The Louisiana Legislature on Tuesday passed a ban on kratom, an herbal substance that critics describe as a public health scourge, but which others say has the potential to treat chronic pain and mental health issues.
The House passed Senate Bill 154 by a vote of 87-6. Having already passed the Senate, it now requires Gov. Jeff Landry’s signature to become law.
The bill, sponsored by state Sen. Jay Morris, R-West Monroe, criminalizes the possession and distribution of kratom, which is derived from a southeast Asian tree. Though it passed the House with broad bipartisan support, it sparked a lengthy debate that at times became testy and emotional.
Two representatives — Rep. Beryl Amedee, R-Gray, and Rep. Peter Egan, R-Covington — attempted to amend the bill so that pure kratom leaf products would still be legal, while those created in labs to have amplified levels of the compound 7-hydroxymitragynine would be illegal.
That compound is present at low levels in the dried kratom leaf. Critics of a total ban have said it is that substance that carries the most abuse potential.
As it made its way through the legislative process, the kratom bill drew lots of testimony — much of it conflicting. Sheriffs called it a public safety problem and said it was costing lives. Researchers said it had the potential to treat addiction. Healthcare providers said they were seeing more patients addicted to kratom products.
Kratom users said the substance had saved their lives by treating chronic pain and mental health problems. But one family testified that their son struggled with kratom addiction so badly it pushed him to suicide.
Those views came to a head on the House floor. In presenting his amendment, Egan spoke of receiving “hundreds of emails” and “lots of calls” from people who said kratom was helpful to them.
“I am certainly for eliminating toxic, dangerous substances from gas stations, but the naturally occurring leaf-based kratom is consumed by an estimated 300,000 Louisianans,” he said. “These are not bad people. These are not people that we should be criminalizing.”
Rep. Debbie Villio, R-Kenner, who presented the bill, pushed back hard against the amendments.
“Rep. Egan was so wrong. He was wrong about most everything he said, quite frankly,” she said.
Kratom, she argued, “is a public risk and it is causing drug addiction…it is causing death.”
Nearing tears, Villio gestured to the Lubrano family, who stood on the side of the House floor. They had testified in committee that their son, David Lubrano Jr., died by suicide rather than face kratom withdrawal.
“I beg you to stand with me and tell those people their loss was not in vain,” she said.
But Amedee said kratom was a natural plant. She spoke of a mom who had used kratom to help treat her college-aged son for opioid addiction.
“If we pass this bill making that illegal, that mom will go to jail because that mom is not going to stop and allow her child to go back to the condition he was in when he was hooked on opioids,” she said.
State Rep. Jason Hughes, D-New Orleans, also came to the floor to push back against Amedee’s amendment.
Pure leaf kratom “is still highly addictive,” he said, adding that if the state keeps kratom legal because it is a natural plant, “we’re setting a precedent that we need to make marijuana legal.”
Research on kratom is thin and inconclusive so far, and there is much about it that scientists do not understand, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which says side effects from kratom may be severe in rare cases.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which has not approved kratom for medical use, has “warned consumers not to use kratom because of the risk of serious adverse events, including liver toxicity, seizures, and substance use disorder.”
Deaths have been associated with kratom use in rare cases, and those deaths have usually involved other substances, according to the FDA.
Under SB154, possession of less than 20 grams of kratom would carry a $100 fine. Those in possession of more than 20 grams would face up to 6 months in a parish jail or a fine of up to $1,000.
Those convicted of distributing kratom would face between 1 and 5 years in prison or a fine of up to $50,000.
