The legislation is a priority for the Missouri attorney general to strengthen her enforcement authority over makers and sellers of 7-OH products
BY: REBECCA RIVAS
Missouri Independent
Republican state Sen. Mike Henderson believes he has the support to advance a bill that would impose age limits on kratom sales and ban the stronger opioid-like products known as 7-OH.
The legislation is a priority for Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hathaway, who’s said it would strengthen her office’s enforcement authority to go after makers and sellers of 7-OH products for violating state consumer protection laws.
And Henderson has worked across the aisle with Democratic state Sen. Maggie Nurrenbern of Kansas City, who has proposed a similar bill.
But the effort derailed last week when it ran into bipartisan resistance over the proposed ban on 7-OH.
The bill’s future is now unclear, but Henderson said he will not agree to a compromise that would regulate 7-OH rather than ban it.
“If I make that compromise, I’m saying, ‘I made a little good,’” Henderson told The Independent, “but I just also kind of made it legal, and I am not willing to do that.”
The name, 7-OH, is short for 7-hydroxymitragynine, and it’s made by chemically converting and concentrating the main opioid-inducing element in kratom. 7-OH is sold as gummies, candies, liquid shots, tablets and powders. People can buy it in Missouri smoke shops, gas stations, convenience stores and online shops.
Sometimes people refer to 7-OH as “gas station heroin,” he said, and he has heard from families whose loved ones became addicted and cycled in and out of rehab. While it’s a naturally occurring substance in kratom, he said, “the trouble becomes when it becomes enhanced.”
“If someone takes too much 7-OH, Narcan can bring them back,” he said, referring to the life-saving nasal spray used to rapidly reverse opioid overdoses. “That tells you that it’s probably an opioid.”
State Sen. Stephen Webber, a Columbia Democrat, said he wants both kratom and 7-OH to be sold in stores where people have to be over 21 to enter, not in gas stations or regular stores. But he’s against a full ban on 7-OH.
“I want kratom more restricted than his bill makes it,” Webber told The Independent, “(and) I want 7-OH heavily regulated but not outright banned, due to its potential as an opioid alternative for some patients dealing with chronic pain.”
Support for the ban largely comes from physicians and opioid-addiction specialists, who argued 7-OH products can lead to addiction.
Opponents, including some chronic pain patients, say available FDA-approved medications come with serious side effects and that 7-OH has improved their quality of life.
Webber argued during a Senate debate last week that 7-OH products “provide some valuable pain relief and an alternative to opioids that, as I think we all agree, are devastating our country.”
The bill would require disclaimers on labels and prohibit the distribution, advertisement or sale of a kratom product to a person under 21. It would not be allowed to mimic candy or appeal to children, and it would have to be stored behind a counter or where products can’t be accessed by people under 21.
Webber agrees with all those provisions. His objection is to the provision allowing only trace amounts of 7-hydroxymitragynine, which naturally exists in kratom.
Webber said it was not his intention to kill the bill during last week’s debate.
But he also did not step aside and allow it to come to a vote — what Henderson called “essentially a filibuster.”
“At some level, it’s semantics,” Webber told The Independent, “but as someone who has participated in a lot of filibusters, I wouldn’t say it was in that category.”
Webber said he and several other lawmakers agreed to keep talking to “to see if we can figure out a regulatory structure that works for everyone.”
“Working out issues like this is a pretty common place to be for bills at this point in session,” he said. “I don’t really have any predictions on how it will play out at the moment.”
Republican state Sen. Nick Schroer joined Webber in blocking a vote on the bill. And while both told Henderson they weren’t trying to kill his legislation, they didn’t step aside.
Schroer said he would like both kratom and 7-OH banned, but he’s not going to hold up the bill.
“On the floor, he stated he may be comfortable banning 7-OH this year,” Schroer told The Independent, “and if we see those folks flooding the kratom market to get their fix, then we will have to come back and ban that as well.”
Henderson said he’s committed to keeping the pressure on.
“I think I’ve got the votes in the Senate to pass the bill,” Henderson said. “In fact, I’m very positive if I can get it to a vote.”