MANTEO, N.C. — In December, Commissioner Ervin Bateman encouraged the Dare County Board of Commissioners to pass a resolution banning kratom entirely in the state of North Carolina. But over the last few weeks, Bateman has received a number of calls from advocates for the product and shared his thoughts on Monday.
"This weekend, I got over 10 calls from individuals. What I heard in those conversations, those people, every story was legit. Every story was someone who was in Afghanistan and had a major leg issue and a problem and been on heroin for 15 years and then found kratom, and now their life is complete," said Bateman.
Previous coverage: Dare County to draft resolution seeking to ban kratom in North Carolina
“I’ve got to be really open minded about this. As we’ve talked before, my opinion of recovery is complete abstinence from everything, so this is taking me out of my comfort zone," said Bateman
But Bateman, who overcame addiction himself and is on the board of the county Saving Lives Task Force, shared his frustration about access to the product, which he'd gone and bought before the meeting.
"I went to the store here, less than a quarter mile from a school, and bought this. There's nothing on this bag at all that says what's in it. It just says it has, roughly speaking, 200 pills. [I want] immediate action, I don’t want the kid to go over to that grocery store and buy that crap that we have right here, it’s ridiculous." said Bateman.
The discussion turned to the fact that there are two forms of Kratom out there. Kratom is defined as “an herbal substance that can produce opioid- and stimulant-like effects."
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“Basically what we’ve got is the American Kratom Association with the good Kratom producers and you’ve got a bunch of pirates out there flooding the market with garbage and trash," said John Shinholser, director of advocacy for American Veterans for Kratom Safe.
John Shinholser, who overcame addiction himself and has been involved in the recovery community for more than four decades, first came across kratom just over a decade ago, while he was helping people with addiction.
"We took 30 guys off the street that was strung out on opiates, fentanyl and heroin, and we gave him a week in a sober house and access to kratom. 29 out of 30 successfully detoxed within a week," said Shinholser.
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Many have used kratom to help with pain or overcome opioid addictions. Shinholser and fellow advocates understand the presence of the bad product out there and instead of a ban on kratom entirely, want to see it regulated so consumers only have access to the good form of it.
“The products you sell where you have the Kratom Consumer Protection Act, the manufacturers have to use the FDA regulatory guidelines for good manufacturing practices, so you know what’s on every batch, it has directions, how to use it, what not to do, the dates on it and all that stuff," said Shinholser.
One thing was clear, the worry from the board and those in support of a ban are the easy access to it and the lack of directional use on it being sold over the counter.
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“If an unadulterated version of this can help somebody and help that many people, I have a tough time restricting that. But should it be in our grocery stores? Absolutely not," said commissioner Mary Ellon Ballance.
The county chose not to vote on the resolution [on page 10] on Monday. Instead, they plan to draft something that encourages the regulation of the good form of kratom and ban the bad form of it. That will then be the decision of the North Carolina State Legislature to see where it goes from there.
