the market susceptible to bad actors and adulterated products. 

After failing to get an attempt across the finish line in 2023, Townsend revisited that agenda by proposing an outright ban bill this session and again took a detour when challenged in committee. 

How This Bill Became Law

The difference is that this time Townsend was successful, finding enough of a compromise to get his law signed by the governor in May. At the time, advocates for kratom were quick to point out a key detail of this ‘improved’ law around kratom–it didn’t fix the problem of assigning a state agency to enforce the law. 

What it did was include language that said a “processor who knowingly or with criminal negligence commits an act in violation of this code” would be guilty of a misdemeanor on a first offense and guilty of a felony on any subsequent conviction. Instead of helping consumers by enabling an agency to enforce the law, HB181 upped the penalties and liability faced by kratom processors and retailers. 

For Mac Haddow of the American Kratom Association (AKA), the reasoning behind the switch was clear. 

“Representative Townsend strongly condemned the previously passed Kratom Consumer

Protection Act because there was no assigned state agency to regulate kratom, and the AKA

agreed with him on that,” Haddow said. “But his bill as passed has no assigned state agency to regulate kratom – only making his top-dollar trial attorney campaign contributors richer at the expense of Georgia kratom businesses.”

Haddow’s position also showed how this bill became law. The AKA said it “welcomes part of the new Kratom Consumer Protection Act” surrounding product standards and labeling requirements, dubbing the changes as “needed” in that release. 

Those changes include limitations on potency and adulterants, banning synthetic alkaloids, banning kratom products that “employ a heating element” and requiring processors to register with the state. By including sections that are supported by advocates and the science around kratom, Townsend’s bill was amended in both chambers but ultimately breezed through both the Georgia Senate and House of Representatives. 

Four different committee substitutes were passed before finally settling on the enrolled version of the bill, which was signed into law on May 2. Per the text of the bill, the new law will take effect on January 1, 2025. 

While that effectively sets a ticking clock for producers and retailers to start looking over their shoulders, Haddow and the AKA remain hopeful that Georgia legislators can take a closer look and work to fix the loopholes that create stronger penalties for kratom producers.

“There is only one beneficiary… and that is a group of trial attorneys who want to sue kratom manufacturers and retailers for their own profit,” Haddow said. “The Georgia citizens who purchase kratom for their health and well-being are less protected today than they were before this legislation was passed.’