Some of the largest businesses that sell unregulated cannabis-derived products in Ohio are putting other highly synthetic products, including kratom, on the shelves at the same time.
Largely found at gas stations and smoke stores, they might be sold under dozens of different brand labels. But the delta-8 THC cartridges and edibles and kratom tablets and shots mostly link back to the same few businesses, said Stephanie Pike Moore, a researcher at Case Western Reserve University.
“There’s so many of them that just create a new brand when they get in trouble for one brand, so you see those leave the shelves and then a new brand emerges,” Pike Moore said in an interview.
Kratom, a botanical herb from Asia, has naturally-occuring trace amounts of mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine—which can have both stimulant and sedative effects. The Food and Drug Administration said in July it would move to schedule 7-OH.
Mac Haddow, American Kratom Association senior public policy fellow, said the vast majority of kratom products on the market currently have been synthetically manufactured to be as potent as possible.
“There’s no question that there are manufacturers who ... have decided they’re going to parachute into the kratom industry and do the very same thing that they did with hemp,” Haddow said in an interview. “The one common denominator is money.”
The association has led efforts to regulate kratom in 18 states, and he said Ohio is one of its biggest targets for similar regulations, rather than an outright ban.
“I’m against any business that is going to sell a product that doesn’t meet the criteria to protect consumers,” Haddow said.
Ohio lawmakers have debated bills further regulating both substances, both during this current legislative session and sessions before it, but nothing has made it to the governor’s desk.
Most recently, lawmakers were debating Senate Bill 56, which strictly limited where Ohioans could purchase most products containing cannabinoid derivatives.
SB 56 would put intoxicating, tested products behind dispensaries’ counters and ban sale of them otherwise. It carved out CBD-infused drinks, allowing retailers with a liquor license to sell them.
“As we wait, we see these products become more and more potent as time progresses because they can,” Pike Moore said.
The legislature is scheduled to be out of town for at least another month.
